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Animation Alchemy: Exploring Studio Ghibli's Influence on Animation and Video Games
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Welcome to CodePlay Culture, our podcast where we explore the intersection of technology, art, and society. In this episode, we'll be discussing the impact of Studio Ghibli on video game design and animation.
Studio Ghibli, one of the most influential animation studios in the world, has not only captured the hearts of audiences with their movies but has also inspired video game developers to integrate their unique storytelling style and aesthetic into video games. Join us as we dive deep into the relationship between Studio Ghibli's work and video game design.
We'll explore the ways in which video games have incorporated elements of Studio Ghibli's visual style, character designs, and themes. We'll also discuss the impact of their storytelling style on video game narratives, and how it has influenced the way we experience video games.
Through our discussion, we'll uncover how Studio Ghibli's influence has helped shape the video game industry, and how it continues to inspire developers today.
Join us as we unravel the cultural impact of Studio Ghibli on video game design and animation in this episode of CodePlay Culture.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Codeplay Culture Podcast, where we discuss tech, gaming, health, and the world around us. Welcome back to another exciting, amazing episode on the Codeplay Culture Podcast. I am your host, Logan Dunning, and my co-host here, Rui. Say hello, Rui. Hello, everybody.
00:00:24
Speaker
All right, so today we have a awesome show number two. We've been very consistent week over week, never missing a beat. And if we can indefinitely continue these weekly podcasts, looking back at this years from now, it'll be quite the feat, right? Absolutely. We can do that.
Studio Ghibli's Influence and Art Style
00:00:43
Speaker
So today's exciting, amazing topic is animation alchemy, Studio Ghibli's influence on animation and the video game industry.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, so for those that don't know about this incredible, I guess, animator, visionary, entrepreneur, do you want to like kind of give us the high level of if anyone's never heard of this studio and what they make, what they do? Yeah, so Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio that primarily makes Japanese animation. I believe they have made some live action video, if I'm not mistaken, but I could be wrong.
00:01:22
Speaker
But yeah, they deliver amazing, quality, top-notch animation with just a top-quality storyline. It's truly amazing, and it has inspired, of course, a ton of spin-offs, video games, and movies centered around those ghibli themes, because they have a very unique art style and story. So yeah, that's basically what it is in a nutshell in terms of Nino Kuni the game, which is
00:01:53
Speaker
spin-off or not a spin-off. I shouldn't say it's a spin-off. It's art style is based on Studio Ghibli's art. Actually, no, it was developed by Studio Ghibli. This one right here. That's the one. And that's the one we're going to talk about today. The original, the one and only, Neenakuni Wrath of the White Witch.
00:02:16
Speaker
And when you say one and only, maybe you can tell other people why. My apologies. That was a part two. No, but one and only is correct. But why is the second one different?
00:02:35
Speaker
Well, the first one, OK, second one's different. The familiar system, the familiar battle system is not based around a based around a Pokemon type battle system. They weren't completely different. Yeah. And it's more of a single character kind of.
00:02:51
Speaker
It's a single protagonist and he just you know goes on throughout the world and does his business but in part one Yep, it's a familiar battle system, which is you know akin to your Pokemon type battle system Which I enjoy a lot more than than part two and I think you were saying before was Part one was and this is part two but part one was a
00:03:17
Speaker
like they worked with studio or the ex employees or employees of Studio Ghibli because I believe the it dissolved right the the company or maybe they still have some ex people but like the second one did it were you telling me that it
00:03:33
Speaker
They didn't work directly with the art. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's what it was. Yeah. The second ones didn't work directly with studio Ghibli. They, they worked with X employees of that company. Right. The first one they worked directly with. Right. Right. So if you're looking for that de facto studio Ghibli experience for video games, you want to start with this one. If you like Pokemon, you know, you're going to start with this one regardless.
00:03:57
Speaker
This one, I would say, has way more charm than this one. But, you know, this one, for me, I like better only because I like that protagonist, Final Fantasy level of, you know, you have one character on the screen you're controlling. And this is, I felt like, you know, with the familiars, you know, maybe you can see, you know, and for those who are just listening,
00:04:21
Speaker
the little Pokemon that fight for you. And you have this little line that connects to them, issuing kind of subliminal subconscious commands. And it's totally weird if you think about it, but if you had
00:04:36
Speaker
It's almost like if you had a Pokemon, right? And if that Pokemon got killed, yourself would die, right? So it was like tightly coupled as opposed to like Ash Ketchum, you know, if Pikachu, you know, unfortunately passed away, Ash would be like,
00:04:52
Speaker
I'll just get it, you know, another one. Well, I mean, he's probably wouldn't be so cutthroat. You know, they they do go back quite a
Credit in Gaming Industry
00:05:00
Speaker
bit. But that is a weird part about it, how there's just tight, ethereal, soul level bonding between the familiar and the main characters. It's really cool because you get multiple familiars and one dies, the other one comes out and then the other one comes out, which is good. I mean, it prolongs your
00:05:20
Speaker
increase the longevity of your life, I suppose, right? They're like, they're like lives, right? You have your life and then you have two extra lives, which is your familiars. Oh, right. Right. So you don't die right away with this, but it'll come out like, you know, it's dead. It will send the next one will pop out. Yeah. And then you can revive that one with the other one or with your, your main character, Oliver. Yeah. Yeah. It's super fun. I think they're both made by level five, which is, I think so. This one is level five.
