Studio Ghibli Theme Park Adds Life-Sized Howl’s Moving Castle

Japan’s bringing the worlds of Hayao Miyazaki’s animations to life with their Studio Ghibli Theme Park, out 2022. To this end, they’ve shown off the life-sized recreation of Howl’s Moving Castle.

We know this via budget reports for Aichi Prefecture, where the Studio Ghibli theme park will be located. According to Tokyo Shimbun, 12 Billion Yen has been allocated for the park,  with two areas having started construction.

The first one is the Witch’s Valley, which features a stationary version of Howl’s Moving Castle. Sadly, unlike its namesake the attraction won’t move. It will stand 5 stories tall, and will feature moving cannons as well as a reproduction of Howl’s room. The report says that it will also include restaurants and a garden as well.

Although no images were given, the report also mentions the construction of a Princess Mononoke area. This will feature a recreation of Irontown, also known as Tatara. They haven’t described the attraction in detail, but the site mentions that it will function to teach guests about Japanese steelworks.

Japan has never been one to shy away from acknowledging the role of animation in modern pop culture. Popular icons like Godzilla and Gundam have all gotten big attractions, often funded by the Japanese Government to encourage tourism.

Unlike the Nintendo-themed park in Universal Studios, however, Studio Ghibli have said their park would not have rides in the traditional sense.

Studio Ghibli’s works are an important part of modern Japanese culture, with characters like Totoro and No Face being recognizable pop culture icons. Many of the studio’s popular works are also available to watch on Netflix, in case you wanted to catch up before the park’s planned launch in 2022.