Good news, fans of Studio Ghibli! There’s going to be a theme park based on the company’s iconic 1988 animation My Neighbor Totoro. I know right. It is kind of long overdue and finally, theme park goers will have a choice other than Disney and all-thing Hollywood. Studio Ghibli’s producer, Toshio Suzuki, and Aichi governor, Hidaeki Omura, jointly announced this exciting news at a press conference a couple of days ago. Details are still pretty scant at this point. All we know now is the theme park will spawn within Echo Park in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture.
If the location rings a faint bell to you, that is because it is the location of Aichi’s Expo Park where already Satsuki and Mei’s House, the main abode in My Neighbor Totoro, stands. Apparently, the theme park is kind of an expansion plan to the Satsuki and Mei’s House built for the World’s Fair in 2005 and so, all we can say the integration is nigh right from the start. The official name of the park is not clear yet, but to be honest, whatever the name might be, I secretly wish the park is a Ghibli park, not be a Totoro-themed park. I mean, there are other masterpieces from Studio Ghibli like, for example, Spirited Away, that absolutely deserves the theme park treatment too. Just saying…
Regardless, I am totally looking forward to thrill rides based on Totoro. But between now and its imminent opening sometime in early 2020, I will need to start setting aside some dough for it. Just hope that by then, I will not be too old for an anime theme park though!
Images and source via Creators.