00:05:49
Speaker
And then this one is level five. It's so interesting to see, like if you look at the back here, a lot of video games, you see level five and Namco Bandai or Bandai Namco.
00:06:04
Speaker
they underplay the developers, right? The publisher comes out like, where's Square Enix or whatever it is. But you don't know that Crystal Dynamics or
Ghibli vs. Disney Storytelling
00:06:14
Speaker
whoever made the Tomb Raider game or whatever it is, right? The limelight seems to always go to the publisher, you know? Is that a Bandai Namco game?
00:06:25
Speaker
It's like, you know, have you heard that new song from this person? And you're like, yeah, it's so good. And you think you give the artist the credit, but it's really like, oh, have you heard this song that the artist is using from Kanye West, like a beat from, you know, the producer, you know, or the developer in this case?
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny that the person using it or pushing it normally gets the credit. I mean, yeah, that's probably okay. If you think about it, they're shelling up tons of money to push it out. Well, of course, of course, but I mean, a little bit hand in hand. It should be right. And they should get the recognition, but I believe level five is the development company, right? Correct. Yes. So who's the publisher?
00:07:09
Speaker
You see, like Bandai Namco gets the front, but the publisher is level five. The developer, you mean? Sorry, yes, the developer is level five on both of them and the publisher. And then look, on this one, it does show level five in the front, you know, both on the back. But the, I mean, it could have been the day one edition on this one, you know, at the top, maybe they put it after.
00:07:34
Speaker
uh, regionality matters, you know, obviously like if it's a ESRB rating versus a Peggy rating and, you know, they have different, uh, covers per culture or per whatever. Um, but we're skipping ahead a bit, um, cause we have to talk about, you know, all of the different, you know, movies, um, that they've created. Maybe we can talk a little bit about, you know, what, what would be the difference of, you know, um,
00:08:02
Speaker
pop your kids in front of Little Mermaid versus Kiki's delivery service. What's the charm? What's the value? What's the main difference comparing Disney to Japan's Disney, which is, in my opinion, the Studio Ghibli.
00:08:21
Speaker
Right. Well, Disney did buy a lot of rights, bought rights to a lot of the Ghibli movies and re-released them under the Disney brand. Yes, correct. Of course, because they couldn't replicate that kind of whimsical magic and superb storytelling. And on the side here, you have the, you know, the Disney logo. And then afterwards, let me see here.
00:08:49
Speaker
they lost the contract, or I'm not sure what happened, but then they started releasing them, non-Disney ones, right? This was after. So I don't have one of each that are before and after, but you can see Totoro here was Disney, and Ariyati here was after that partnership ended, for whatever reason. Yeah. Right. Yeah, so what would be the popularity, right?
00:09:17
Speaker
Yes, correct. As soon as it made its name, they're like, we don't need you anymore, Disney. Potentially. And they're on Netflix in Canada, right?
00:09:28
Speaker
Are they? Yes. The kids watched them on there, you know, when we're too lazy to put the DVD in. This was my first experience with Studio Ghibli at the time. I'm sorry for those that are listening. I'm holding up a copy of the Blu-ray and DVD combo edition of Spirited Away, which is a tale of Chihiro or Chihiro's family.
00:09:54
Speaker
is moving to a new house. But they stop on the way to explore an abandoned village, almost like a theme park. And one thing leads to another, not ruining things.
00:10:07
Speaker
It's an incredible tale of incredible art. I just love the grandma here who has a baby that is bigger than her. And she is probably five times as big as anyone, both width and height. It's just incredible, whimsical and absolutely unreal out of the best kind of imagination. But sorry, digressing off of the difference between Disney and Ghibli.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah, so the main difference is the art style, of course, as you know, the art style is a little more. Honestly, I want to say more more kid oriented. But at the same time, it's just it sits well with adults or with me at least. I can't like sitting there and watching a Disney movie, like, for example, Mickey Mouse movie or whatnot feels it just feels like it's
00:11:06
Speaker
It's hard to put into words. I don't feel like I'm watching a movie that's tailored to adults, and it is tailored to children specifically, but with Ghibli, it looks like children's animation, but there are themes that are clearly adult themes. Of course, children don't get it, but it's so subtle. Everything's just so intelligently
00:11:27
Speaker
delivered the story and art just delivered in a way that as adults, we can disseminate it, but children have a hard time. They can see this. They just see beautiful animation and story, right?
