An Anime Journey: Studio Ghibli Layout Exhibition, in Seoul

Ok so I'm back from the Ghibli exhibit and all I can say is that I had a great time. It may not have been the most peaceful or relaxed museum visit I have been to but the exhibit was great. The broucher said there were something like 1300 layouts and something and boy were there a lot. Anyway now I'll recount my experience:

The ticket and small guide book. They look way cooler than any movie ticket you might get. Why??? Cos its Ghibli bitch!!

So I arrive at this museum, I don't understand any Korean but somehow find my way to the place where they sell tickets and point to the sign behind and say Ghibli (everything I say in Korea I hope people understand because he majority don't speak english and those that do find my accent hard as it's not American). I get the tickets and a waiting number, something like absurd and try to find the exhibit. Of course I don't follow the signs but the people in front of me who are actually going to a cafe but I see stickers of Susuwatari (those little black soot spiders in Totoro and Spirited Away) which lead me upstairs and to the exhibit. I had a quick nip into the giftshop before a wee wait and into the exhibit. I didn't have the patience to get a picture with the a cospay of the "Faceless Spirit" from Spirited Away nor to get a picture holding a bucket with Ponyo in it. I'm not one for pictures of myself.

Thanks to the Susuwatari. Without your guidance I might still be lost in the museum.

Ok so inside the first room was not so interesting, it was basically just the small guide book they gave us on the walls, so telling you what "pan" and "book" meant and why they were written on the layout. This was connected to a room with one picture from each movie in it. It was basically a taster for what was to come. It had the pictures that they show on websites and will promote with. It was connected to a room with layouts from Nausicaa. Many pictures of each of the characters and some of the more famous scenes. There were some cool pictures but the best bit had to be this three layout display which showed three pictures of Nausicaa's wind-glider blasting off and then above it was a monitoring showing the scene the drawings created... very cool.

Not a very exciting photo, but this was what the first room was like..... don't worry the pictures will get better, I hope.

Then it was onto the real exhibit. The first portion was based on Miyazaki's early works from 1986-92: Laputa, Porco Rosso, Kiki and of course Totoro. It was done in chronological order and again had framed pictures at chest height and arrows guided a line of people around all the layouts. There is not much to say about the singlie pictures other than that they very cool. I ddi get told off for taking pictures at this point. I think the museum staff memeber realised it was a genuine mistake and didn't do anything other than tell me off (I can't read Korena and there were no images of cameras with lines throguh them in my defense). It was really nice to be able to see these pictures in order and remember the scene and even remember the whole plot of the movie just by walking though a room. Again the coolest bits were multiple drawings with a monitoring showing the scenes they inspired. There was one of Laputa flying away after the final battle per se, one of Totoro calling for the cat bus thing, but the most impressive had to be the rather large drawing of an intersection where Kiki would fly through and the camera would follow her around the corner... sooo awesome. Also I think there were a couple of layouts from On Your Mark. I also think Ocean Waves and Whisper of the Heart were tacked on the end of this room but they didn't have many layouts.

Not the best angle I'm sure, but this is the layout of Totoro calling the cat-bus that was animated on a nearby monitor.

On to the next bit and this was a look at Takahata's works now. This section was fairly abandoned., I think mostly due to the fact Miyazaki's works overshadow Takahata's ones. This both saddened me but at the same time I could look at some picutres without feeling cramped in by all these couples (not so nice when you're alone). It had layouts from Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko, Only Yesterday and My Neighbours the Yamadas. Again it was more of the same although there was only one animated piece on a monitor and this was from Neighbours the Yamadas, which I was disappointed about. Takahata's section paled in comparison to Miyazaki's one in terms of quantity. I think this was just a biproduct of Miyazaki's films being more inventive in terms of creating wierd and wonderful creatures and places, like Totoro or Laputa.

Didn't have a good pic of Takahata's layouts so I just thought I'd give some space to what I think is one of the best animated films of all time, Grave of the Fireflies.

