Studio Ghibli

Toryansé and the storytelling advantages of short games

Nick Preston decided to call his upcoming series of short adventure games Toryansé after the Japanese folk song of the same name. The song is traditionally sung as part of a children’s game—Warabe uta, which is very similar to the English nursery rhyme game Oranges and Lemons—but has surprisingly da

Japanese horror game has an air of Studio Ghibli about it

“At night every town…changes” the new trailer for Yomawari tells us. The idea in this upcoming PlayStation Vita-exclusive, from Japanese studio Nippon Ichi, is to take on the role of a young girl whose sister and dog have gone missing. Despite her fears, the girl is determined to find her loved ones

Explore the dense world of Spirited Away in 8-bit theater

“I do believe in the power of story. I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners.” – Hayao Miyazaki The above quote could easily apply to any of the stories woven by Miyazaki and his animation stud

Of course someone created The Matrix’s construct scene in VR

We have one word about the famous Matrix scene being refitted for Oculus Rift: Whoa!  OK, we have a few more, but that’s a good starting point. There’s just something awe-inspiring about being in the same hollow, boundless white room where a debonair Laurence Fishburne introduces slack-jawed Keanu t

Studio Ghibli beer, worth drinking for the whimsical label alone

The label on this bottle of beer strikes me as curious and whimsical and unlike anything I’ve seen in my lustrous beer-drinking career, which has been the downfall of many-a-beers. That’s because it comes from the hot-dog stand at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, as snapped by a blogger over at Bo

A Nausicaä-inspired work of animation that lets you be director

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is pretty outstanding. But the problem is it’s static. Once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it. However, the storytelling app IDNA—which takes inspiration from that famous anime of Miyazaki—is in a state of constant evolution.  Now on Kickstarter, the episodic animated

Virtual reality dev continues to melt hearts with My Neighbor Totoro

The virtual reality developer Red of Paw continues to make virtual reality an altogether more whimsical place, blogging that they will bring the “bus stop” scene from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro to the Oculus Rift next. This is the memorable moment for fans of Japanese anime where the doe-eye