Is This the End for Japan’s Iconic Studio Ghibli?
The sale of a Japanese animation institution raises questions over art, streaming and the future for aging businesses.
A man sits next to “No-Face,” a character from the Studio Ghibli movie "Spirited Away."
Photographer: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images
In the end, even the most iconic of Japanese artisans have to bow to demographics.
The announcement that Studio Ghibli, the famed animation studio responsible for My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, will be acquired by broadcaster Nippon Television Holdings Inc. might be the most jaw-dropping corporate story in Japan this year. For a company that famously eschews profit, the latest technology and even the trappings of modern society itself, to in effect sell out to one of the country’s big four TV networks came as a total shock.