00:11:39
Speaker
That's like a huge difference for me when you're talking there my the hair is on the back of my neck We're standing up just like that's like it was putting me in that world, you know, like You know like classical music how there's these highs and lows, right? I do find with Ghibli It's a bunch of loud things happening like running down the stairs screaming and then silence like oh and then there's something and there's literally like just eyes are wide and there's like 10 seconds of silence and
00:12:09
Speaker
I can tell you, and you're a dad, I'm a dad, and between all of the different movies I put on for the kids, like you said, I can sit through them because they're geared to all ages.
00:12:25
Speaker
These have been the best movies to hold the attention of the kids. For some reason, every time I say, hey, you want to watch Totoro, The Wind Rises, they're like, no, no, no, no, we'll watch something else. But as soon as I put it on, they are glued. And the values that they get out of those movies are so wholesome. For those that think about anime, they're thinking about maybe Akira or some kind of like,
00:12:53
Speaker
you know, blood, guts, gore, kind of like, you know, techno paradise murder stuff. But this is more complete, like throw everything you know about Japanese anime out the window. This is almost, in my opinion, a completely separate category of wholesome, not only the art style, but the wholesome quality. And like I said, the crescendos and the highs and lows. Yeah.
00:13:19
Speaker
You know, it's definitely, they're so good. And honestly, looking back, I think my first brush with Studio Ghibli was Totoro, my neighbor Totoro. That was, and I was an adult when I saw it. Well, was I an adult, I suppose. Mentally, I wasn't, maybe. But physically, I was. And I loved that movie. I loved it. Like, couldn't get enough of it. Such a good movie.
00:13:48
Speaker
I love the moments of silence where it's just completely silent, as you said, right? Those are- And then out of nowhere. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? Honestly, I think that's good for kids to have that silence in movies and not be bombarded by music and loud explosions and cars going down the street and things blowing up. They need that bit of silence and then dialogue and then silence.
00:14:15
Speaker
just to capture their attention and not be so distracted by noises to keep their attention. I think it's beneficial for children or for kids. You know what, I just think we just tapped into the next future wave of what's better than TikTok instead of having machine gun information of hold your attention, hold your attention, hold your attention. It's this
00:14:43
Speaker
Silence for a sec to see what you're missing and then to kind of bring it back right and to process what you've seen Right. I sometimes think These studio ghibli movies are like a cross between Reading a book and watching a cartoon. They're like something in the middle, right? You need that that focus and attention and it's giving it to you but it's doing it very very systematically and slowly and in a way that we should be
00:15:13
Speaker
watching these kind of movies or any kind of cartoons. I know growing up in the eighties, all the cartoons are just noise, just crazy, crazy noise. Hold your attention. Like Rambo and Ghostbuster cartoons and Thundercats, awesome cartoons, of course. But looking back, man, they messed me up. Yeah, it's probably true. The silence parts, I find
00:15:40
Speaker
are not always, but much of the time, in my opinion, are when someone or something is happening and they're looking at a maze at something. They're like in amazement. They're like, what? And then
00:15:57
Speaker
But the way that I'm saying that there almost leads to say that, oh, it's a direct attempt to push people to hold their attention, but I'm not explaining it properly, because it's definitely not that. It's more of a more natural flow of incredible experiences, and it's not really themed around that constant TikTok pop-up. Exactly.
00:16:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But you see that in a lot of cartoons today, even like Disney movies that are being released, you know, every year. It's the same thing, right? It's just noise.
00:16:34
Speaker
noise and flashy colors and noise and screaming and stuff. It's just something that I honestly don't think is beneficial for anybody. And I can't hold my attention anymore because I do a ton of reading and for some reason I can't focus on all that crazy, that craziness. I need some kind of calm to absorb what I'm watching.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yep, they're like, or as Eckhart Tolle says, stillness speaks. Yeah, through the through the stillness you can, you know, pictures worth 1000 words. And in that like Studio Ghibli, you can look at a scene and just be mesmerized by just the sounds of the scene. You've seen those anime scenes where the cameras panning and you hear that cicada bug in the background. Yeah, summer's day. And it just makes you feel like you're you're there.
Ghibli Films' Unique Settings
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, and a lot of these movies were by, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing his name right, is it Hayao? I know his last name, Miyazaki, or Miyazaki-san, was around, I think the 1920s or something like that, but it was right after either World War I, II, I'm not sure exactly, but a lot of them are set in that kind of,
00:17:48
Speaker
era where there's not TVs, there's not phones. It's kind of in the time that maybe was most prominent to Miyazaki. Yeah, it's like post World War II era. Yeah. And like some of them, like have you seen this one? This one here is Howl's Moving Castle. Yeah, I've seen that, yeah.
00:18:06
Speaker
And this I'm not sure like for those that can't see like howl is a crazy Magician or he's you know words cannot describe what howl is and he lives in a castle that you know can walk can you know when you open it different doors open to different areas of the world it's just And then it goes from something like completely whimsical like that that you know makes like you know
00:18:34
Speaker
imagination flare up to something like Secret of Arrietty, who is, you know, just a regular girl, a regular, come from a regular family, but she's essentially the size of maybe your index finger. And she's trying to stay away from the world of the humans because, and she calls, or the little people in her world calls the normal size human, humans, beings.
