Welcome to Totoroland! Well, not exactly …
First things first: The Ghibli Park opened on November 1 as the only theme park dedicated to Studio Ghibli‘s movies, but don’t expect it to be Ghibliland or the Magic Kingdom at Hayao Miyazaki World. Ghibli Park’s head Goro Miyazaki — the son of studio founder Hayao Miyazaki and an anime director in his own right — made that clear: It is not a traditional amusement park, so no thrill rides or costumed mascots. (Although plenty of fans do come cosplaying as Nausicaä, Laputa‘s Pazu and Sheeta, Kiki, Spirited Away‘s Chihiro, and so on.)
Instead, the builders dreamt of a park where grownups and children can wander and explore at their own pace, making discoveries on their own. To that end, the builders erected Ghibli Park in an actual park—the green, growing kind where visitors can well, touch grass.
The existing…
