Studio Ghibli is going to be giving Universal Studios Japan a run for its money in the next holiday season. The world-renowned anime studio's official Twitter account has that its namesake theme park will open on November 1.
According to , Ghibli Park will be located in Nagakute, the city that hosted the 2005 World's Fair, sitting 90 miles east of Kyoto and 150 miles west of Tokyo. The park has been under construction since its plans were initially announced in 2017.
To celebrate the announcement of the opening date for Ghibli Park, Studio Ghibli collaborated with the Aichi Tourism Bureau to create an ad starring a girl who explores the numerous beautiful landmarks of the Aichi Prefecture. One of those landmarks is a life-size recreation of Satsuki and Mei's house from My Neighbor Totoro, which was already built for the World's Fair. A local government official said that the house will be the first section of the park to open up this year, adding that visitors will be able to go inside a statue built in the shape and likeness of Totoro behind the house, according to .
The Ghib♊li Twitter account also showed off pictures of a few buildings that are currently under construction. The first one shows the construction of an antique shop from Whispers of the Heart, and the other shows the centerpiece and woodꦡ chippings being built into the Great Ghibli Warehouse.
The local government official also added that two other areas of the park inspired by Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle will open up next year, but that ticket sale information is not yet available.
The opening of Ghibli Park will come over two years after 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo opened its own theme park at Universal Studios Japan. Super Nintendo World was originally set to open in July 2020, but COVID-19 pushed the opening date back to March 18, 2021. That park will now be expanding to other Universal parks stateside, starting with Universal Hollywood sometime this year, followed by Universal Orlando Resort in 2025. Let's pray to Totoro that the opening of Ghibli Park doesn't suffer any pandemic-related delays.