00:19:03
Speaker
Oh, Noah Bean, whatever that means. She gets caught by a teenage boy and he just wants to be friendly, but she doesn't know. She thinks she's at risk.
00:19:21
Speaker
and you have, again, cats. The cat's face is three of her high. So that's very magical, then very kind of realistic to imagine, just a small person where the other one's very magical. And then you have just ones like
00:19:43
Speaker
whisper of the heart, which is just like, I believe there's no magic in it at all. It's just literally romance, love, growing up. What else do you have there? Have you seen this one here, Princess? Oh, yeah, for sure, man. That was in the theater. I actually saw that in the theater. There's a huge Western release for that movie way back
00:20:11
Speaker
One of my kids' favorites is this one. Oh, nice. Yeah, I've seen that. Pungo. That's a little more, right? Yeah. And it's interesting. It's a fish that I believe drinks or breathes air and then accidentally turns into a human. And the person that was maintaining all of the fish gets very upset, tries to
00:20:35
Speaker
turn Ponyo back from a little boy into fish. Then I also have here... Let's see if you have my favorite Miyazaki movie of all time. The Wind Rises here. I don't think I have one of my favorites here, but there was one that reminded me a lot like
00:21:00
Speaker
Metroid. Maybe it's the same one I'm thinking about. I don't know the name of it, but it was one that she everything was. It's almost like the last of us. Everything was like spores and there is that I think that's my favorite. It's called Nausicaa Valley of the wind. Yeah, Nausicaa. Yeah, that was that is so good man as well. I have that on DVD. I still need to get Nausicaa on.
00:21:28
Speaker
Blu-ray, because I want to own them all, like Pokemon. That was crazy, right? It was a classic, classic anime, classic animation, classic story. It was a gem.
00:21:43
Speaker
It is a gym. And that was like, like everything is like coming back, right? Like that was very like Last of Us, right? And we talk about like video games that became movies or TV shows, Last of Us. We have going back to Disney, you know,
00:22:04
Speaker
My Little Mermaid, you know, now live action.
Live-action Adaptations Speculation
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. Everything they would do, like, you know, essentially like a castle in the sky, but with real people, would they go down the route of, you know, what Disney's doing right now with taking the cartoons and making them real?
00:22:23
Speaker
Honestly, they may one day, if it's profitable, because end of the day, that's all that matters, right? It's just whatever they can make out of it. I hope they don't. I really hope they don't. They will ruin it, right? I hope they don't. Especially Hollywood, I hope they don't get their mitts on it. Yeah. Money, money, all these things.
00:22:45
Speaker
I wouldn't watch it anyways. I definitely wouldn't watch it because I don't want to taint the masterpiece of the originals. I felt the same way about Final Fantasy 7 Remake, not remaster.
00:23:04
Speaker
I get it. People, it's like again, Hollywood gets to it and they say, you know what? Nobody wants turn-based combat anymore. They want real time because they don't want to wait. They don't want to play a game of chess. But what I really wanted is like the game was perfect already.
00:23:22
Speaker
Um, I, I believe that I would say, you know, in my opinion, probably majority, maybe like, you know, 51% people feel that same way. If you check Reddit, I believe that everyone just wanted to take the same game. It was perfect. I just, just give me 4k, 60 frames a second. Heck, if you're going to make it isometric top down, give me 120 or 240 Hertz, right? 4k.
00:23:46
Speaker
And just don't touch it like it's perfect. You know don't even do voiceover. That's fine. Like let me read it again. I just want You know FF7 was D pad only because The dual shock to or what one whatever it didn't have analog sticks. That's right when it came out so they never
00:24:07
Speaker
I don't think you could patch games on the PS1 day. I mean, maybe you could, but, you know, it was very uncommon. Like, it never got the analog stick support. But, yeah, you know, they kind of ruined it. Like, I played it, you know, but I'm like, I'm playing it, I'm enjoying it, but I'm really like... The magic's gone. Yeah, the magic is gone. When Hollywood gets to it, what about this one? This one's a little obscure.
00:24:37
Speaker
I've never seen that. Yes. This one is a little bit weird. You can tell that it's very sketchy, almost like it was an unreleased that they tried to re-release, but it is very charming and magical. You know what? I'm going to set this one aside and next time you come over and we're
00:25:03
Speaker
You know, hanging out, we can watch this. It is so cool. Won't ruin anything for you, but I would say it is up there with the magic in the art styles a little bit different. So from the creators of Spirited Away and the wind rises. I don't think I have the wind rises here, but yeah, I guess I'm missing some.
