Do you love the Studio Ghibli films?

We do!  Everything from Spirited Away to My Neighbor Totoro to Kiki’s Delivery Service to Whispers of the Heart, it’s all in our list of favorites.  It’s not enough to call these films anime – they are a class of animation all unto themselves.  A combination of storytelling and visual imagery that is a feast for the entire person.  Perhaps it is no surprise then to find that these timeless stories are captured in journals and notecards from Chronicle Books.

Chronicle Books is known for their high quality production (obviously mostly books) and the unique nature of their gift selection.  The line of products they have produced for Studio Ghibli is no exception.  These truly capture the essence of both storytelling and visual imagery associated with Studio Ghibli films – except you get to be the story writer!  With fun journals and beautiful notecards, Chronicle Books brings to life the memories of your favorite animated movies.

The Jiji Plush Journal is soft but not too soft. It’s still definitely a book and easily goes on your shelf

Page illustrations in the plush journal – about four or five different ones so they are not all the same

Interior artwork from the plush journal

Interior two-page spread from the concept art journal

There are two different types of journals available – a plush journal and a concept art journal.  The plush journal is a hardback journal with a plush cover and comes with Cat Bus, Totoro, or Jiji on the cover.  The inside front and back covers have beautiful full color images from each of their respective films and the interior pages have small single color images peppered throughout the book.  The softback journal has a cardboard-like cover and is slightly smaller, but has inside 4 randomly scattered pages of concept-art from the films.  This one comes with images from either Kiki’s Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro.

The box containing the beautiful notecards

How adorable is this? The pop-up inside the notecard (all 5 are different)

The front of one of the five different notecards in the collection.

My personal favorite is the My Neighbor Totoro Pop-Up Notecards!  It comes with 10 notecards (2 each of 5 different styles) along with envelopes.  And while the cover art is beautiful, the fun is on the inside when your friend or family opens it up and sees this adorable pop-up straight from the film!  With vibrant colors and iconic images from the movie, every Totoro fan will be delighted to receive one of these.  It comes in a cute box with a snap-closed lid (still trying to figure out how they do that).  Really beautiful gift for that Studio Ghibli fan in your life.

You can discover these gems for yourself at many fine retailers, but you can also order them directly from the Chronicle Books website or visit one of their two locations in San Francisco (including a beautiful shop at their corporate headquarters near Oracle Park).

Thank you Chronicle Books for providing me with these samples for review!  We loved each and every one!!!