The Ghibli Museum has revealed a new, larger-than-life Totoro balloon, which has been installed on the museum's grounds as part of the celebration surrounding the 20th anniversary of the museum's original opening.
The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, West Tokyo has posted a video of the balloon being inflated and anchored into place. The balloon was part of the festivities surrounding the museum's 20th anniversary party, which was held on Oct. 1. Over 1, 300 residents of the surrounding Mitaka neighborhood were invited via raffle to attend the event. The Ghibli Museum originally opened in 2001 and features art work from across Studio Ghibli's oeuvre, as well as interactive exhibits, such as a life-sized recreation of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, and a sculpture of one of the robots from Castle in the Sky. The museum also hosts regular screenings of Studio Ghibli's movies.
The 20th anniversary celebration comes just months after the museum was almost shuttered. Like many other tourist attractions throughout Japan, the Ghibli Museum was forced to close for several months throughout the first half of 2021 due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. According to the museum's organizers, the loss in revenue from these extended closures meant that the museum could not afford its maintenance costs and was facing a possible permanent closure. A local crowdfunding campaign was established by the residents of Mitaka City in July to help save the museum, which raised more than double of the $90,000 goal that was required to keep the museum's doors open.
The museum is once again open to the public, but only a limited amount of visitors are allowed in per day, and visitors will need to preorder their tickets in advance in order to be let in.
International travel to Japan continues to be restricted due to the pandemic, but anime fans in the United States will be able to experience a Ghibli exhibit of their own at the recently opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. The Academy Museum is hosting a retrospective exhibition on the works of Ghibli's most famous director, Hayao Miyazaki. The exhibit will feature rarely seen production and design materials from many of Miyazaki's movies, including the Academy Award winning Spirted Away. A catalog featuring many of these materials is also being published by the museum.
Fans looking forward to the next Studio Ghibli movie might have to wait awhile longer, as Miyazaki is still working on his next animated feature, How Do You Live?. The movie is based on the classic 1937 novel by Yoshino Genzaburo, which is a personal favorite of the director. The novel will be localized and released in English for the first time this fall with a foreward by Sandman author Neil Gaiman. How Do You Live? began production in 2016 and Studio Ghibli estimates that it will be at least another three years before the film is complete.
Source: YouTube