The Rise of Ghibli's International Popularity

Introduction

Studio Ghibli, founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, is one of the most iconic animation studios in the world. Known for its beautifully crafted, hand-drawn animation and unique storytelling, Ghibli has produced some of the most memorable films in the history of cinema. Movies like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke are just a few examples of the studio's impact on both Japanese and global audiences.

While Ghibli was initially a huge hit in Japan, its international popularity has grown steadily over time. The 2003 release of Spirited Away was a major turning point, not only becoming a massive box office success, but also winning an Academy Award, or more commonly known as an Oscar, for Best Animated Feature, solidifying Ghibli’s reputation worldwide. More recently, The Boy and the Heron won an Academy Award as well, further cementing the studio’s place as a leader in animation. Since then, Ghibli’s films have gained a loyal following across the globe, from America to Europe and beyond. The studio’s ability to combine stunning visuals with rich, heartfelt narratives has made it a standout in the world of animation.

For our research, we’re looking at how Ghibli’s popularity has evolved by analyzing reviews of a few of its films across major platforms like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. We’ll use a sentiment analysis to track the rise of the studio's reputation and to understand how its global appeal has grown over time.

General history on Ghibli's founding

Before Studio Ghibli’s founding, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki both worked for Toei Animation. At the start, they were only making feature-length animated films used for cinema, but as they went on, they were forced to produce animated films for television. For example, the series “Heidi, Girl of the Alps”, aired in 1974, was directed by Takahata and composed by Miyakazi.

In 1985, Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio, was founded after the success of the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, along with producer Toshio Suzuki. The name “Ghibli” derives from an Italian term ‘ghibli’, that refers to the hot wind that blows through the Sahara Desert. Miyazaki was an aircraft enthusiast due to his father being the director of Miyazaki Airplanes, which was a manufacturing concern that built parts for Zero fighter planes. Miyazaki chose the name due to his passion, as they used this term in World War II for an Italian military reconnaissance plane, and for the idea that the studio would “blow a new wind through the anime industry.”

The studio is famous for producing hand-drawn animated films that combine fantasy, environmental themes and strong characters. The studio has mainly produced films by Miyazaki, but Takahata also produced a few known films. In 2005, Studio Ghibli became an independent company and separated from Tokuma Shoten. With this, producer Suzuki became the president of Studio Ghibli. After this event went down, the next film that was produced was "Tales from Earthsea." 3 years later, on February 1, 2008, Toshio Suzuki stepped down from his position as president of Studio Ghibli. Koji Hoshino, who was the former president of Walt Disney Japan, took over this position. The edited version of the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind that was released in the US was badly edited according to Miyazaki, and he forbade his films to be released in the West for many years. This was the case until a deal was made between Walt Disney Studios and Studio Ghibli that allowed Disney to distribute the films of Studio Ghibli. Although they were not allowed to edit any of the film.

History on becoming an international succes

Studio Ghibli has cultivated a strong reputation over time, with earlier works such as My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies building a broad, loyal fanbase that laid the groundwork for later box office hits such as Kiki’s Delivery Service. The studio employs tactical, large-scale marketing campaigns that position each film as a large cultural event.
A major turning point occurred in 1996, when Studio Ghibli entered a global distribution partnership with Disney, beginning with Princess Mononoke and including previous titles in their catalog. Motivated by the desire to share their work with a broader audience while preserving its artistic integrity, Ghibli found in Disney a partner that could honor and protect the studio’s creative vision. This deal made it possible for the movie to be transformed through translations, such as US star voices that replaced those of Japanese actors. It was also the 1st anime he made that received significant cinematic release in the US. Princess Mononoke is the source for a longlasting, wide-spread cultural phenomenon reflective of a general trend towards the globalization of anime. Despite this global expansion, Ghibli maintained its commitment to creating works primarily for the Japanese market. The studio did not adopt a multinational marketing strategy or tailor its content for international audiences.
In July 2001, Spirited Away was released and became an unprecedented domestic and international success. It won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (the first Japanese and animated film to do so in 39 years) and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003. This success significantly elevated Studio Ghibli’s public image, positioning Miyazaki and the studio as leaders of Japan’s global content industry. Amid a period of economic uncertainty, Ghibli came to be seen as a symbol of national pride and cultural resurgence, attracting widespread media and governmental attention.
When in 2005 the Aichi World Expo took place, Susan Napier paid it a visit and according to her, the greatest attraction of the exhibition was a replica of the modest country house of the movie My Neighbor Totoro. Studio Ghibli and its movies gained even more recognition when Netflix secured streaming rights for Ghibli movies in most countries (US excluded) and HBO secured them for the American market. Since 2020 the movies have been streamed over 100 million times. In 2022 A Ghibli park opened in Japan and it has seen huge sales ever since. But what made it such a success?
There’s a multitude of reasons for Ghibli’s international success. The movies romanticize everyday life in Japan, showing a new side not yet often seen in Western media. The Japanese food, customs and regions shown are presented in a beautiful way and while the movies mostly consist of fantastical elements, these snapshots of real life are incorporated alongside the fantasy. They give an insight into the traditional Japanese way of thinking and worldview. They also offer an immersive and spiritual world for children who love Ghibli’s entrancing adventures and in-depth world building. Adults on the other hand love it for all that and on top of it, appreciate it for its layered themes. The movies can be enjoyed by all ages, unlike the better part of Disney animations. The Ghibli films are part of the Cool Japan Initiative, which is a term introduced by the government in order to export the Japanese identity, executed by having an international market for anime, gaming, cuisine, … It’s a way of presenting Japanese culture as attractive and alluring to a global market.

