The holiday season is fast approaching and instead of keeping one’s fingers warm with gloves, it’s time to abandon comfort and decorate the fingers with these Studio Ghibli finger puppets.
As reported by SoraNews24, Studio Ghibli’s anime merchandise specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku is releasing a new line of yubi ningyo, translating to finger puppets in English. While the store already holds various yubi ningyo of characters from the Ghibli films, this line includes new figures with new poses and expressions. The new figures will roll out at different intervals with the characters from My Neighbor Totoro making their debut first.
The My Neighbor Totoro lineup includes all sizes of Totoro, with some playing the ocarina and one carrying a sack. The Catbus and cluster of soot sprites are also included. Rounding out the line-up are two versions of sweet little Mei. The first is of Mei in her regular outfit of a pink dress over a white blouse with a yellow bag slung over her shoulder and the second is of her wearing the raincoat she wore when she went to wait for her father.
The History of Studio Ghibli
Founded in 1985, Studio Ghibli is one of the most well-known names in animation worldwide. Founder and acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki named the studio thus as he wanted to “blow a new wind through the anime industry.” The first feature film directed by Miyazaki premiered in 1984. While Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind came out before the studio’s founding date, it is still considered a Ghibli film. Grossing 31.68 billion yen in Japan, Spirited Away is one of the studio’s most successful films to date and is the second highest-grossing anime films, only behind Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train. The studio recently collaborated with Lucasfilm to produce a crossover short called Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies.
Miyazaki has directed over 15 films, and the majority of his films feature themes revolving around nature and technology and protagonists who are young women. The first instance of Miyazaki expressing his desire to retire was in the late 1990s, but he returned to direct Spirited Away in 2002. After The Wind Rises premiered in 2013, he announced his retirement once more only to reveal that he would unretire to direct one last Studio Ghibli film. Studio Ghibli revealed Miyazaki’s alleged final film How Do You Live? will premiere in Japan sometime in July 2023.
The My Neighbor Totoro yubi ningyo characters will go on sale, priced at 495 yen apiece, starting on Dec. 24.
Source: SoraNews24
Leave a Reply