A new year means a new calendar, and what could be more suitable for Ghibli fanatics than one of these adorable perennial calendars? Studio Ghibli’s official merchandise store, Donguri Kyowakoku (meaning Acorn Republic), has released three special calendars recreated from some of Hayao Miyazaki’s most popular animations.
The calendar themed after 'Kiki’s Delivery Service' (¥4,500) is specific to the scene where the young witch has just established her own delivery business and is eagerly awaiting customers at the French bakery run by her landlady.
The calendar from 'Spirited Away' (¥3,800) is taken from the iconic train ride that Chihiro (renamed Sen at the bathhouse) takes with No Face to Zeniba. The train travels steadily along tracks that are submerged in water, as Chihiro embarks on a long journey to another world as the ghostly figures of other passengers sit peacefully in the same carriage.
The third figure, also ¥3,800, features the beloved forest spirits from 'My Neighbor Totoro'. Totoro and friends sit in a tree playing ocarinas as a few susuwatari peek out from a cranny beneath.
Each calendar comes with four small blocks that can be rotated to indicate the day’s date as well as one cube with a series of symbols from the movie or silhouettes of other characters to adorn your desk or windowsill.
Updates on new Studio Ghibli films
Studio Ghibli is preparing for a busy year ahead in their own way as the company announced they would be working on two feature films as well as the Ghibli theme park which is set to open in 2022.
Following the completion of his film ‘The Wind Rises’ in 2013, fans were mournful when Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from animation. Nonetheless, it wasn’t the first time the nation’s treasured filmmaker said he would cease making films, only to return to the studio shortly after, and many fans were quietly hopeful that ‘The Wind Rises’ wouldn’t be Miyazaki’s final work.
Optimists were rewarded in 2017 when Miyazaki announced that he would return to the studio to work on a new film, ‘How Do You Live?’, which will be adapted from a 1934 novel of the same title. Meanwhile, his son Goro Miyazaki (‘From Up On Poppy Hill’) will also be working on an untitled feature film that is computer animated rather than hand drawn.
‘How Do You Live?’ was originally set to be released in 2020, but in a recent television interview with NHK, studio producer Toshio Suzuki shared his skepticism for if the feature will be released this soon. Miyazaki is known to take three to four years to complete a film; he's currently carefully creating one minute of animation per month and is not rushing to meet any set deadlines.
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