One of the biggest highlights and delights when watching any Studio Ghibli animated film has got to be the wonderful background art; the animation itself is always captivating for sure, but it is the background art that sets the stage and mood, enabling the characters to live out their stories. As such, background art paintings play an absolutely vital role in the animation filmmaking process.

This giant tome published by PIE International – ‘Painting The Worlds Of Studio Ghibli’ ( スタジオジブリの美術 ) is a grand celebration of the studio’s voluminous collection of background art, spanning 27 films from Nausicaa to The Boy And The Heron, with over 840 pieces of art spread across 568 pages. Indeed, this is one of the biggest Ghibli art books ever published, rivaled only by the 2 volume Hayao Miyazaki And The Ghibli Museum as well as the Studio Ghibli Layout Designs art book.

It is worth noting that although most of the art work featured in this book have also appeared in the individual ‘Art Of’ books for each of the respective films, this consolidated collection allows the viewer to enjoy them in one single, uninterrupted reading. One notable exception are the background art for the animated MTV for Japanese pop duo Chage & Aska’s ‘On Your Mark’; to the best of my knowledge, it has never been featured in any previous art book before, and another good reason to pick up this book.

Also included is an interview art director Yoji Takeshige 武重洋二 ( My Neighbor Totoro / On Your Mark / Summer Wars / The Boy And The Heron ) that can be found at the end of the book ( see preview image further below )

This is a positively sumptuous volume that reminds us why we love the films of Studio Ghibli so much; the showcased background art is pure eye-candy from cover to cover. It is a pretty costly book at $85 USD, but the impressive contents are well worth the price. I give it my very highest recommendations; in fact, it easily earns the first spot on my list of fav art books of 2025 post that I will pen at the end of this year.

Note for international readers – This ‘Japanese’ edition of the book is actually bilingual with both Japanese and English captions included. There is an English edition of the book that will be released on October 7th 2025, but it is MUCH MORE costly than this edition at a whopping $170 USD. In my opinion, it makes little sense to go for the English edition because it will almost certainly be identical in content. Even factoring in shipping fees, getting this ‘Japanese’ edition will still be a much better deal and value.

Availability – At the time of publishing this post, the book is sold out on both Amazon Japan as well as CDJapan. For those keen to get a copy, do check back on the purchase link pages often in case the book is re-stocked.

“Painting The Worlds Of Studio Ghibli スタジオジブリの美術” art book details :

Dimensions – 30.5 x 22 x 3.5 cm
Hardcover, 568 pages
Full color, In Japanese & English

  
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