This post will be analyzing a small selection of Studio Ghibli films and their opening titles.
From Castle in the Sky onwards, Studio Ghibli has a pretty fixed format for their films, their signature logo would be presented just before an opening scene, with a proper opening title sequence following soon after, there are quite a few exceptions (Such as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and From Up on Poppy Hill) however where the opening title sequence is completely skipped over, with the credits instead being shown only in the end credits.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
A post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film is based on his own 1982 manga of the same name. The film tells the story of titular character Nausicaa, a young princess of the Valley of the Wind who gets involved in a struggle with Tolmekia, a kingdom that tries to use an ancient weapon to eradicate a jungle of mutant giant insects, it is up to the princess to stop them from enraging these creatures.
While created before the Studio was founded, the film is considered to be the beginning of the studio and is often included as part of the Studio's works, and has since been included in several Studio Ghibli Collection DVDs and Blu-rays.
After a brief introduction by the narrator about the collapse of human civilization a thousand years prior to the events of the film, a rather sombre piece plays as the opening sequence finally begins, a series of interesting looking wall paintings shows the audience what appears to be a prophecy (Which is later on much better explained in the film) that already hints at the focus point of the entire story.
Many of these images however cannot be clearly understood until the audience has at least watched through the entire film first, it however does give us a taste of the setting and atmosphere of the film we will be watching. Some watchers might have instead thought that these images that are shown throughout the sequence are instead presenting what took place in the past (Seeing that wall paintings are used to record events throughout history) and what it was that had actually caused the world to be how it presently is in the film (Especially when one image seems to show various types of transport that might have been developed by them, giving an insight to how the human race has redeveloped itself in a seemingly ruined world), people with really low attention spans like me.
While a rather wide range of colors are used for these images, I can't help but take note of how they are still able to keep these images slightly desaturated (Not overly mind you until the beauty of the illustrations have gone completely to waste) so that the credits remain bright and clear enough for the audience to read, even the superimposed text remain readable on the more detailed areas of the images, there is no need to place them in the empty spaces of the drawings all the time (Which aren't that many as seen in the above images, it would anyway make the layout of the wall paintings seem unnatural if they attempt to put in some negative space for each image just so that they can superimpose the text on there).
Scenes of enigmatic looking creatures are shown in between these images, marching through cities that have been set ablaze and left to ruin. While obviously antagonistic in appearance, it does perhaps hint at something more other than the identity of who or whom it might be that will be considered the villains of the film (And as we all know, Miyazaki has never really been a fan of traditional villains), it possibly also hints at another theme or subject matter that will be focused on in the film.
After that really brief montage (It might be brief to me since I had to keep pausing to look over small details while writing this analysis), we shift to a scene where we get our first look into the setting of the film (While we technically already did with the opening scene, this part of the world seems to show areas that are uninhabited by humans, with barely any ruins, and flora and fauna practically blanketing the entire area, and seeing as it was said before that most of human civilization has fallen, surely a very small bit of the population now occupies the planet, cluing in that the majority of the world looks like this)…
We are also introduced to the heroine herself as she skillfully travels about in her wind glider, clearly seeming familiar with the alien looking world, already giving us insight as to what her personality might be (Strong and independent, that's whaaaat~).
Some other basic information about the opening sequence (Mainly for my reference) is that the duration for each credit tends to last for six seconds each (With the main title itself getting an extra second).
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Retitled Laputa: Castle in the Sky for the re-release in the United Kingdom and Australia (And Singapore, pft), Castle in the Sky is an adventure film and is also the first film produced and released by Studio Ghibli. The story follows a young boy and girl with a magic crystal that go on a journey to search for a legendary floating castle known as Laputa, the last remaining sky castle, while also dealing with pirates and agents along the way. This would be one of very few films directed by Hayao Miyazaki where more traditional villains are featured (I'm just saying… it's not like I have a deep fascination for them…).
After a rather exciting opening scene where sky pirates (Led by an interesting looking elderly woman) ambush an airship carrying a young girl, it would already seem that we are (Supposedly) introduced to two groups of villains as the girl is shown to be a held captive by the agents, while the pirates are attempting to steal her crystal amulet. Both groups have already shown that they could care less for her well being with the agents treating her like a typical captive (I mean their treatment towards her could be worse, but still) and the pirates throwing a tantrum when it seems that they have lost the crystal, ignoring the fact that the girl might have fallen to her death with it.
Compared to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the opening sequence for this film is noticeably lengthier, the word Laputa is nicely engraved into the background, with the main title appearing soon after, the font design for it nicely matching the style of the background. Fortunately their design and placement of the word Laputa works well for their new title during the re-release, it is interesting however to see that "Castle in the Sky" is downed considerably in quality, a plain white font being used instead of the other one they had used previously for the original release (Were they rushing when it came to this part? I don't think it would take too long to use the same design, they just need to rearrange and resize the words… there has to be another explanation) Still, layout wise, I suppose it works.
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| Possibly the original design, before they added Laputa to the front of the title. |
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| The re-released version. |
Again the lifestyles of the human population is shown here, with rather interesting forms of technology developed by them being displayed throughout, while the film is already shown to have a mystical feel to it, juxtaposing elements of steam punk are also mixed in.
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| While parts of the environments, interesting the characters remain quite stationary throughout, save for some subtle movements of their clothing and hair. |
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| Strangely enough, despite the choice of art style used, the animation somehow doesn't look at all stiff. |
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| In fact, it's pretty darn gorgeous... as always... |
There are quite a few pan shots of really detailed looking castles and ships (Shown in a variety of states as well, some still looking gloriously majestic, while others are completely destroyed and have become nothing but ruins) presented throughout the sequence, which is a pretty obvious way of showing us this story's universe and of course letting us know that they will be some of many important elements in the film.
