In defense of English dubs, no one does it better than Studio Ghibli. It’s not a matter of either-or; with the incredible global talents that span the original Japanese voices and the English casts, it just means we get more!
With the release of The Boy and the Heron, which featuresRobert Pattinson’s dedicated vocal bird transformation, we’re looking back at the best Studio Ghibli dubs. When it comes to Hayao Miyazaki’s films, care has always been taken between by the Disney and GKIDS distributors to cast the English roles with incredible talent. It’s no easy feat to perform in sync with animation, let alone in a foreign language, but it helps to have the guidance of directors such as Pixar’s Pete Docter (Howl’s Moving Castle) who approach the task with appropriate reverence. While we understand the importance of subtitles—and we’d never take away from the wonderful work of the original Japanese voice casts—dubs help make the films accessible to more audiences. And as an animation fan, I love dubs because I can bask in the art and storytelling without reading and then revisiting with subtitles. It’s a preference and a gateway for more global animation to travel the world.
Here’s a list of the top 10 English Studio Ghibli dubs we love.
Contrary to popular belief, How Do You Live? (aka The Boy and the Heron) will no longer be Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film.
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In a recent red carpet interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, Studio Ghibli vice president Junichi Nishioka told CBC reporter Eli Glasner that the iconic director has been coming into the office with new movie ideas following The Boy and the Heron’s international release. This news comes after years of Studio Ghibli never releasing a single trailer to promote Miyazaki’s final film, sharing only the title and a single poster in the run-up to release, and operating on the intriguing premise of it being Miyazaki’s final animated movie.
“Other people say that this might be [Miyazaki’s] last film, but he doesn’t feel that way at all,” Nishioka told the CBC. “He is currently working on ideas for a new film. He comes into his office every day and does that. This time, he’s not going to announce his retirement at all. He’s continuing working just as he has always done.”
As longtime Ghibli watchers may recall, Miyazaki’s previous, supposed “final” films were 2013’s The Wind Rises and then 2018’s animated short film Boro the Caterpillar. Yet here we are today, tricked once more by this master of fake retirement.
According to Anime News Network, How Do You Live? is about a boy named Mahito Maki who, after the death of his mother in the firebombings of Tokyo during World War II, moves with his father to the countryside. Things take a dramatic turn for Mahito when his father remarries his mother’s pregnant sister. It’s here that Mahito meets a talking heron who promises him that he can see his mother again if he follows him into another mysterious world, one which critics are praising for its visual inventiveness and stunning animation.
If you’re still planning on going into Miyazaki’s latest “final film” without any knowledge of what the film looks like, I suggest you don’t click on the trailer below. I’m told it’s pretty sweet—like worth paying $300 to snag the final movie ticket on Ticketmaster kinda sweet.
GKIDS Films
Personally, I’m gonna opt to not watch the trailer because I wanna watch How Do You Live? with fresh eyes. If Japanese audiences could do it, why can’t we?
Ghibli Park, a large theme park dedicated wholly to the works of Japanese animation giants Studio Ghibli, opened late last year. And it hasn’t taken long for people to start being weirdos with some of the statues found at the park, prompting calls from local authorities to please stop.
As CNN report, last week the Governor of Aichi Prefecture (where the park is located), Hideaki Ōmura, held a press conference, and discussed the subject of adults taking “lewd” photos with attractions. Seems not only have grown-ass men been taking inappropriate pics with statues of Ghibli characters, but they’ve been sharing them on social media, leading to reactions that are not in keeping with the strict family-first vibes Ōmura would have been expecting.
“Frankly speaking, posting photos like that on social media is very inappropriate”, Ōmura said. “From adults to children, people go to Ghibli Park to enter the Ghibli world and enjoy themselves. Clearly this action disturbed many people,” he added, saying that local authorities have since told park staff that “they need to firmly stop such actions once spotted and confirmed.”
“For those who come to the park to do this kind of thing, I would much prefer them not to come at all. Of course we need to take harsher measures against this kind of behavior. This is basically destruction of property.”
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You might think this reaction is a bit much, but Japanese staff and authorities do not usually fuck around when it comes to taking photos in places you’re not supposed to take photos. I’ve had staff at the Tokyo Game Show be stricter with camera use than security at famous museums, and I felt like the star of an Oceans movie the day I managed to snap a pic of my son playing on the plush Catbus at the Ghibli Muesum in Tokyo. They’re normally super strict, so Ōmura’s frustrations are perhaps partly born from the fact that he expects security to be tighter at these exhibits than they are.
Ghibli Park opened last year after numerous delays, but isn’t really finished; while it’s selling tickets, and there are three areas to explore (including the house from Totoro), two other spaces (including a Mononoke-themed forest) are still under construction, and aren’t due to be completed for another year or two.
Studio Ghibli, The famous Japanese animation studio behind classics like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away has spent the past few days teasing a possible collaboration with Lucasfilm and Star Wars on its official Twitter. And there’s some evidence that it might be a Baby Yoda aka Grogu show based on a previous leak and a new tease.
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If you are reading Kotaku, I likely don’t need to explain Studio Ghibli or Star Wars, but let’s just pretend for a moment that you have no idea what these things are. This will just take a second, be patient. Studio Ghibli is an incredibly popular animation studio that was founded in 1985 in Tokyo, Japan. Since its creation, it’s gone on to produce beloved films, like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Meanwhile, Star Wars is a massive sci-fi franchise that was created by George Lucas in the 70s and has since grown into one of the biggest things on the planet. Its most recent show, Andor, is amazing (and also filled with cool, but easy-to-miss Easter eggs!) And these two might be working together in the not-too-distant future, based on recent tweets from both.
Yesterday, the official Studio Ghibli Twitter account tweeted out a short video showing the Lucasfilm logo and its own logo. That was it. But it was enough to get people talking and going “Hey, what’s that all about, then?” Shortly afterward, the official Star Wars Twitter account re-shared the teaser as well. This did two things. One, it killed my hopes that the anime studio was working on an Indiana Jones series, and two, it confirmed that whatever they are collabing on involves Star Wars. Now, earlier today, Studio Ghibli doubled down on the connection to the famous galaxy, far, far away with a follow-up post showing an image of Grogu, also known online as Baby Yoda. The official Star Wars account has since re-tweeted the image.
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This alone seems like solid evidence the studio is doing a Baby Yoda short or movie or animated series. But even before today’s tweet and yesterday’s tease, we knew Disney and Lucasfilm were likely working on a Grogu project of some kind. That’s thanks to a previous leak from the Italian Disney+ Twitter account earlier this month. That leak pointed toward a November 12 release date, which is coincidentally tomorrow. It’s also the three-year anniversary of the premiere for The Mandalorian, the show where Grogu first appeared.
All of this points to the very real possibility that very soon, Studio Ghibli and Lucasfilm will release a new animated Star Wars short starring Grogu. Or perhaps that leaked short has nothing to do with this project and instead, Ghibli is working on a segment for the next season of the Star Wars anime spin-off anthology series, Star Wars Visions. Time will tell…
