As part of a series of cultural events arranged for international students, a tour of the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka was conducted on Friday, October 25, 2019.

Despite the unfortunate weather, the participants’ faces lit up with excitement once they got their admission tickets and stepped into the world of Ghibli that spreads out inside the museum.

The participants lining up for admission to the museum

First, Project Associate Professor Ilan Nguyen of the Global Support Center, who specializes in animation history, gave an explanation about the Ghibli Museum. Then, the participants visited the permanent exhibition room “The Beginning of Movement” on the base floor. In this room, you can learn about the mechanism of movement and depth of space created by animation by viewing various techniques on actual displays.

After wandering through the room “The Beginning of Movement,” the group moved to the video exhibition room named “The Saturn Theater” and watched a short video called “Mon Mon the Water Spider.” Even without dialogue, the story was well told, and the ways the water and creatures move were depicted in a very lively way.

Each unique admission ticket to the theater contained three celluloid frames of scenes from a Ghibli film. While waiting to enter the theater, the students enjoyed comparing their tickets with other students’ to see which animation scenes they have on their tickets.

The permanent exhibition room on the first floor, “Where a Film is Born,” showcases techniques and the actual process of creating an animated film, demonstrating examples of actual work, such as storyboard drawings. The participants were able to learn a lot about animation from listening to Associate Professor Ilan Nguyen’s explanations and actively engaging in discussions where many questions were asked.

In the exhibition room “Painting the Colors of Our Films,” the students could see all the colors on celluloid drawings that were actually used for a film. The exhibition explains how different colors are used for bringing touches of reality to each scene. For example, different colors are selected for expressing the character’s emotions, or for depicting the time and place of the story. Again, many questions were asked of Associate Professor Ilan Nguyen.

It had almost stopped raining by the time everyone had finished viewing the exhibitions, and everyone could go out onto the rooftop garden.

At the rooftop garden

Many of the students expressed how interesting and fun the museum tour was.

We hope this tour enhanced their learning experiences in many ways.

(Global Support Center / International Affairs Division)