Are the museum and the park the same thing?
No, and this is the most common confusion by a wide margin. The Ghibli Museum is a small museum in Mitaka, western Tokyo, open since 2001. Ghibli Park is a large outdoor site in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture, near Nagoya, open since 2022. They are roughly 350 km apart, they are run separately, and admission to one has nothing to do with the other. The park's own website warns visitors about the mix-up.
If I can only do one?
| You want | Go to |
|---|---|
| To understand how animation is made | The museum |
| To walk into recreated film locations | The park |
| A half-day inside a Tokyo trip | The museum |
| A full day with children who love the films | The park |
| To see short films screened nowhere else | Either — both have a cinema for them |
How does admission work?
Both sites are advance-reservation only, both are date and time specific, and neither sells at the door. Beyond that I deliberately do not publish procedures here, because they change and because a stale instruction is worse than none. Use each site's own official pages. I am not affiliated with either and nothing on this site is sold or booked through me.
What order should I watch the films in?
Any. There is no continuity between films, no shared universe, and no sequels of consequence. The films page lays out four different starting orders depending on who is watching.
Which ones are safe for young children?
Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and The Cat Returns are gentle. Spirited Away has genuinely frightening sequences early on. Princess Mononoke is violent, with severed limbs and visible blood. Grave of the Fireflies is a film about two children dying and is not a children's film in any sense, regardless of its animation.
Dub or subtitles?
Both are legitimate. The English dubs from the late nineties onward are well cast and carefully supervised. For readers under about nine, use the dub. My own preference is subtitles, mainly because dubbing tends to fill silences that the original left empty on purpose.
Where can I watch them in the US?
Most of the catalogue has streamed on one major American service since 2020, and licensed physical media exists for the whole run. Grave of the Fireflies is licensed separately from the rest and frequently sits on a different platform. Rights move; check a current listing rather than trusting a page written months ago.
Has Miyazaki retired?
He has announced retirement from feature directing more than once and has un-retired each time, most recently to make The Boy and the Heron, released in 2023. He is in his eighties. Anything beyond that is speculation, and there is a great deal of confident speculation online.
Is there a new film coming?
The studio does not pre-announce much and has released films with almost no marketing. New short work has appeared for the park's cinema. For anything else, wait for the studio itself rather than an aggregator.
Who owns Studio Ghibli now?
Nippon Television Network became the majority shareholder in September 2023, making Ghibli a subsidiary. The founders' account of it centres on succession — no obvious internal candidate to take over the company. The studio history covers this in more detail.
What about the AI images that look like Ghibli films?
Not something this site covers or hosts. I will say only that a house style is the accumulated labour of specific people, many of them named in the credits, and that Miyazaki's recorded views on machine-generated animation are not ambiguous.
I think you got something wrong.
Good. Tell me, and if you can point at a source I will correct the page and note the change. Dates and opening arrangements are exactly the sort of thing that goes stale.