(CNN) — Fans of “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and different movies from director Hayao Miyazaki of the legendary Studio Ghibli, can have a brand new vacation spot so as to add to their journey bucket listing later this 12 months.
Ghibli Park, opening in November in Japan, can be a fever dream of a theme park for anybody who has ever watched Miyazaki’s stunning and infrequently surreal animated movies and needed to step into the worlds they construct. The Ghibli canon is heavy on themes of nature, friendship, robust females, flying machines, future and bravado. Their aesthetic is naturalism meets steampunk, sprinkled with its personal proprietary system of magical realism.
Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse will home artifacts and reveals from numerous movies by the studio.
Studio Ghibli
Until final week, information of the legendary Ghibli Park trickled as an alternative of flowed, teased out in small, speculative doses in Japanese publications. It was unclear what impression the pandemic was having on the beginning date and what guests would discover when it opens.
The Valley of Witches space that may embody recreatons from “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
Studio Ghibli
But even follow-up inquiries to the studio from CNN about Ghibli Park required translations to the studio’s press employees, and produced much less particulars than we would need. We’re as hungry for information because the No Face ghost in “Spirited Away.”
Here’s what we all know
Ghibli Park is situated in Aichi Earth Expo Memorial Park, lower than two hours from Kyoto by practice. The theme park can be about 17.5 acres when accomplished. (One acre is roughly the scale of a soccer discipline.)
Some shops have reported that Miyazaki insisted no timber be reduce down for the park, however when requested to verify or deny, the studio replied that “We have not heard that from Miyazaki.” They did say the Ghibli Park is being constructed on unused grounds inside the bigger Aichi Park.
When it opens in November, three of the 5 deliberate areas can be prepared. The essential one is Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, an indoor facility that may home artifacts and reveals from movies together with the Robot Soldier from “Castle within the Sky,” the Cat Bus from “Totoro,” and one other recreation out of the “The Secret World of Arrietty.”
At proper, a rendering of the Park’s recreation of the vintage store from “Whisper of the Heart.”
Studio Ghibli
A second space, “Hill of Youth,” options the vintage store from “Whisper of the Heart” and one other recreation from “The Cat Returns.” And the third is Dondoko Forest with a full recreation of Satsuki and Mei’s home from “My Neighbor Totoro” and a Totoro-themed playground.
One of the 2 areas that may open later (“after 2023,” the studio’s press workplace stated) is Mononoke Village, referencing “Princess Mononoke” and her journey amongst massive forest animal gods. An artist rendering reveals youngsters taking part in on a large spider. The different is the Valley of Witches that may embody some components from the trippy “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and the extra candy “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” about an earnest and hard-working younger witch. The artist drawing reveals a tea-cup journey adorned with Kiki’s cat Jiji.
Mononoke Village will invoke a world with massive forest animal gods.
Studio Ghibli
If you go to Ghibli Park, do not anticipate a Catbus curler coaster, Kiki’s broomstick “Avatar”-style journey or a Ponyo Under the Sea journey. “Take a stroll, really feel the wind, and uncover the wonders,” the studio’s website provides in its place. Think immersion and prompts for creativeness moderately than pyrotechnics and stomach-turning thrills.
What we do not know
We do not but know the price of admission, when the Mononoke and Witches areas will open, and what the merch sitch can be. Will we be capable of buy a Kiki-branded broom or an Arrietty doll home? And what can we eat within the park? I instructed a “Ponyo” ramen bar.
While you wait
Most of the Studio Ghibli movies referenced right here can be found to look at on the Disney+ streaming service. And you’ll be able to observe that Ghibli Twitter feed for extra teases to return, made all of the extra mysterious by the Japanese captions.
Top picture: A recreation of Satsuki and Mei’s home from “My Neighbor Totoro.” ⓒ Studio Ghibli