Studio Ghibli

"My life was molded by these films. Truly some of the greatest animated works of all time."

– CocoFredrickson, r/Pixar Reddit user.

"There's a lot of spiritual elements in it."

– Emily Burke, Buddhist author.

"What?"

– Samuel Burke.

Introduction

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio known for producing some of the most critically acclaimed anime films in Reality, as well as some of the most befuddling animated works in the Burkehead Realm. In this parallel universe, the studio was founded by childlike, tiny-nosed, glassy-eyed aliens from the distant exoplanet Kepler-KaWaE24-7 called the Corinians, the origins and lifestyles of which were referenced by American puppeteer David Leibe Hart on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in 2007. The films by the studio include Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, and some creepy cat wedding movie. Many of these films, namely Spirited Away, are cited as modern Japanese cultural talismans of sorts, taking heavy inspiration from the yokai and kami of the Japanese Shinto religion.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive reception in various dimensions, Studio Ghibli films are considered by many in the Burkehead Realm to only be riveting when the question of "why?" is left out of one's analyses at all times. Spirited Away, for instance, is about the psychological degradation of Mei, AKA Sen—the most perfect little girl in the known universe—by a series of fictional kami as to test her worthiness to save her parents and escape the spirit world, with such pointless... I mean, thoughtful events as her gluttonous parents' transformations into pigs, a laborous bathing session for a gigantic pile of trash, a terrifying encounter with a giant cannibalistic baby voiced by Tara Strong, a gold-for-food scam executed by a clown blob voiced by Squidward Tentacles from SpongeBob SquarePants, and a random train ride showcasing beautiful twilight scenery that is clearly intended to drive the plot forward and not to waste time. Similarly, Howl's Moving Castle tells the tale of a Cindarella wannabe who's taken in by an iteration of Birdman with no relation to Michael Keaton, a child garden gnome, a talking flame with the personality of Danny DeVito, and a partially sentient scarecrow, all of whom traverse beautiful meadows and warzones with very little clear plot progression. As for The Cat Returns, it's just really fucking creepy and tone-deaf.