Ghibli are a small studio who undertake a feature length every project every couple of years. Big boss and genius behind the operation, Miyazaki Hayao knows that each production could be their last if it doesn’t strike gold. Luckily for them Ghibli movies usually do.

Ghibli is reknowned for working in a fairly old fashioned way. The artists still place a great emphasis on character development and they painstakingly hand-painted every frame of their latest masterwork 崖の上のポニヨ (gake no ue no ponyo - “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea”). A Ghibli movie’s animation is of incredibly high quality from the first moment to the last.

None of the static frames and camera pans that pass for animation in its cheaper and tackier TV brethren here. Ghibli avoid tendency to animate only an unrealistically flapping mouth while the rest of the character remains conspicuously motionless. Ghibli’s characters puff and breath, they blow in the breeze and their hair isn’t molded in concrete. We live in an age where magic is in short supply and the production of creative content is considered a chore that is outsourced to the third world. In this context Ghibli are playing by their own rules.

They are resisting the worst excesses of advanced capitalism (massive publicity pushes and sub-standard product). The are playing this risky game well and are being rewarded for being one of the only elements of the culture industry in Japan that is committed to quality. Quality of animation. Quality of production. Quality of philosophy. Ghibli art-books rank alongside… well, reality as one of the ultimate resources that aspiring illustrators turn to. Their characters live in the memory and the heart behind Ghibli’s movies is startling and seems almost anachronistic in an era where the default voice for all media is bristling sarcasm and pessimism.

In that context, Ghibli art-books are a very special phenomenon. To anyone who appreciates film, design, illustration, animation and perhaps, to a lesser extent, Japan, they are as important a part of enjoying the release of a new Ghibli movie as the movie itself. For example Ghibli movie backgrounds are painted in a high art style. They are surprisingly realistic and gilted with the most glorious details you’d be hard push to catch when being swept out with the narrative tide.

Given the time to appreciate these sumptuous paintings you may just started to reassess your understanding of the Studio Ghibli style. You come to realise that the juxtaposition of stylistically minimal main characters, playing out a drama against a background of near-impossible artistic detail is one of the things that make Miyazaki’s movies such a visual treat and that Kazuo Oga has long had a large part to play in that.

If you’re yet to add a Ghibli artbook to your bookshelf or coffee table, it goes without saying that yours is a distinctly incomplete collection. If you’ve already grown to know and love Ghibli’s artbooks, rest assured that this gem will take pride of place in your collection.