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SoraNews24
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Studio Ghibli produces first-ever commercial for company it's been working with for 31 years【Video】
Cofounder Toshio Suzuki, animation director of The Boy and the Heron create cozy anime short for a company that's all about making cozy textiles. The company Marushin was founded in Nagoya in 1966, and they've been quietly making towels ever since. I say 'quietly' because even though they've been in business for almost 60 years, until now Marushin has never had a commercial. So you might expect that for their very first foray into the field, Marushin would go with something simple and low-key, and yes, that's very much the tone of their commercial. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even produced by an advertising agency, although that probably has less to do with Marushin's lack of experience working with ad execs, and more to do with the fact that none other than Studio Ghibli animated the commercial for them. Set to a tender piece of piano music, the video starts with an adorable dog taking a nap atop a folded towel. Another piece of terrycloth comes drifting by in the breeze, and as it catches a stronger gust of wind, it transforms into a series of animals and vehicles, each animated with simple lines but the distinct expressiveness and attention to detail that Ghibli's anime artists always put into depictions of both the natural and mechanical worlds. The pup gives chase, and when he finally catches up to the towel, the narrator, rakugo performer and radio personality Hakuzan Kanda, intones 'The dog looks to the west and his tail points to the east. Make your towels Marushin.' ▼ An especially charming touch is that instead of a plain white background, the animation is layered over a towel texture. Producing the video wasn't a task that Studio Ghibli project that Studio Ghibli shuffled off onto some third-string staff members, either. The video's concept comes from veteran producer Toshio Suzuki, one of Ghibli's original cofounders, and serving as animation director was Takeshi Honda, character designer for Ghibli's most recent theatrical anime, The Boy and the Heron, as well as the Hayao Miyazaki-directed anime short Boro the Caterpillar. Honda's resume also includes animation direction for two of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies and key animation credits for multiple Ghibli films, plus classic anime franchises such as Bubblegum Crisis and Fatal Fury. The video's music, meanwhile, comes courtesy of award-winning pianist Hayato Sumino. ▼ A shorter version of the video But how did Marushin convince Japan's most prestigious anime studio to make a commercial for them? Because the two already have a working relationship. Those beautiful towels they have at Ghibli specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku, like the ones of Totoro gazing up at the moon or featuring Princess Mononoke's Forest Spirit? They're made by Marushin, who's been producing Ghibli artwork towels since 1994, and whose Nagoya head office isn't far from the Ghibli Park theme park in Aichi Prefecture. So after years of Marushin making soft and fluffy towels for Ghibli, it makes sense that Ghibli would be the ones to make such a cozy commercial for Marushin. Source, images: Marushin ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
SoraNews24
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Two Hayao Miyazaki-directed short anime are showing at Ghibli Park this summer
Studio Ghibli theme park schedules a pair of anime from the legendary director for fans to see this summer. There's a timeless appeal to Studio Ghibli, with its anime works having captured the imaginations of young and young-at-heart audiences for generations. But while Ghibli anime always makes for captivating viewing, that doesn't mean you can always watch them whenever you want to Studio Ghibli has a series of short anime films that can only be seen at two places, the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and the Ghibli Park theme park in Aichi Prefecture. These aren't slipshod throwaway productions, either, as Ghibli's animators pack their 10 to 15-minute runtimes full of emotion and artistry. Because Ghibli Park and the Ghibli Museum each have only a single screening room, though, the short films are shown on a rotating limited-time schedule, and this summer Ghibli Park will be showing not just one, but two short anime directed by Ghibli co-founder/fabled perfectionist Hayao Miyazaki. The first of the two will be Boro the Caterpillar, which began screening on May 1 and will run until June 16. The most recently made Ghibli short and Miyazaki's second-most recent anime (coming before The Boy and the Heron ), Boro the Caterpillar is a rare case of Ghibli and Miyazaki making open use of computer graphics to complement their hand-drawn artwork, and it even has a unique sound design, as we experienced when we were lucky enough to watch it. Taking the baton from Boro will be another Miyazaki-directed short anime film, Treasure Hunting, which will screen from June 25 to July 31 (Ghibli Park will be closed for maintenance work between June 17 and 24). Both films will be shown at the Cinema Orion inside the Ghibli's Grand Warehouse section of the park, but summertime visitors will want to also head over to the Mononoke Village area, which is debuting a new activity at its Tatara-ba hands-on learning workshop. Since Mononoke Village's opening in November of 2023, guests have been able to learn how to make goheimochi, a type of traditional grilled mochi rice cake grilled on a skewer and basted with a nutty-tasting glaze. This summer, though, Tatara-ba is switching things up with a kinako-making experience, in which you'll learn how to make kinako, a roasted soybean flour with a slightly cinnamon-like flavor that's used as a seasoning for traditional Japanese sweets. And of course, you'll be doing this the old-school way, using a stone mill to grind the beans down, just like Japanese confectioners have done for hundreds of years, before sprinkling the powder onto provided jiggly warabimochi rice cakes There's a 1,000-yen (US$6.90) fee for the kinako-making activity, which runs from June 25 to September 29 (after which Tatara-ba shifts back to goheimochi). Entrance to Cinema Orion to watch the Miyazaki-directed anime shorts, meanwhile, is included with your ticket to the Ghibli's Grand Warehouse area. And if you do make the trip out to Ghibli Park, don't forget that the unofficial (but implicitly OK'd) Ghibli cafe has a new branch near the park opening soon. Related: Ghibli Park Source, images: PR Times ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