00:25:30
Speaker
One one that the kids absolutely loved is this one. Oh, yeah. Especially Jordan, you know, leaving the house, teenager, starting your own life. Plus, you know, with Kiki, she's got a cat that talks. Right. You know, who doesn't want that from, you know, Sailor Moon era. Yeah, exactly. You know, speaking of a cat that talks, have you ever seen the cat returns?
00:25:56
Speaker
That is my favorite. Well, I said the it was between Nausicaa and The Cat Returns that were my two favorites. And this one, there was so many reasons, one, the voice actors in it. And I watched all of the I'm not a movie TV buff or enthusiast. I never watched the commentary behind the scenes, any of that. I also don't buy a lot of movies commonly.
00:26:25
Speaker
especially that Netflix got, you know, 4k Dolby Atmos and Dolby vision support. I really weaned off of it, but this, like I've watched this back to front up and down, like I've, YouTube stuff. You have like the, I think the dad, is it the dad from everyone loves Raymond?
00:26:44
Speaker
is Muta, which is the fat cat. And then it's just so charming. So for those that, you know, want to know what the cat returns is about. Oh, by the way, I had like, you know, my friend Nate and
00:27:05
Speaker
from james when i got this when i was uh working at blockbuster in mississauga i you know i bought it right and they they saw it on my shelf when they came over living at home and
00:27:17
Speaker
I think I went to the bathroom or something, came back and they're holding it. They're like, what is this? And it was on like DVD and they're like, they were making fun of me like crazy, but they didn't know, right? They were like, they were like, it's like, guys, you have no idea, right? And they're like, oh, do you want to watch maybe the car returns? I'm like, listen. It's like, it's the kids. It's like, no, listen. It's like, you can't judge a book or anything by the cover, right?
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, so Anne Hathaway, Carrie Ellis, Peter Boyle, Elliot Gould, and Christian Bell. So we have like an all-star lineup of voice actors, just charming, incredible. Cool thing about this movie, 90 minutes, that's an hour and a half, pretty short. I think it's even like an hour and 20 minutes. It is like, if you have time, a little bit longer than a show, right?
00:28:11
Speaker
I like these movies that you can get through like a longer show, like two hours. Yeah, I would say, you know.
00:28:20
Speaker
for me personally, the death of the, or the slow dying of the movie industry in favor of TV and episodic content for me was the two hours, right? Right. It's very difficult to sit through this, but this one hour and 20 minutes or 90 minutes is, is, you know, a gift from, gift from God, in my opinion.
Studio Ponok and Ghibli's Legacy
00:28:41
Speaker
How about this one? I've seen that. Yeah. That's a newer one. Yeah.
00:28:48
Speaker
I'd say this one here is the Tales from Earthsea. William Defoe, other voice actors. Now, this one here, it was like, I put it on thinking that, okay, another Ghibli movie, kids will be fine. The opening, pretty gruesome, a lot of blood. I really wish I watched Tales from Earthsea before then watching the kids. I mean, the rating is PG-13.
00:29:18
Speaker
And it says for some violent images, but after that first part, you know, it gets pretty benign or like least invasive. So then, so after, I'm not sure what actually happened with Ghibli, but they did essentially like dissolve or whatever, but some of the actor, sorry, not actress, artists and ex-employees found a new company called Studio.
00:29:49
Speaker
ponoke or p o n o c and i was lucky enough to hear about this and i was able to get this and i'm not sure if you've seen this this is mary and the witch's flower i have not seen that oh um i'll put this in front too this one here has it it feels uh almost indistinguishable from a ghibli movie there is something
00:30:14
Speaker
missing. You can tell that Miyazaki perhaps was not involved. So it does not have his level of storytelling, but it has all of the imagination and it's more like
00:30:30
Speaker
Kiki's delivery service. So like the witch one mixed with Howl's Moving Castle. So that very imaginative pouring out some liquid that is also a person that has a face and talks to you. It's just so incredible. This one is so good. They have another one coming out. And if you just look at Wikipedia. What's this company name? P-O-N-O-C.
00:30:59
Speaker
And if last time I checked, they have another one coming out and you type in studio on Oak. Yeah. And so the commercials, they have Mary and the witches flower, which was 2017. Um, okay. So they have a another one, modest heroes.
00:31:20
Speaker
which is August 24, 2018, doesn't look like there was a... Well, maybe there is a stateside release. And then in winter, 2023, they were planning another one called Yoshi
00:31:40
Speaker
Yoshi, Yuki, Momos, but yeah, Modest Heroes. I'm going to check like Amazon real quick to see if that's out. And I'll do it. Yeah, but Studio Ghibli is still operating. Are they? Okay. Miyazaki is still, he came out of retirement to start animating and, well, I don't know about animating because he's a little bit older. Yeah. But to produce a film. So they're coming out with a new one called How Do You Live in 2023 this year. Wow.
00:32:07
Speaker
He intends it to be his last film, according to this this article. Wow. Yeah. So modest heroes. Puno short films. So this one here is. Looks like three different short films. You just see here, this one here is. This is another one. There's another Studio Ghibli one called Earwig and the Witch.
