In 2022 Hayao Miyazaki’s iconic film Studio Ghibli, Known for making Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, will officially open the world’s first anime theme park in Aichi Commemorative Park near Nagoya.
The Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park is located in Nagakute City in Aichi Prefecture. The former fairgrounds already host a scale model of the house from Miyazaki’s 1984 film My Neighbour Totoro. The basic design of the Ghibli park reveals children riding on the possessed boar from Princess Mononoke, a teacup ride printed with Jiji the cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service, a mysterious building labeled “Catbus,” and a towering replica of the intricate castle from Howl’s Moving Castle. The castle will be the entrance to the park, sucking visitors inside with “steampunk elevators” that will offer a sweeping view of the rest of the attractions.
Studio Ghibli already operates a popular museum in the outskirts of Tokyo since 2001. Thousands of tourists flock to the Studio’s Tokyo-based museum every year to get the most immersive possible experience of their films. This new theme park aims to follow its success. It’ll eventually encompass five themed areas, each paying tribute to Ghibli’s most iconic projects. Opening in autumn 2022 will be areas paying tribute to Youth Hill, partly based on Howl’s Moving Castle; Dondoko Forest, based on My Neighbor Totoro; and a Great Ghibli Warehouse. A Mononoke Village, based on Princess Mononoke, and a Valley of the Witch area, themed on both Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle, will open a year later.