[5] Among the studio's highest-grossing films are Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Boy and the Heron (2023).

[6] Studio Ghibli was founded on June 15, 1985, by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki, after acquiring Topcraft's assets.

[11][12] Although the Italian word would be more accurately transliterated as "Giburi" (ギブリ), with a hard g sound, the studio's name is written in Japanese as Jiburi (ジブリ, [dʑiꜜbɯɾi] ⓘ).

[11] Founded on June 15, 1985, Studio Ghibli was headed by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki.

Miyazaki and Takahata had already had long careers in Japanese film and television animation and had worked together on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun in 1968 and the Panda!

Suzuki was part of the film's production team, and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join them.

Other directors who have worked with Studio Ghibli include Yoshifumi Kondō, Hiroyuki Morita, Gorō Miyazaki, and Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

In their book Anime Classics Zettai!, Brian Camp and Julie Davis made note of Michiyo Yasuda as "a mainstay of Studio Ghibli's extraordinary design and production team".

Saeko Himuro's novel Umi ga Kikoeru was serialised in the magazine and subsequently adapted into Ocean Waves, Studio Ghibli's first animated feature-length film created for television.

Miyazaki announced his retirement with The Wind Rises which is about the Mitsubishi A6M Zero and its creator,[30] but returned with The Boy and the Heron in 2023, earning the director his second Academy Award.

"[31] In 2013, a documentary directed by Mami Sunada called The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (Japanese: 夢と狂気の王国, Hepburn: Yume to kyōki no ōkoku) was created delving into the lives of those working at Studio Ghibli and the productions of the animated films The Wind Rises and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, including storyboard sketching, inking, painting, and voice actor selection for the films.

[32] On January 31, 2014, it was announced that Gorō Miyazaki will direct his first anime television series, Sanzoku no Musume Rōnya, an adaptation of Astrid Lindgren's Ronia the Robber's Daughter for NHK.

"[40] Lead producer Yoshiaki Nishimura among several other staffers from Ghibli, such as director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, left to found Studio Ponoc in April 2015, working on the film Mary and the Witch's Flower.

[48] On April 4, 2023, Koji Hoshino announced that he had stepped down as chairman, and would serve as a representative director before planning to exit Studio Ghibli completely during the company's annual general shareholder's meeting in June, one month prior to the release of director Hayao Miyazaki's final movie The Boy and the Heron on July 14.

[50] This change of management came about amidst reports that Suzuki had allegedly been mismanaging company funds by directing them towards his girlfriend's failed business ventures.

After purchasing the global distribution rights from World Film Corporation,[60] Manson International and Showmen, Inc. produced a 95-minute English dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, titled Warriors of the Wind,[61] which was released theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures on June 14, 1985, followed by a VHS release in December 1985.

The North American poster and VHS cover featured a cadre of male characters who are not in the film, riding the resurrected God Warrior—including a still-living Warrior shown briefly in a flashback.

[67] In the late 1980s, an English dub of Castle in the Sky was produced for international Japan Airlines flights at the request of Tokuma Shoten.

[19][71] In addition, Walt Disney Studios Japan agreed to contribute 10% of the funding for all future releases, starting with My Neighbors the Yamadas, in exchange for right of first refusal regarding international distribution.

These plans never materialized in full, but the Animation Celebration logo can be seen on Disney's original VHS release of Kiki's Delivery Service.

[72] Disney and Ghibli have also selectively chosen not to promote and record an English-dubbed version for films and works deemed less internationally marketable, including some of Takahata's more developmental and obscure pieces.

Afterwards, GKIDS would go on to distribute the films Disney found to be too mature or unmarketable for American audiences: Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There.

The Ghibli films owned by GKIDS were made available for digital purchases on most major services in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2019, through Shout!

Notably, The Secret World of Arrietty received a second dub exclusive to the United Kingdom, produced by StudioCanal UK, likely due to the film's origins being from Mary Norton's British novel The Borrowers.

[72] The studio heads changed their minds after hearing a quote from American actor and director Woody Allen about how there should be multiple outlets for feature films.

[90] As of 2024, no streaming rights deals have yet been announced for Studio Ghibli's home country of Japan, nor for markets such as China where neither Netflix nor HBO Max is available.

[95] Following the September 1, 2009 shutdown and re-branding of ADV,[96] their successor, Sentai Filmworks, rescued the film and released a remastered DVD on March 6, 2012.

[100] Horus and Cagliostro were the feature-length directorial debuts of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki respectively, and were produced by Toei Animation and TMS Entertainment years before the founding of Studio Ghibli.

[157] A notable exception is The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, directed by Takahata, which departs from Ghibli's typical style by employing a soft watercolor palette and storybook-like aesthetic reminiscent of Japanese folk art.

Common themes include the risks posed by progress to tradition,[159] environmentalism and the natural world,[159][156] independent female protagonists,[154] the cost of war, and youth.