The following gallery is a condensed version of my honors thesis: Recreating the Magic of Ghibli. The year long project is focused on recreating five of Studio Ghibli’s animated films through costuming, set design, and photography. Keeping with the spirit of the honors thesis, I melded my professional and personal interests (photography and cosplay) to create a still growing gallery of images. Photographs range from personal interpretations of the films and their characters, to close replicas of actual film stills.
Four of five films are featured here as follows: Howl’s Moving Castle, The Cat Returns, Ponyo, and Kiki’s Delivery Service.
The animated adaptation of Dianna Wynne Jones’ novel, Howl’s Moving Castle, follows the remarkable journey of a self-proclaimed unremarkable girl, Sophie after she is caught up in the magical world of an infamous wizard. The lake photos were taken at Hidden Lake, a manmade lake in Buckeye, with the other images taken around my mother’s house. Sophie’s entire outfit was handmade (from the blue dress to the cane), while Markls green suit was thrifted and altered, and Howl’s ensemble purchased premade.
The night shoot with old Sophie proved particularly difficult of the three pictured, balancing the cold, the candle, and the fan that keping blowing the former out.
The Cat Returns follows the misadventures of highschooler, Haru, after she unwittingly saves the prince of the cat kingdom and must deal with their subsequent gifts to her. These photos were photographed across the state from Prescott to Bisbee. Haru’s uniform was thrifted and generously altered by her model.
The most difficult shoot of the bunch was the Baron’s home, where the miniature house was recreated from posterboard and foam, meticulously painted, and furnished with American Girl Doll furniture. The built took almost a week to complete between the scaling, painting, gluing, assembling and more, but the effort paid off in a set piece I haven’t seen online yet.
The film Ponyo follows a magical goldfish, Ponyo, and her journey alongside Sosuke, the boy who saves her. These shoots were the first prepared and completed, involving wig dying, styling, and some of the more involved sets furnished with thrifted finds in my mother’s garage. Both Ponyo’s wig and dress had to be altered and custom dyed, and several days were spent scouring secondhand shops for ramen bowls, green mugs, and Sosuke’s green lamp.
The final kiss shot was the trickiest, attempting to mirror the look and angle without extensive editing and without putting either model at risk. In the end, we had to shoot on a rooftop with Ponyo leaning over a ladder, Sosuke standing on a foot stool and me crouching and shooting up.
Finally, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a coming of age story about burnout that centers around the young witch Kiki, and her finding her way away from home. This film required more traveling, with images shot in Bisbee, Tucson and Scottsdale. Kiki’s bow was handmade and both dresses altered and dyed to fit the character. Her broom was another large crafting project, made from a thrifted broom and fake plants.
The trickiest shoot was her night flight with the low lighting and floating illusion (with the help of a rickety stool), but I take personal pride in the Kiki cake. To avoid baking and having to frost one in the photo studio, I opted to frost a metal tin instead, and made the decorations from foam clay (colored with acrylic).
Special thanks to Paige Hill, Grey Trotter, Leo Effendi, Ry Reager, Katrina Thu, Jordan, Kari Hofer, Chad Westover, and Tony Julius for your contributions to this project. I could not have managed these images (and more) without your goodwill and help.