00:32:37
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Like what is going on here? There's like even more so probably a lot they've been making movies for Along along to stay here 37 years It's incredible, I wonder I'm gonna add it to the cart and then just see if it's on Amazon because my wife being a
00:33:01
Speaker
The financial planner keeps me on a tight budget. The half pound Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is $5 and that seems reasonable as well. But let's get off Amazon at this point. Have you had the half pound cup?
00:33:22
Speaker
Like do you like Reese or do you have any chocolate? Half a pound cup. Yeah. We're talking about like the size of a small soup bowl. No, no. If you put it in the fridge and you cut it, it's like little pieces of pie. Take a little. Yeah. Yeah. I've never had it. Okay. So, all right. So we got our next time plan. We got Mary and the witch's flower, right? What else? We got a half pound pie. Well now what was the other one? Oh yeah. This one too, right?
00:33:50
Speaker
And then we'll do those two and we'll, unfortunately, any kind of workout you do that day, really, you're probably going to have to tank because of the half pound cup. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I just read that they have a museum for Studio Ghibli in Japan. Yes. You saw that? Yes, I have. Yes. And I told, you know, the wife of kids, if we ever went to Japan,
00:34:20
Speaker
It's like a, some of the stuff's outdoor, some of it's indoor, but it really feels like you're in the world that, let me just pull it up here. Studio Ghibli theme park, I guess. I'm not sure. I think it's a museum. It's called, yeah, it's a museum. So Ghibli park.
00:34:42
Speaker
Oh, sorry, there's Ghibli. It says not to be confused with Ghibli Park. Ghibli Park and Museum are two distinct things while I'd be visiting both places. Yes, so this one is crazy.
00:34:57
Speaker
when you go to the Totoro area. I'll put this one in the show notes. I'll just paste it in here. I'm not sure if you're able to see that one or maybe I'll put it in the chat. But I have an interactive... Yeah, for sure. I would go. If you want an excuse to go to Japan, this is good. And do you have the link for the museum?
00:35:22
Speaker
Yes, I do. Maybe put it both in the footnotes in the chat. I'm not sure which one will push to Spotify and all that. Okay. Let me put it in. It might be double dipping.
00:35:38
Speaker
Right, so the Studio-Ponok, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, is a Japanese animation studio based in Musashino, Japan. It was founded in 2015 by a former lead producer of Studio Ghibli. And let's see here.
00:36:04
Speaker
and its first feature film was Mary and the Witch's Flower, which was released July 8th, 2017 throughout Japan with its film's main character, Mary Smith, serving as the company's mascot and their logos, similar to the mascot Totoro for Ghibli. So kind of almost like a, hey, don't fix it if it's not broken. They came out with a de facto logo,
00:36:32
Speaker
which was a character and they decided to continue that. Um, but let's see what other movies that, um, I don't have here. Cause I think I went over all of them, um, that I have that is on Wikipedia. So.
00:36:50
Speaker
Um, another one I loved, um, was, and this is going back oldest to knew this. So we talked about castle in the sky. Um, we didn't talk about grave of fireflies. I seen that that's pretty, pretty, pretty, um, mature, not mature as in like gruesome, but, um, very sad. Um, it is almost like a.
00:37:13
Speaker
it very much humbles you down. And for the kids, it was, you know, a time that we would, you know, hug a little bit more and appreciate life. We talked about only yesterday. I think, no, we've talked about Whisper the Heart, but I think only yesterday was the, which one of them was the cat? Like the cat returns as number two, right? What was the first one?
00:37:41
Speaker
Is it because it's either whisper of the heart or only yesterday? Oh, yeah, it is. Yeah. So here, I'm not sure if you can see that in the top. Yeah. Okay. So whisper of the heart was the first
00:37:57
Speaker
time you saw the cat and the cat returns was. Right. Yeah. So that one was. Have you seen Porco Rosso? That's the one I wanted to say. So that is so crazy. So for those that have seen this or heard of it, he is a amazing
00:38:16
Speaker
a war pilot, like fighter pilot, or a world-renowned race pilot, and through whatever means, there was a curse placed on him that turned him into a fat pig, right? And now he just hangs out on an island with his plane, you know, sipping my ties, and occasionally he pops into the city to, you know,
00:38:43
Speaker
you know, go about his ways, but he is so cool. You know, he's he's for someone that you would think would be, you know, a real life pig walking around in the society that we have right now would get bullied beyond belief. Right. But this guy is so cool. He's so chill. You know, we're talking about the testosterone levels of this pig are Trump any human hands down working out or not or
00:39:14
Speaker
pharmacology induced or not, just the coolest walking. He's an ex-Italian World War I fighter. He's an Italian pig, hence the name Porco Rosso, and I believe Rosso means
00:39:29
Speaker
Red Italian, the red pig, the red pig. I believe that's what it means. I'm not Italian. So I have no idea, but, um, yeah, I think that's what it means. The red pig. Yep. I agree. Um, ocean waves. Um, I don't remember this one. Um, yeah, I don't either. I don't, I gotta check that one out. Um, then ask, uh, after, um, uh,
00:40:00
Speaker
So Porco Rosso, Ocean Waves, Pompoco, that was pretty cool. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's about raccoons? Yeah. I watched that recently actually with my son. It's about raccoons, yeah. You have it on Blu-ray or? No, I don't have it on DVD. Yeah, I remember that. Did you ever go down the rebuy? Yeah, I know. Remember, oh, I have it on Betamax.
