As a youngster in suburb of Essex Anime wasn't something I would commonly come up against. The four channels stuck to the western output of animation, it wasn't until I moved to London and met a girl from the continent that I was introduced to the mind-blowing art, magic, stories, moral messages and complexity that comes from within the Studio Ghibli house of animation. Those of you from Asia and any country in Europe outside of the UK were probably bred on Japanese animation but for many it wasn't until Spirited Away got international acclaim that they delved in to the country’s rich animated history.
Despite the common assumption that Studio Ghibli's films are for children, they are infact full of social, global, historical and environmental questions and debates. Two of the films in our season Pom Poko and grave of the fireflies are both known for their hard-hitting nature and bringing adults to their knees in tears circling around themes regarding the destruction of the rain forests and America's catastrophic bombing of Japan during WW2, whilst My Neighbour Totoro and Porco Rosso show the lighter side to the house and highlight the notion that Studio Ghibli's creations and characters are on a par with disney if not better which is probably the reason disney bought studio ghibli's distribution rights outside of Japan.
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