Portal:Studio Ghibli

Kazuo Oga (男鹿 和雄, Oga Kazuo, born 29 February 1952, in Akita Prefecture, Japan) is an art director and background artist for many Madhouse Studio and Studio Ghibli anime films, Oga worked with major directors Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Osamu Dezaki. He also published two artbooks and directed a short animated film.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tokyo, Japan sponsored an exhibition called Kazuo Oga – The Man Who Drew Totoro's Forest from July 21, 2007 through September 30, 2007. A documentary about this exhibition Oga Kazuo Exhibition: Ghibli No Eshokunin - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest (ジブリの絵職人　男鹿和雄展　トトロの森を描いた人) was released on DVD and Blu-ray.

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Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film scripted and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is based on the novel of the same name by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. Mamoru Hosoda, director of one episode and two movies from the Digimon series, was originally selected to direct but abruptly left the project, leaving the then-retired Miyazaki to take up the director's role.

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2004, and was released in Japanese theaters on November 20, 2004. It went on to gross $190 million in Japan and $235 million worldwide, making it one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history. The film was later dubbed into English by Pixar's Peter Docter and distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. It received a limited release in the United States and Canada beginning June 10, 2005 and was released nationwide in Australia on September 22 and in the United Kingdom the following September. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006.

Wynne Jones's novel allows Miyazaki to combine a plucky young woman and a mother figure into a single character in the heroine, Sophie. She starts out as an 18-year-old hat maker, but then a witch's curse transforms her into a 90-year-old grey-haired woman. Sophie is horrified by the change at first. Nevertheless, she learns to embrace it as a liberation from anxiety, fear and self-consciousness.

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Gauche the Cellist (セロ弾きのゴーシュ, Sero Hiki no Gōshu, also transliterated Gorsch the Cellist or Goshu the Cellist) is a short story by the Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa. It is about Gauche, a struggling small town cellist who is inspired by his interactions with anthropomorphized animals to gain insight into music. The story has been translated into English, Italian and Spanish, and was adapted into a critically acclaimed anime in 1982 by Isao Takahata. It had previously been adapted to the screen several times.

Gauche is a diligent but mediocre cellist who plays for a small town orchestra The Venus Orchestra (金星音楽団, Kinsei Ongaku Dan) and the local cinema in the early 20th century. He struggles during rehearsals and is often berated by his conductor during preparations for an upcoming performance of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony (the Pastoral Symphony). Over the course of four nights, Gauche is visited at his mill house home by talking animals as he is practicing.

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