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Beautiful set of 24 Ghibli anime memo pads returns, will have you wanting to take notes by hand

Casey Baseel May 4, 2024
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Whether you’re a fan of My Neighbor Totoro or My Neighbors the Yamadas, there’s a memo pad for you.

Since its founding, Studio Ghibli has chosen to focus its creative energies on theatrical anime, generally producing just one film every few years. Even with this quality-over-quantity philosophy, tough, the tremendous talent of its artists has resulted in a huge quantity of high-quality films from the studio.

There’s really only one drawback to this, which is that when a line of Ghibli merchandise gets released, there’s usually only room for a handful of films to be represented, leaving out a lot of beloved classics. But Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku wants to make sure any and all Ghibli fans can get in on the fun with its stylish illustrated memo pads, with a gigantic lineup covering 24 different titles.

The collection, which is being reissued after being out of stock for some time, starts all the way back with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the very first anime film from the artists who would go on to form Studio Ghibli (though at the time of the film’s release in 1984 they were still calling themselves Topcraft). From there, the notepads go forward through decades of Ghibli history, with the illustration for each anime movie also bearing its year of theatrical release.

1988’s Grave of the Fireflies isn’t included, which is usually the case with merchandise as the film’s rights aren’t owned by Ghibli. With the exception of 2023’s The Boy and the Heron, though, every other Ghibli theatrical anime is part of the collection, including The Red Turtle and Ghiblies Episode 2, the theatrical short that played before the start of The Cat Returns.

Even Ghibli’s two TV special anime, Ocean Waves and Earwig and the Witch, have pads.

And don’t worry, these aren’t memo pads with an illustrated cover but blank pages on which to actually write, as the artwork appears on every page.

There’s even a bit of eye-catching retro linguistic quirkiness, as the anime’s Japanese titles are written with their text arranged from right to left, which is an allowable way in which to write Japanese but also one that’s been almost entirely pushed aside by left-to-right or top-to-bottom reading orders in the modern era.

Measuring 7.5 centimeters (2.95 inches) square, the pads give you enough space to jot down meaningful messages or notes, while still being compact enough that you won’t feel like you’re wasting paper for using them for sub-essay-length missives. Each pad has 50 sheets, and at 550 yen (US$3.50) through the Donguri Kyowakoku online shop here, they make great souvenirs for others or impulse buys for yourself.

However, if you’re buying just one, the design you get is randomized. Alternatively, Donguri Kyowakoku is offering a complete set of all 24 pad for 13,200 yen here. That may sound like a lot to drop on notepads all at once, but the upside is that with so many beloved anime films in the bundle, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a few fellow Ghibli fan friends to split the bundle with.

Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku
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