Studio Ghibli (Japan)

Background
Studio Ghibli, Inc. (株式会社スタジオジブリ, Kabushiki-gaisha Sutajio Jiburi) (formerly known as Topcraft (トップクラフト, Toppukurafuto) until June 15, 1985) is a Japanese animation film studio founded in 1971 by former Toei Animation producer Toru Hara. Under the Topcraft name, the studio was known for the production of Nausicaa and doing hand-drawn animation for Rankin-Bass. It filed for bankruptcy in 1984 (possibly due to the expensive production costs of Nausicaa), which resulted in most of the animators to create a new company called Pacific Animation Corporation, which was renamed to Walt Disney Animation Japan in 1988, and was dissolved in 2004, the animation staff founded another studio known as The Answer Studio Co. Ltd., while the non-animation staff founded The Walt Disney Company Japan. Meanwhile during the studio's bankruptcy, Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata bought the studio and renamed it to its current name. The studio previously was a subsidiary of Tokuma Shoten. The company's logo features the character Totoro from the 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro. Several anime features created by Studio Ghibli have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award including Laputa: Castle in the Sky in 1986, My Neighbor Totoro in 1988, and Kiki's Delivery Service in 1989. In 2002, Spirited Away won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award. However, Studio Ghibli never used this logo until 1991, instead they used "TOKUMA RELEASING PRESENTS" in their films. On August 3, 2014, Hayao Miyazaki (the director) retired, temporarily halting production. However, Miyazaki came out of retirement in February 13, 2017 and announced a new movie, which is currently in production.

(July 20, 1991- )
Nicknames: "Totoro the Forest Spirit", "The My Neighbor Totoro Logo"

Logo: On a blue background, we see a drawing of the character Totoro from the 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro. Another creature is also seen on his head. The Japanese characters "スタジオジブリ作品" are seen on the bottom right, and underneath that is "STUDIO GHIBLI" in Futura, with a line above it.

Variants:
 * After the logo, a Presents screen appears crediting various companies who assisted the production of whatever movie is shown in ether Japanese or English (depending on the print that is used) with a small copyright date on the bottom right.
 * On Earwig and the Witch, the text instead says "AN NHK, NHK ENTERPRISES AND STUDIO GHIBLI CO-PRODUCTION", with the company names in a larger font.
 * On the 1994 Fox Video release of My Neighbor Totoro, the logo fades out and goes straight to the "This film has been modified" screen.
 * Starting with Howl's Moving Castle in 2005, this logo was updated to a light blue background, from the previous dark blue. The text also appears to be bolder. HD masters of Ghibli movies use this version instead of the previous one.
 * On the HD master of Pom Poko (on at least the British Blu-Ray), the image of Totoro is white and looks glitchy. This is very likely an error with the print used.
 * A special variant was seen on the Ghiblies: Episode 2 trailer. The image of Totoro is slightly off-center, then it rotates to reveal a character from the show using a laptop. He removes "ジブリ作品" using his laptop, then reenters it as "ギブリ作品", making it "スタジオギブリ作品" (Sutajio Giburi, an alternate spelling of the Japanese name).
 * On the short Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo, the logo has a red background, is in scope, and has a film effect. It's also positioned to the right.
 * On The Red Turtle, the logo's background is also red, which is to honor the film's titular character itself. The logo is centered compared to the previous one.
 * On the original NHK TV airing of the TV movie Earwig and the Witch, no text appears on the logo, leaving just the Totoro image. The regular version is used on international prints.

FX/SFX: None, except for the fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variants: On the German dubbings of Howl's Moving Castle and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the logo uses the last half of the VIP Media Group music (likely due to a reverse plaster). This oddity can be seen on the Region 2 DVDs of the aforementioned titles.

Availability: Common.
 * Can be seen on Studio Ghibli movies since 1991 starting with Isao Takahata's Only Yesterday, but also put at the beginning of the re-releases of older Ghibli films such as Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service among others.
 * It is also used as a de-facto home video logo on releases of their material since around 2009 (it was also used on the 1994 Fox Video release of My Neighbor Totoro) following the logo for whatever distributor distributes their material (the North American Disney releases however only have their logo). On post-2017-US prints of their back catalog, this logo would be proceeded by the GKIDS Logo.

Editor's Note: Not the best logo in the world, but their movies more than make up for it.