00:40:26
Speaker
I have it on. What was the thing that Sony came out with with PSP? Oh, UMD. I have it on UMD. And if you want to watch it, I got to bust out my PSP and use the mini HDMI to big HDMI cable. Yeah, no, it's Pompoco was about raccoons. And yeah, it was mainly about the environment and, you know,
00:40:50
Speaker
It was just a fun movie. It was just fun. So the raccoons are, you know, very smart, right? We all know this, right? But, you know, according to the movie, what we don't know is that they talk, they organize, they try to figure stuff out, they build stuff. They want to thwart the developers. Yeah. The typical bad, bad development of people, development bad. Definitely. Nature good. Yes, exactly.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny that we think we are the smartest race on the planet, but we are destroying the world environmentally and killing each other at rapid paces like no other creature or nature is, right? But we're the smart ones, right? Especially these raccoons, man. I feel for them after you watch the movie, it's like, man,
00:41:43
Speaker
yeah never look at raccoons the same after after this yeah they definitely leave the garbage can open at night now i'm just kidding i don't know what the mess um uh princess monoch uh my neighbors the yaminas i've never seen this that one's uh i i can't remember seeing that but um
00:42:06
Speaker
I don't know. It's just... You should watch it at some point. That one is... I remember the cover. It's just like everyone's smiling. Yeah. And you have Spirited Away. Yeah. That was my first experience. That was a good one, yeah. Theaters, I think. I saw it with some friends. Then Cat Returns, Alice Moving Castle, Tale from Earthsea, Ponyo.
00:42:37
Speaker
Ariati from up on Poppy Hill. I do not have that one. The wind rises. Yeah, which I don't I'm just trying to think I'm I forget the difference between the wind rises and Nausicaa because I feel like two of them are very similar and I need to watch them back to back to
00:43:02
Speaker
No, Nausicaa, you would not mix that up with anything else, man. It's like crazy big cockroaches with shells on them. And she's like, on this hoverboard, you're shooting them. They can't die. And they expand. It's really, really insane. We've got to watch that first off. We should watch it. That one's awesome, man. I got to get that on Blu-ray, though, because you probably have it on Betamax. I have it on Betamax, dude. Yeah. You have it on...
00:43:29
Speaker
A-track. Then there's the Tale of Princess Kaguya. Yeah, that's the one I held up. So this one happened after the wind rises, or the same year. I can't really tell according to Wiki. Then this one was a bit of a weird one. I do have it. I might have downloaded it.
Leadership Changes at Ghibli
00:43:53
Speaker
It was when Marnie was there.
00:43:58
Speaker
And this one was very weird, almost like, have you ever been to like a cottage and then you have like some friends that you've met in cottage country and you like, they are like your best friends for life. And then all of a sudden, time to go home.
00:44:17
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I remember that feeling. That's what that one is about. It's just about two girls, friends, just really weird. That one was probably my least favorite. And then the red turtle. That seems pretty pimp. So that came out in 2016.
00:44:42
Speaker
I'm gonna clear my schedule this weekend to watch. Well, I think I'll wait for you. The Red Turtle. It's a co-production between Studio Ghibli and several French companies. It tells the story of a man who becomes shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and meets a giant red female turtle. The film has no dialogue. Oh, yes. Wow.
00:45:10
Speaker
I remember this one. That's pretty cool. I did watch this one. I can't remember if I was under impressed or I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm just hallucinating once again. The earwig and the witch, that was 2020. But you see here on Wikipedia, you have the director and screenwriters, right? Yeah. And if you go back
00:45:40
Speaker
2013 is what appears to be the last time that we see Mizaki.
Gaming Challenges and Ghibli Inspired Indie Games
00:45:48
Speaker
Right, because he retired. Yes. And then if you look at all of these, none of these were our favorites, right? I talked about when Marnie was there, was definitely not.
00:45:59
Speaker
I didn't watch any of them after that, so I can't see. Maybe I'll wait on the earwig and the witch. However, I'm not sure the director, Goro, or I'm not sure with the accent over the last O how to pronounce that, but his last name is
00:46:17
Speaker
Miyazaki, so I'm not sure if it's a relative. I mean, very well be that one might be okay, because, but that assumes that Miyazaki's magic is in the blood. Yeah, it's that doesn't work like that. But you know, something this year began the which it looks like computer generated animation. I can't really tell for certain. I like the covering stuff. Yeah, if you click on it, you can see the the cover, the art. What do you think computer animated?
