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And So It Begins

Watch the Trailer for Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo, Studio Ghibli’s First Foray Into Live-Action

by Alanna Bennett | 1:15 pm, July 30th, 2012


Studio Ghibli is perhaps one of the most famed animation houses in the world. Animation being the key word. The studio has never done a live-action film–until now. Their first will be the short film Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo, which will be directed by Neon Genesis Evangelion director Hideaki Anno, and the trailer of which can be watched above. The film–which was created entirely without CGI and in the style of old-school Japanese sci-fi–will feature creatures from Hayao Miyazaki‘s 1984 animated film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä focused on the title character’s struggle with “a kingdom that tries to use an ancient weapon to eradicate a jungle of giant mutant insects,” and was considered to be a landmark start for the studio.

It’ll be interesting to see where the studio goes with the possibilities of live action. We will say this: With their extensive use of miniatures, the trailer for their first foray into it already looks pretty impressive.

(via Twitch Film)

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  • http://profiles.google.com/fluffywarthog1029 m h

    So, it’s a Nausicaa prequel that feels like an NGE tie-in. The Giant God Warriors are identical to the “most evil thing ever created” in Nausicaa, and an army of unstoppable, organic/metaphysical robots getting turned against the world comes right out of the words of every single character from NGE at one point or another (esp. Misato)

    So….basically the coolest thing ever.

  • Kaarel Jakobson

    As I understand it, Anno has wanted to do a sequel or other kind of Nausicaa-related project for a long time, ever since working on the movie…

  • http://twitter.com/kupocake Steph Woor

    Always wondered: were the production team of the animated Iron Giant inspired by Nausicaa in any way? Obviously the Ted Hughes book (The Iron Man) was the basis for the book, but AFAIK, the war-machine loses its memory / giant turns good thing is the film’s invention… except it’s basically what happens in Nausicaa. Manga Nausicaa, anyhow.

  • Terence Ng

    It felt a lot more like Evangelion than Nausicca until I saw the walking army with the spears. Chills. Looks exciting!

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    “The film–which was created entirely without CGI”

    Baloney.

  • http://jinian.livejournal.com/ Jinian

    … is it actually April?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=597171283 Lisa Still Smouldering

    Yeah, the God-Warriors look A LOT like Evas, but they actually DID come first so…hmm. A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN! (Ghibli and Anno, I mean :D )

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=597171283 Lisa Still Smouldering

    I would say green/blue screens, and perhaps some post-pro clean up, but I can totally see it. Would still like a good look at the God-Warrior suit tho!

  • Anonymous

    That scene actually reminded me of the mass production EVA units.

  • Anonymous

    Look at images of an Evangelion unit without its armor and the connection will be even more obvious.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=597171283 Lisa Still Smouldering

    Oh believe me, I know what they look like. WOWZA!

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