Ghibli Park, which opened in November 2022 in Expo Aichi Memorial Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture, will open all five areas on the 16th. Director Hayao Miyazaki’s (83) film “How Do You Live?” just won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The world of Studio Ghibli’s works, which are highly acclaimed both domestically and internationally, is expanding to each area.
Director Hayao Miyazaki visiting the “Great Ghibli Warehouse” ©Kanyada Phatan = October 14, 2022 at Ghibli Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture (Courtesy of Studio Ghibli)
10 years since the concept. The prefecture will proceed with the development, and Ghibli Park, a company established by Ghibli and Chunichi Shimbun, will be in charge of management and operation. Director Miyazaki visited the park incognito in 2022 and was beaming at the Ghibli warehouse.
Taking the opportunity of this full opening, he sent a message to his son, director Goro (57), who was in charge of the production, saying, “Well done.”
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◆ Ghibli’s Toshio Suzuki P visits for the first time “Precisely reproduced down to the smallest detail”
Ahead of the opening of the new area “Witch’s Valley” at Ghibli Park in Expo Aichi Commemorative Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture on the 16th, Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki visited the site for the first time on the 15th. It has been precisely reproduced down to the last detail.”
“Valley of the Witches” is themed around wizards from Ghibli films, and is lined with European-style buildings. Producer Suzuki, who walked through the park with director Goro Miyazaki, commented, “All the buildings are real. It’s very different from a theme park.”
Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki responds to an interview before the opening of Ghibli Park’s “Witch’s Valley” at Expo Aichi Memorial Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture on the 15th.
Referring to Walt Disney, who expanded from film production to create Disneyland, he praised the company’s chief executive, saying, “It’s the same with Goro, who created the movie Ghibli Park from the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.” He also revealed that when his father, director Hayao Miyazaki, visited another area incognito, he complimented director Goro on a “good job.”
Director Shun is said to be working on a “Panorama Box,” which is a three-dimensional version of the settings of Ghibli works, at the request of director Goro, and producer Suzuki said, “Once it’s completed, it might come to Ghibli Park.” With the opening of “Witch’s Valley”, all five areas of Ghibli Park will open. (Shoko Furuya)