As popular as Studio Ghibli films are, we’ve always been limited in how and where we can watch them. Theaters do re-runs of classics like Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service regularly, and there are plenty of physical versions of the iconic anime films available for purchase, but what if those options don’t work for you? If you’re someone who wants to stream Grave of the Fireflies on your PlayStation 4 or add Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to your digital film library, you’ve been out of luck for ages. Studio Ghibli has been staunchly against making their properties digitally available for years, but, thanks to a recent surprise announcement by GKIDS, all of that is about to change. You can now pre-order a huge variety of Studio Ghibli classics on a number of different digital film platforms.
For the first time ever, Studio #Ghibli films will be available to purchase digitally in the US and Canada.
Both English and Japanese versions will be available.⚡️ PRE-ORDER #StudioGhibli titles on select outlets starting tomorrow, DECEMBER 3.
✨ AVAILABLE on DECEMBER 17! pic.twitter.com/WxGlOLL88x
— GKIDS Films (@GKIDSfilms) December 2, 2019
Announced on Twitter by GKIDS, a select number of films from the classic library of animated Studio Ghibli classics will be available for the first time ever across numerous digital film purchase services in the United States and Canada. The films will be available to view starting on December 17th, but certain services are offering digital pre-orders for the Studio Ghibli library as early as December 3rd. The full list of digital platforms included in the program is as follows:
- AppleTV
- Amazon VOD
- Vudu
- Google Play
- Sony
- Microsoft
- FandangoNow
GKIDS also announced that both the English and Japanese versions of these films will be available on all platforms. However, due to platform limitations on some of these services, separate purchases may be required for each version of the film. The pricing for each film is set to be $19.99 per movie, however a six-film digital bundle that costs $99.99 will also be available, bundling together some of the most iconic Studio Ghibli animated films of all time: Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. The full list of films available to purchase and view on these digital platforms is as follows:
- Castle in the Sky
- The Cat Returns
- From Up on Poppy Hill
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- My Neighbor Totoro
- My Neighbors the Yamadas
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- Ocean Waves
- Only Yesterday
- Pom Poko
- Ponyo
- Porco Rosso
- Princess Mononoke
- The Secret World of Arrietty
- Spirited Away
- The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
- Tales From Earthsea
- When Marnie Was There
- Whisper of the Heart
- The Wind Rises (Available Q3 2020)
This is the first time in history that the Studio Ghibli film collection will be available digitally for purchase and rental. While the entire library of films isn’t listed, GKIDS will hopefully continue to introduce more films as time goes on. This announcement follows up on the news from October that Studio Ghibli films will also be available to stream digitally for the first time ever, exclusively on the upcoming HBO Max service. The list includes classics like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Ponyo, and more. As streaming services continue to expand their anime offerings, with Netflix especially involving themselves heavily in the anime production scene and even recently obtaining the streaming rights for Neon Genesis Evangelion, it’s interesting to see the digital streaming expansion finally catch up to Studio Ghibli.
GKIDS is an American film distribution company based in New York, and was founded 11 years ago in 2008 by Eric Beckman. The company is stated to have a focus on publishing and distributing “sophisticated, indie” animation titles. They first began distributing Studio Ghibli films back in 2011, when they obtained the official rights to “The Studio Ghibli Collection”, a collection of 13 Studio Ghibli classics that they have since released on physical Blu-ray and have had yearly country-wide theater screenings. Since then they have become the de-facto worldwide distributor for Studio Ghibli films, providing physical releases and theater distribution of each new film introduced to the Studio Ghibli catalog.
Studio Ghibli, meanwhile, was founded on June 15th of 1985. After the prior success of the animated independent film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, founders Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma were able to start their own Japanese animation film studio. While they’ve remained focused on producing feature-length films, they’ve also collaborated on projects in other fields of media. One of their most iconic collaborations is their involvement with the visual design and development of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for the PlayStation 3 back in 2011.
Studio Ghibli is an absolute tour de force when it comes to their influence and success in Japan. Of the 10 highest-grossing anime films ever made in Japan, six of them were made by Studio Ghibli. The highest-grossing animated film in Japan, Studio Ghibli’s 2001 classic Spirited Away, has made over $360 million worldwide. They’ve won countless Animage Anime Grand Prix awards, as well as four awards from the Japan Academy for Animation of the Year. Five Studio Ghibli films have received Academy Award nominations as well. On top of that, Spirited Away won the Golden Bear in 2002 and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2003.
