The Studio of Ghibli and Spirited Away

23E62000 Arts in Consumer Culture
Yu-Jun Liu, Shin-Yun Pai, Danila Calabrese, Gerard Ong, Chi-Yeh Wu
The Studio of Ghibli and Spirited Away

Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli, Inc. is a Japanese animation film studio founded in 1985. The
company's logo features the character Totoro from Miyazakis film My Neighbor
Totoro.
-Miyazakis philosophy
The films concerned about the issue of environmentalism, pacifism, feminism,
and the theme of anti-war. How he makes such successful hit in Asia is based on
the familiar background so that the audience can easily be touching by his films,
which including childhood transition or Japanese history and mythology. Miyazaki
uses his direct experience as the origin of his story, expressing how he feels and
what he concerns through his film.
SPIRITED AWAY
Its an adventure story without battle with weapon or superpower. It doesn't talk
about justice and evil, but how to survive in the society which interlace good and
bad, learn about humanity friendship, and to elaborate wisdom.
-The symbols of the story
The bathhouse is a symbol of the real society which is full of jealousy and ostracize.
Although its full of chaos, we still can find the true and good inside.Also, the River
God which is identified as Stinky God symbolizes the nature pollution made by
human. He needs to be purified by Sen, just as the pollution made by human have to
be solved by human ourselves.
-Reflection of modern Japanese society
Nowadays, the Japanese society becomes more and more ambiguous and hard
to differentiate likes and dislikes. Utterance is already not trusted by people in
Japan nowadays. Hayao Miyazaki wants to convey the thought through the
movie that everyone should express the real self with utterance, and abandon
those sham, hollow words.
Audience strategy management & Case Study

The target audience of Spirited Away is young peoplechildren and adolescents,
but the plot and themes of the film contain more than enough to engage older
audiences as well.
Spirited Away was dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures and the dubbed
version was released in North America in 2002. However, the dubbed film only
grossed a disappointing $10 million in North America. This result is partly due to
Disneys limited marketing and distribution of the film.
While anime powerhouses like Studio Ghibili are very adept at making movies,
they do not have the international marketing or distribution muscle available to
organizations like Disney. Therefore in 1996, Tokuma, Ghiblis parent company,

signed a historic distribution deal with Disney in an arrangement called the

Disney-Tokuma deal.
That Spirited Away was not selling was not because Americans were not buying
anime (or manga). During the same year Spirited Away came to the US,
royalties and merchandising from Japanese anime in America reached a record
$4.35 billion, three times greater than Japans steel exports to the United
States. In a piece for the San Fransisco Chronicle, G. Allen Johnson argues that
Hollywood itself is responsible for the failure of Asian films and not just anime
in America. They seemingly dont know what to do with the Asian films they
buy, he writes.
When looking for a distributor, the renowned and respected Miyazaki was in a
sellers market and in a position to make demands. After a bad experience in
which a worldwide distributor changed one of his films in a way he did not
approve of, Miyazaki insisted on preserving unchanged the visual and musical
elements of his films abroad. Distributors would have the option to add subtitles
or dub the films.
The major issue is that, without merchandising rights, the advertizing calculus is
skewed. With most films, advertizing dollars are further recouped in spin-offs and
merchandizing that, in this case, would not be available to Disney. With
historically miniscule and uncertain box office grosses being the only return on
investment possible and no ability to safeguard itself by editing the film before
distributing it Disney was not apt to pump much into the marketing budgets of
one of these films. Without such a budget, the likelihood of its doing well was
very slim. One writer calls this the stepchild syndrome.
Reference
Jen-feng Lee(2006).Best partners of Ghibli-Miyazaki Hayao and Suzuki
Toshio.Chinatimes
Hsoao-chuan Lin(2008).Ponyo-Miyazaki's new production.The Libertytimes
Pearson School and FE Colleges "Case study: Spirited Away"
http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/FEAndVocational/CreativeandMedia
/GCSE/GCSEFilmStudiesforWJEC/Resources/CaseStudies/Spirited_Away.pdf
Andy Henderson(2010) "Spirited Away and Anime in the American Cinema Market"
http://postbubbleculture.blogs.wm.edu/2010/04/20/spirited-away-and-theemerging-presence-of-anime-in-the-american-market /
TokyoTopia "Studio Ghibli" http://www.tokyotopia.com/studio-ghibli.html
Brian Eggert(2001). Spirited away.
http://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/spiritedaway.asp
Wikipedia "Ghibli" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli
Wikipedia "Hayao Miyazaki" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki
Wikipedia "Spirited Away" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away#Release

http://www.corneredangel.com/amwess/papers/fandom_agent.html

The Studio of Ghibli and Spirited Away

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Studio of Ghibli and Spirited Away

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Studio of Ghibli and Spirited Away

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

23E62000 Arts in Consumer Culture

Yu-Jun Liu, Shin-Yun Pai, Danila Calabrese, Gerard Ong, Chi-Yeh Wu