However, the next part was breathe-taking. It displayed what could be seen as the golden period of Ghibli productions, 1997-2005. It had the more famous Ghibli films Spirited Away, Howl, Mononoke and the underrated The Cat Returns. The first room had a collection of Mononoke layouts. Individual pictures were placed on the outside walls and told the story and in the centre of the room was a glass table with several of the more famous shots inside. This led onto the Spirited Away room. Here three walls were completely filled with pictures (they had done away with the frames and like pinned them to corkboards behind glass it seemed) and an interview with Miyazaki which I couldn't understand (even with the immensely helpful Korean subs). There were so many pictures I wnet through the sort of parade of looking at them 3 times just so I could see all of them properly. This led into a corridor recreating the corridor leading up to Yubaba's office, which I didnt much care for. The Cat Returns got its own few pictures leading up to the final of Ghibli's big three, Howl's Moving Castle. This was sort of set out like the Mononoke room but it had an animated piece of the castle walking like the other monitors.

The Room for Spirited Away died down but man were there a lot of pictures to see here.

The movies that were produced later than Howl were given some attention but not much. Earthsea had several pictures, Ponyo too had barely ten but it did have a cool animated piece and a really nice colourful painting of a background on display. This then led into a room, far too big for however many pictures it contained, showing the stuff Miyazaki and Takahata had worked on prior to Ghibli or rather prior to Nausicaa. There were maybe one, two or three at most layouts from things like Lupin III, Heidi A Girl of the Alps, Sherlock Hound, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, Conan, Downtown Story and maybe a few before. I had not seen any of these to be honest but at least it gives me some ideas of what to look for on a boring weekend. Anyway the last wee bit had again no more than ten pictures from each Poppy Hill and Arreitty. Although I was dissappointed by this I was surpised to see a few layouts from Miyazaki's newest film The Wind Rises as well as a poster for that and Takahata's 2013 project The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

Ghibli's two newest films. So so so so hyped for this!!!!!

You would think this would be the end of the exhibit but it was not. Well actually it was but there were two important rooms I visited afterwards. First this really cool room that had a neat idea and just ran with it. Basically there were tables with stickes (blank stickers) and vivids. You were encouraged to write or draw and message and stick it on the wall. This room was packed. Coming on one of the last days this rooms looked amazing, all the walls of what was a fairly large room were covered with these stickers. It was just amazing to see. In the middle of the room was this optical trick thing where if you took a picture from the right angle you would look like you're on Totoro's belly. Again cool but I have no desire for selfies. The last thing I had to do on this day trip was vist the gift store. It was packed more with people just looking at stuff, because there was everything there: plushies, figurines, puzzles, playing cards, calendars, notebooks, postcards, a lot of expensive porcelain stuff I think, books, CDs and most important of all prints of some of the layouts. I just had to buy these, and the book of course. I will post a follow blog with pictures of all the prints I got and I got quite a few.

So This is what I mean by the final room had such a wicked idea that was really well executed.

So overall it was a really fun day out and well worth the 15000won it cost to get in. I throughly enjoyed the day and it has inspired me to rewatch all the Ghibli films and I shall be reviewing them on this blog in chronological order, because why the hell not.

Tops:

- Remembering all the films that I love. It was great to go through the pictures and remember the film. Especially for Mononoke, I love that movie.

- Thinking I am soo close to something that is potentially hand drawn by Miyazaki himself. Seeing things like tape residue that had discoloured certain bits of the paper really stood out to me. I was there next to the things that had created this masterpieces. It was almost like being in the Capitoline Museum again, almost.

-Huge extensive collection of drawings from what are definitely the best films Ghibli has made: Mononoke, Howl and Spirited Away. These films had absolutely massive rooms and for good reason. They were packed but the layouts were so cool. The concepts deserved such attention.

- The last room with stickers and messages. Such a cool idea and man if I could read Korean I would have spend ages there. So many cool little fan drawings and stuff, really great idea.

- The prints on sale. Look out for the next post for pictures of these but there were so many that were so cool I just had to get them.

My receipt for the stuff I bought. Check out the next post for pics.

Slops:

- Not being able to take pictures. I understand the reasons for it but really who cares. No one's going to steal the ideas and do something like make a film, it's already been done. they probably just want to sell more books, and I'll tell you what, they found one sucker right here. A happy sucker though.

- The fucking heat. It was crowded, Seoul is hot at the moment, and there was little evidence of any aircon systems for whatever reason. By god was it hot. Well maybe it wasn't too bad but it still could have been better.

- Crowds. When something is this popular I suppose I shouldn't complain when I am one of the faceless shlubs in the crowd but man why did they have to be there when I was.