00:46:46
Speaker
Oh, for sure. If you actually hit the Images tab, it looks all like that. Yeah. I'm not a huge fan, I have to say, of computer-generated animation. I do like hand-drawn animation better, which is something I grew up with and I enjoy it better. Yeah. Do you think that makes us old fogeys? Yeah, probably, but who cares? Get off my damn lawn. Everybody listening to this is going to get old. How do you live?
00:47:15
Speaker
How do you live is that that's the one that's coming out next from. Right. Exactly. And it looks like he drew the cover by hand, which is good. Yeah. Pretty crazy. And that comes out in July 2023. For some reason I keep on thinking it's 2024.
00:47:41
Speaker
All right, so my last one here, I think we did like pretty good on going over stuff and why people should check it out. Okay, so we talked about how Ghibli has inspired video games. Miyazaki has retired and people are like, oh no, we're not stopping, let's go, right?
00:48:05
Speaker
Similar to like, you know, George Lucas steps down, they still do Star Wars, they get better and better. I mean, in this case, the Ghibli stuff didn't seem to, but the, you know, the, you know, the ex-employees that went to Studio Ponok, like you were gonna love Mary and the Witch's Flower.
00:48:24
Speaker
And we talked about the games that were directly working with Ghibli and the part two that was not, but however, since part one was, there was some crossover. And we even have games like this.
00:48:40
Speaker
which I'm holding up a copy of Baldo, which is almost like a Miyazaki-inspired Zelda clone, top-down isometric from a smaller development company. This one I got from Pics and Love Games, PEGI 7. So it's a European disk that works in the PS4, obviously. It's region-free in PS4. Yeah, they're even inspiring non-
00:49:10
Speaker
completely unrelated developers to build similar games. And they're all charming, beautiful, fun and wholesome. I like Baldo. I think we should, we have our hangouts cut out for us, you know, giving back to that. And again, I'm stuck in Baldo. I got to this one area where I'm like, you ever do this in video games?
00:49:36
Speaker
I don't want to Google what to do, but I'm kind of wasting hours right now. Yeah, that happened to us last time. We were sitting there, it's like half an hour later. Yeah. Fuck, let's Google it. Yeah, exactly. So we'll have to Google it a couple more times and hopefully get back to it. Yeah, I mean, there's like a fine line between enjoyment and frustration, right? You want to straddle that middle and enjoy it and not be frustrated, but no.
00:50:03
Speaker
You can look after a while, man. There's, I mean, I think 30 minutes is a good time in which you can. Yeah, exactly. It's, I wonder if for development, it's kind of sim, uh, similar to like, okay. What was the thing that, uh, we were saying like, if you're stuck for 20 minutes to like, uh, Google it or give a peer a call, right? So it's like spend 20 minutes, figure it out, do some exploratory, right? But then as soon as you know, you're like, okay, what's going on? And then boom.
00:50:31
Speaker
Sometimes you have crazy people who just want to go at it forever. And I'm guilty of that sometimes. Yeah, exactly. It's definitely a skill that you have to... Yeah, it's a skill, for sure. You get stronger like any muscle. I want to bring up one cool game before we change this, what we're talking about. There's a cool game called Behind the Frame, the finest scenery. And it's a point and click game, which I've been like...
00:50:59
Speaker
Delving into like crazy. Like I love pointing click games and I've been playing a lot of them. So I started to play this and it's inspired by, by Ghibli. I mean, the people who made it. Wow. Yeah. And this is, it's on Steam, right? It's on Steam. It's also on Switch.
00:51:17
Speaker
Oh, it's on Switch. Yeah, but I'm pointing click on Switch is a little more challenging. Yes. All reviews are overwhelming positive. Yeah, it looks incredible. I have to check that one out. I'm going to start.
00:51:34
Speaker
Guten up steam right now. Of course it's doing an update because if you haven't opened it in a while, but anyhow, cool. That's good to know behind the frame. We'll probably put a link to that in the show notes as well. Yeah, great idea. Cool. Yeah. So for anyone out there that haven't checked out any of the works or inspired works or derivatives or aspirational works of any developer or production studio for Studio Ghibli,
00:52:02
Speaker
Ponok or any one kind of touching that kind of inspiration
Podcast Conclusion and Teaser
00:52:07
Speaker
level. It's definitely worth checking out wholesome, amazing family quality. You know, love, peace and kindness, no really bad messages. You don't end up turning off the movie and saying, damn, I'm scared to go outside. You know, if it's not a Gears of War, you know, it's it's like Gears of Heart. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:32
Speaker
All right, anything else really from your side before we head out? No, I think we've said enough for one day. And yeah, I look forward to next week when we talk about our next topic, which is probably going to be a mystery until Tuesday. Exactly. Yeah, it'll definitely be a mystery. But it's going to be good. You and I both know. Sure. All right. Well, thank you, everyone. Hope you have a fantastic week. Ruby and I will see you next time.