Japan 2006 - Day 3 - Studio Ghibli
Being a blog about anime, among other things, a trip to Japan is not a trip until one has visited the Studio Ghibli museum at Mitaka. I am a huge fan of Miyazaki Hayao and his works, and after all these years of visiting Japan, I have finally had a chance to visit the museum.
It didn't take long to get into the museum, mainly because the ticket has to be purchased in advance, and you have to be at the entrance at the pre-arranged time. In our case, it was midday. After exchanging our vouchers for the real tickets, one that contains three frames of a Studio Ghibli film (it was Laputa on mine), we entered the amazing museum. Unfortunately, we cannot take photo inside the museum.
Once we were in, it was like we have entered another world. The exhibtion was nothing short of spectacular. There was a spiral staircase in the main hall that connected the first floor to the third floor. There was also a huge fan three floors up on the ceiling. The first level has a short film theatre (I'll get to that later), and an exhibition hall on simple animation where we have to look through the slits of a cylinder to view the animation.
The most impressive exhibition involved the use of strobe lights. Around a circular plane with a pole in the middle, there lied many 3D models attached on it. When the circle plane spun around backwards, all you see was just something spinning really fast. The magic appeared when the strobe lights started to blink really fast onto the model. It created an animation of sort. Really, it was more an illusion than an animation. We could see the Catbus running, Totoro jumping, among other models.
On the second floor, there was a mock-up studio. For this particular trip, they were showing the filming process of Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki's latest feature. Many of the story board were pinned up on the wall, showing the production in various states, from pencil drawing, to water colour, to complete cels.
Around the place were hundreds of books as well, topics ranged from animals, to plants, to human motion, all parts of an animators' library. It actually felt like a library while I was in there. We could even flip through some of Studio Ghibli's movie script.
The second half of the level features an exhibition of Heidi, one of Miyazaki's earlier works.
On the third floor, besides providing access to the roof top, there was a huge Catbus being jumped on and climbed upon by screming young kids. Unfortunately, they don't consider a 165cm tall guy a young kid. So I went to the book store instead, which was on the same level. They don't just sell Studio Ghibli books, they also sell other books, some of them classic, like Sherlock Holmes. They also sell lots of children's book. I managed to score myself an official Studio Ghibli handbook, complete with English translation!
Further down there was another shop that was even more popular for Miyazaki fans. It was the merchandise shop called Mama Auito, where one can spend all their money on things like stuff toys, original anime cels, key chains, DVDs, CDs, etc. Some sculptures were also on display which was just that, on display. There were not for sale.
Next was the rooftop. Only two things of interest here. One, which was the most popular rooftop attraction, was the replica of the giant robot in Laputa. It looked pretty beaten up, but people still wanted to take pictures with it. It stood at about two and a half stories high. So it was quite big. And it was never lonely. Scores of people lined up to take a photo of and with it. The other smaller attraction was the cube, also from Laputa. It wasn't as attractive as the robot, though.
Last stop was the short film back down on level 1. They had three films on show, but we could only watch one. This particular one that we went to was called "Mizu gumo mon mon" (I think, the Japanese title - 『水グモもんもん』). The 15 minutes feature did not have dialogue, so it was perfect for someone like me, who despite my best effort, still don't understand Japan as well as I should.
After the film, it was time to go. It takes around two and a half hours to cruise around the museum (including the short film). In doing so, I took away some valuable memories and information about Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli and their works. I'll never watch another Ghibli in the same way again. If there is any bad points about the museum, I'd have to say, it's too small. But for the cost of 1000 yen, and the amount of stuff that is packed inside such a small complex, it is worth every minute. It's a must for all anime fans, and a definite for Miyazaki fans. It's like going to China without going to the Great Wall. It would not be complete without it. To this end, I have finally fulfilled my dream.
It didn't take long to get into the museum, mainly because the ticket has to be purchased in advance, and you have to be at the entrance at the pre-arranged time. In our case, it was midday. After exchanging our vouchers for the real tickets, one that contains three frames of a Studio Ghibli film (it was Laputa on mine), we entered the amazing museum. Unfortunately, we cannot take photo inside the museum.
Once we were in, it was like we have entered another world. The exhibtion was nothing short of spectacular. There was a spiral staircase in the main hall that connected the first floor to the third floor. There was also a huge fan three floors up on the ceiling. The first level has a short film theatre (I'll get to that later), and an exhibition hall on simple animation where we have to look through the slits of a cylinder to view the animation.
The most impressive exhibition involved the use of strobe lights. Around a circular plane with a pole in the middle, there lied many 3D models attached on it. When the circle plane spun around backwards, all you see was just something spinning really fast. The magic appeared when the strobe lights started to blink really fast onto the model. It created an animation of sort. Really, it was more an illusion than an animation. We could see the Catbus running, Totoro jumping, among other models.
On the second floor, there was a mock-up studio. For this particular trip, they were showing the filming process of Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki's latest feature. Many of the story board were pinned up on the wall, showing the production in various states, from pencil drawing, to water colour, to complete cels.
Around the place were hundreds of books as well, topics ranged from animals, to plants, to human motion, all parts of an animators' library. It actually felt like a library while I was in there. We could even flip through some of Studio Ghibli's movie script.
The second half of the level features an exhibition of Heidi, one of Miyazaki's earlier works.
On the third floor, besides providing access to the roof top, there was a huge Catbus being jumped on and climbed upon by screming young kids. Unfortunately, they don't consider a 165cm tall guy a young kid. So I went to the book store instead, which was on the same level. They don't just sell Studio Ghibli books, they also sell other books, some of them classic, like Sherlock Holmes. They also sell lots of children's book. I managed to score myself an official Studio Ghibli handbook, complete with English translation!
Further down there was another shop that was even more popular for Miyazaki fans. It was the merchandise shop called Mama Auito, where one can spend all their money on things like stuff toys, original anime cels, key chains, DVDs, CDs, etc. Some sculptures were also on display which was just that, on display. There were not for sale.
Next was the rooftop. Only two things of interest here. One, which was the most popular rooftop attraction, was the replica of the giant robot in Laputa. It looked pretty beaten up, but people still wanted to take pictures with it. It stood at about two and a half stories high. So it was quite big. And it was never lonely. Scores of people lined up to take a photo of and with it. The other smaller attraction was the cube, also from Laputa. It wasn't as attractive as the robot, though.
Last stop was the short film back down on level 1. They had three films on show, but we could only watch one. This particular one that we went to was called "Mizu gumo mon mon" (I think, the Japanese title - 『水グモもんもん』). The 15 minutes feature did not have dialogue, so it was perfect for someone like me, who despite my best effort, still don't understand Japan as well as I should.
After the film, it was time to go. It takes around two and a half hours to cruise around the museum (including the short film). In doing so, I took away some valuable memories and information about Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli and their works. I'll never watch another Ghibli in the same way again. If there is any bad points about the museum, I'd have to say, it's too small. But for the cost of 1000 yen, and the amount of stuff that is packed inside such a small complex, it is worth every minute. It's a must for all anime fans, and a definite for Miyazaki fans. It's like going to China without going to the Great Wall. It would not be complete without it. To this end, I have finally fulfilled my dream.
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12:16 am
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