Following the large success of Japanese animated film ‘Naausica: Valley of the
Wind', directors Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki founded Studio Ghibli and ended their venture with TopCraft (the producer of the film).
Currently, the studio is headed by Koji Hoshino (executive director, president) with Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki remaining their seat as key people on the board.
Studio Ghibli is Japan's (and one of the world's) most celebrated creator of animated feature films, short films, television and commercials. Every one of their theatrical releases has opened to critical acclaim and huge profits (their films are guaranteed to win the highest-grossing film of the year they release in);
For instance: 'Kiki's Delivery Service', 'Only Yesterday', 'Porco Rosso', and 'Pom Poko' were all the highest grossing film of their independent years.
'Princess Mononoke' and 'Spirited Away' both broke the record for being the highest grossing Japanese film, with Spirited Away still holding the record to this day. SA was also infamous for taking away Titanic's number one spirit in multiple regions.
Being a Japanese studio, they're very insistent on using a similar unified style known as Manga. Though there a slight differences in aesthetics that represent different genres, the changes aren't as varied as say styles in Western animated studios. Speaking of which, Studio Ghibli seem to have the most international success more so than any other Japanese Studio due to their westernised approach to storytelling, with their focus being more drawn in to character and theme of the plot with 'show-don't tell' story mechanics rather than the usual exposition dumping a lot of other 'animes' suffer from. In tone, Ghibli seem to go for more plausible and dense reality with understated elements rather than overpowered characters who are seemingly perfect surrounded by dumb opponents. It's important to note they don't write Western scripts, just influenced. This has allowed them to create a middle-ground for being a unique studio for both their home-region of Japan but also the world.
Being a massively influential and international Studio, Ghibli had to acquire a large amount of partnerships in order to have their films produced for certain regions. In terms of their local distribution, TOHO distribute all the theatrical releases to cinemas for Ghibli, whilst Walt Disney Japan manage merchandising and video-on-demand releases. Internationally, Disney is their largest partner (Japan, Taiwan, North America, France). STUDIO CANAL handle United Kingdom releases.
When distributing, a major process that must take place is to have a the regions age certificate authority re-rate the film for classification. Some countries take more apparent offence to some content than others:
UK goes by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification).
North America swears by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) .
Locally, Japan falls under 'Eirin' (Eiga Rinri)
A famous story that spurred from Ghibli's international distribution deals was Harvey Weinstein of MIRAMAX (the Western distributors of 'Princess Mononoke') .
Originally, the first western release of Nausicaa Valley of the Wind was heavily edited, breaking the intention of the original vision of the movie. When it came to Miramax coming back for Princess Mononoke, Weinstein insisted they edit the film to make it more marketable. As a response, an anonymous producer from Studio Ghibli sent Weinstein an authentic japanese sword with the words 'no cuts' engraved on it.
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