Quantitative Research

Studio Ghibli’s rise to international prominence stands out as a powerful example of how Japanese filmmedia and culture can cross borders and resonate with the public on a global scale. Since the studio’s founding in 1985, its films have earned critical praise and built a devoted fan base far beyond Japan. Exploring how Studio Ghibli gained such widespread popularity involves looking at more than just its artistic achievements.
The quantitative part of this study takes a data-driven approach, using two key quantitative methods to better understand this studio’s global appeal. These two being the sentiment analysis of thousands of online reviews for its most iconic films, and a trend analysis of worldwide search interest in the term “Studio Ghibli” over time. Together, these methods help us shed light on how audiences around the world have started to see the studio’s work and how that connection has grown over the years.

SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

For our first quantitative research method, we applied a sentiment analysis to reviews from viewers of some the better and slightly lesser known movies produced by Studio Ghibli. This allowed us to assess whether specific films contributed to the studio's rise in popularity.

Firstly, we collected the reviews for these movies. We turned to two of the largest and most popular movie review websites: IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. The films we chose to analyze were Nausicaä Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and The Wind Rises. We used an insta data scraper to gather the reviews, which were then imported into Excel, where we ran the sentiment analysis. The results were visualized on a graph that displayed both the average sentiment score for each movie and the number of years since the creation of Studio Ghibli.

With this method, we were able to identify which movie was most favored by the general public. While all the films had an overall positive reception, Spirited Away stood out as the most liked. This aligns with the fact that Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of Studio Ghibli, won an Academy Award for this movie. On the other hand, The Wind Rises had the lowest sentiment score, but even so, with a score of 0.96, it still performed very well.
Interestingly, even though The Wind Rises was released after some of the more popular films, its score was lower. This suggests that a film's popularity doesn't necessarily correlate with the growing general appeal of Studio Ghibli over time. By combining this quantitative research method with our second approach, we can gain a clearer understanding of the studio’s rise in popularity. Search results 1984-2013 Search results 1984-2022 Grafiek

TREND ANALYSIS

The second method of this quantitative research was a trend analysis. By using a trend analysis, we were able to track the rise in popularity of the term “Studio Ghibli”. This method provided insight into both internet search results and how frequently the term appeared in written sources. It gave us a clear picture of how general interest in the studio has grown over time.
We began by examining Google search results. We used the filter tool to measure how often the term “Studio Ghibli” was searched from January 1st, 1984, to December 31st of the same year. This allowed us to see exactly how many search results appeared in the first year after the studio’s creation. During this first year, we found roughly 185 search results. We repeated this process for every year up until 2025. These numbers were then plotted into a graph, allowing us to visualize how frequently the term “Studio Ghibli” was searched throughout the years. We also created a separate graph tracking data up to 2013, which was the year The Wind Rises—the last film included in our sentiment analysis—was released.
In order for our results to be more effective, we also turned to Google Ngram Viewer, a tool that tracks the usage of specific terms in written sources from the 16th century to 2022. With this, we could observe how the term “Studio Ghibli” appeared in written materials from the studio’s founding to 2022. Additionally, we looked at variations like “Hayao Miyazaki” and just “Ghibli,” as these also provided valuable insight into the trends we were investigating.

Results

With this, we could now compare both the sentiment analysis and the rise in search results, which yielded valuable information. Both graphs showing online search results and those tracking written sources clearly indicate a point when these terms began to appear more frequently— marking the moment when Studio Ghibli’s international popularity began to soar. This turning point was 2001, the year Spirited Away was released. It was then clear that this Academy Awardwinning film was the catalyst for the rise in popularity of the studio.
However, there were three other years where we saw a noticeable increase in popularity; the first of these was 2008, when Ponyo was released. This surge is visible in both the graph of online search results from 1984 to 2013 and in the graph tracking written sources. While Spirited Away may have been the film that started Studio Ghibli’s journey toward becoming one of the world’s most popular film studios, the exponential growth accelerated in 2008. This is particularly interesting because Ponyo was only the fourth highest-scoring film in our sentiment analysis. In contrast, the releases of Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle did not produce as strong of a rise in popularity.
An even sharper increase can be seen between 2013 and 2014, when search results for “Studio Ghibli” jumped from 104,000 to about 1,110,000. This was the most surprising result, considering that after the 2014 release of When Marnie Was There, Studio Ghibli didn’t release any new films until 2020. This film was somewhat controversial, as it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki, and marked the studio’s first fully 3D CGI animated movie. A potential reason for the surge is Hayao Miyazaki’s announcement that The Wind Rises would be his last film before retirement, though he returned in 2016 to work on The Boy and the Heron, which was released in 2023. Other factors that might explain the rise, include a growing global interest in anime, the spread of Studio Ghibli’s popularity via social media, re-releases of older films in new countries, and the opening of the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan in 2013.
The last and most significant surge began around 2021—a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. With people spending more time at home due to quarantine restrictions and fewer opportunities for outdoor activities, many sought alternative ways to spend their time. Anime series and films, including those by Studio Ghibli, experienced a massive increase in popularity. From 2021 onward, the number of search results continued to rise rapidly. By 2022, search results surged from 8,680,000 to about 18,000,000. This could also be partially attributed to the release of The Boy and the Heron, which was once again said to be Hayao Miyazaki’s final film before retirement. However, Miyazaki did not retire and is currently working on ideas for yet another movie which we shall gladly look forward to.

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