Shigesato Itoi and Studio Ghibli

March 28th, 2009 | Itoi, Uncommon Knowledge, Videos

Since we’re already on the subject of Itoi and Studio Ghibli (see here), I thought I’d go into a little more detail about their connection. In the offchance you’ve never heard of Studio Ghibli or Hayao Miyazaki, see here. Just know that they’re like THE ultimate Japanese animation company, akin to Disney here I suppose.

Anyway, first and most well-known outside of Japan is that Shigesato Itoi voiced the father in My Neighbor Totoro, one of the most famous Studio Ghibli works of all time. I can’t seem to find a video clip showing him off, and I’m sure that even if I did find one, it’d be off YouTube mighty quick, but if anyone can help get a clip anyway, that’d be awesome 😀

Next, because Itoi’s real job is copywriting, something he was famous for, Studio Ghibli asked him to figure out the slogans/catch phrases for about fourteen of their movies, like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. It’s not as easy a job as it sounds, though, as you can see in this video:

Skip to 4:46 for the Itoi stuff

Another thing Itoi does for a living is that he interviews (well, more like just chats with) all his friends, acquaintances, and people he’d like to know more about. He posts these on his super-popular site. He’s of course done this with Studio Ghibli people, as you can see here.

Also: peekaboo!

I should also mention quickly that there’s a reference or two in MOTHER 3 to Itoi’s past work with Studio Ghibli. He talks about it somewhere in this gigantic MOTHER 3 interview.