Portal:Studio Ghibli

Tomomi Mochizuki (望月 智充, Mochizuki Tomomi, born December 31, 1958 in Hokkaidō, Japan), sometimes incorrectly romanized as Tomomichi Mochizuki, is an anime director and producer. He is married to animator Masako Gotō and sometimes uses the alias Gō Sakamoto (坂本 郷, Sakamoto Gō) when writing screenplays or working on storyboards. Known from the early 1990s as director of Ranma ½, Kimagure Orange Road and the Studio Ghibli TV movie Umi ga Kikoeru, he is also known for having directed Twin Spica, Zettai Shounen, the acclaimed World Masterpiece Theater series Porphy no Nagai Tabi, and most recently as director of the 2010 noitaminA series House of Five Leaves.

While attending Waseda University, he joined the Waseda University Animation Association. In 1981, he began working for Ajia-do Animation Works. Mochizuki made his debut one year later when he acted as production director of the 1982 series Tokimeki Tonight. He went on to direct several of the magical girl series, including Magical Angel Creamy Mami. In 1986, he moved up to chief director with Hikari no Densetsu. He currently divides his time between directing, writing scripts and acting as a series coordinator for various shows.

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Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, lit. "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away") is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film stars Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takeshi Naito, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono and Bunta Sugawara, and tells the story of Chihiro Ogino (Hiiragi), a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, enters the spirit world. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba (Natsuki), Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and return to the human world.

Miyazaki wrote the script, and with a budget of US$19 million, production of Spirited Away began in 2000. Pixar director John Lasseter, a fan of Miyazaki, was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to supervise an English-language translation for the film's North American release. Lasseter hired Kirk Wise as director and Donald W. Ernst as producer of the adaptation. Screenwriters Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt wrote the English-language dialogue, which they wrote to match the characters' original Japanese-language lip movements.

The film was released on July 20, 2001, and became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing about $330 million worldwide. The film overtook Titanic (at the time the top grossing film worldwide) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history with a ¥30.4 billion total. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday) and is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

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Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (玉繭物語, Tamamayu Monogatari, literally "The Story of the Jade Cocoon") is a video game for the Sony PlayStation, released by Crave in 1998. The game combines elements of role-playing video games and virtual pet management. It was developed by Genki in collaboration with Katsuya Kondō, character designer for the Studio Ghibli movies Kiki's Delivery Service and I Can Hear the Sea.

Jade Cocoon is set in a world where most of the land is covered in dense forest; populated by bizarre, mostly bug-like monsters called Minions. The only safe havens are small villages, one of which is the home of the protagonist, Levant. Levant is a young Cocoon Master, whose job is to capture and purify the Minions. The Minions can then be used to fight and defend Levant, spun into silk for money, or fused with other Minions to form more powerful combinations.

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