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| Trains I think? |
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| This scene is once again used near the end, aside from how aesthetically lovely it is, it might also be hinting at some important symbolism. |
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| The main character from before is seen here in the final scene, possibly hinting at her life prior to the events that take place in the film. |
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
A fantasy film that tells the story of two young girls of a professor and their interactions with various friendly wood sports in postwar rural Japan, My Neighbor Totoro helped bring Japanese animation into global spotlight and set its Hayao Miyazaki on the road to success. The film's central character, Totoro, has been very well received and is one of the studio's most recognizable characters (He is after all considered their mascot as well), making numerous cameos in many other medias aside from other Studio Ghibli films.
Unlike previous films where a short opening scene comes before the title sequence itself, this film immediately starts with a more traditional opening title sequence (It also seems to follow a format that is used more often for television series than films), with an upbeat theme song playing and cartoony elements decorating the top and bottom of the frame, featuring objects that kids would normally be fascinated with (Creepy crawlies, junk that can be used as really crappy toys… wood, etc.), this sequence is pretty different compared to their previous ones (Which is not surprisingly really, this is after all a much more light-hearted film compared to the previous ones).
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| Aww that's kinda cu-- |
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| Oh sweet Jesus! |
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| I'm sorry but they look like they are in pain… |
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| Still, I have to admit that this is a clever use of typography. |
While it might seem that there are lesser details as compared to the previous opening sequences of other Ghibli films, not only do the bright colors makes up for it, but the constant motion of nearly everything that is seen on screen, it is only the normal credits that remains stationary, everything else including the main title as you can see in the previous screenshots are constantly wriggling and morphing about (The creepy crawlies seem pretty evil though, it almost looks as if they are trying to ambush her when they pop out from under the pieces of… wood, only missing each time).
Curiously only the younger of the two sisters is featured in this opening sequence, perhaps this is because Mei is the first to meet with these forest spirits as well as appears to have a much stronger bond with them… I am still not entirely sure as to why she is the only human character to be featured here, but it might be because she is the youngest and is hence the most innocent, once again signifying that she has the strongest bond out with these spirits.
Porco Rosso (1992)
I suppose it doesn't count as an opening sequence but I feel that the short little bit at the beginning deserves a special mention, aside from giving us a brief introduction to the story and its main character, it is done in a rather simple but nonetheless cute and creative way.
From the very beginning, an introduction to the story is typed out for the audience to read, in 10 different languages mind you, cleverly mimicking the effects of a typewriter (Not just the sounds, but the movements and even the timing, as if someone was typing away at that introduction right then) while using little green piggies as stoppers for each line (Look at that lone piggie moving from right to left on his own for the Tamil version...).
They could have just done a much simpler and plainer introduction, but no they didn't, they did something that appears to look so simple at first glance, but actually has really adorable and clever little details put into it.
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| I just LOVE the tiny little details put into this bit. |
This film deserves a longer write up in the future… it's honestly one of my favorite Miyazaki films.
Ponyo (2008)
Initially titled as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Ponyo is a fantasy film that centers around a magical goldfish that wishes to become human, upon wandering away from her father and her siblings, she encounters a five-year old human boy and befriends him.
To me, Ponyo always was one of the Studio's stranger films (But I think I'm beginning to understand its strange narrative…), and their choice of music for the title sequence did cause me to pause and consider for a moment… why was it that they had suddenly chosen such a soulful piece of music? Was it to capture the feeling of the ocean? It was just so unexpected, especially when people might have already watched the trailers where a much more upbeat theme song is playing, making them believe for a moment that the film might just have the same light hearted nature as My Neighbor Totoro, which it sort of has (It is still one of the more child-friendly Studio Ghibli films).
It was nice to see them feature a title sequence for this film, especially after not doing so for quite a few of their previous films (As you can see, I have skipped from 1992 to 2008) and simply going straight into the film itself.
Again, much like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa Castle in the Sky, especially more so the latter, the images shown are done in a stylistic manner. As mentioned earlier with the music, they are clearly trying to create that ocean effect (By simply drawing in rather carefully done squiggly lines over everything… genius!), though it is done in a more creative manner where everything is cleverly simplified but remain recognizable to the audience (Such as the underwater creatures (Not going to say fish because I see whales, man, I see whales… and squids) and boats), you could say they are done in the style of children illustrations, once again making us feel that this really is meant to be a film for a younger audience.
If it hasn't already been made clear in the opening scene, the title sequence is practically screaming at us about what is the main focus of the entire film (Water, water, everywhere), every shot presented throughout are mainly of various parts of the ocean and the colorful creatures that inhabit it, while a few land elements are shown, they are normally taking up about 5% of the screen… well, I think we are getting a pretty obvious hint about what is probably going to happen in the story later on...
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| They clearly played around a lot with colors for this sequence, aside from the usual shades of blues and greens, they even used out of the norm colors as seen here. |
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| Did you know that 70% of the planet is covered in ocean? |
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| Like I said, the simple art style is a really nice idea, while also keeping everything in constant motion. |
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| I also think that it's this image that finally made us realize that Ponyo actually is a fish… with hair. |
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| It is most definitely the colors and animated lines that stand out in this sequence, also note that not everything is flatly colored, some parts have a very lovely but subtle gradient to them. |
I would have to say that this title sequence combines various elements from the openings of Laputa Castle in the Sky and My Neighbour Totoro, a series of images are presented to us and give us a brief look into this film's universe, but are done in a simpler, more vibrant style that also remains in constant motion.
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