A Studio Ghibli mega fan in France was awarded the Guinness World Record for largest collection of memorabilia. Studio Ghibli is the uniquely successful animation studio started by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, along with producer Toshio Suzuki, in 1985. The Tokyo-based studio has made 19 feature films since then, including favorites such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.
The studio itself holds a Guinness World Record, namely for Most Successful Foreign-Language Animation Studio. Its collection of films has netted the studio over a billion dollars, and the demand for their content won't be going away any time soon. The dedication of collectors like the new Guinness record holder shows a taste of just how deep the Ghibli fandom goes. Not everyone holds Studio Ghibli in perfect esteem, but few animation studios have made a bigger impact on the film industry.
Now, Guinness World Records has announced that Eloïse Von Velvet has broken the world record with her collection of Ghibli memorabilia. From Paris, France, Eloïse Jéglot is a makeup artist and tattoo model, also known as Eloïse Von Velvet on Instagram. Her collection has been growing since 2007 and it now consists of 1,304 individual pieces. The Ghibli mega-fan admitted that friends and family were skeptical of her obsession at first, as she spends three to five hours per day scouring the internet for any Ghibli item she might not yet have. Apparently, her media attention and interviews about the Ghibli memorabilia collection quieted her critics, who she can now satisfyingly display her new Guinness record to.
Ghibli's most famous visionary, Hayao Miyazaki, managed to craft fictional worlds so seemingly organic, complex and mysterious that many fans like Von Velvet happily adopted them into their daily lives. Totoro bumper stickers can be found in most American parking lots and highways, as one example. Endless variations of fan tattoos based on Studio Ghibli material can be found on the internet, and Von Velvet is among them, with four different tattoos of her own (Haku the dragon and the Shikigami from Spirited Away, Mononoke from Princess Mononoke, Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle, and Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service). Miyazaki recently announced that he would emerge from retirement for one more movie with Ghibli based on a novel by Genzaburo Yoshino.
Studio Ghibli's influence on the world of cinema is hard to understate. After Spirited Away won an Oscar in 2003 for Best Animated Feature, the studio became more well known in mainstream cinema. Now, a Studio Ghibli theme park is scheduled to open in Japan within a year. Creators like Pixar and Disney have made nods to Ghibli in the their own work, some more subtle than others. Miyazaki's stories often broke heteronormative and male-centric tropes, focussing on highly capable female leads. Unlike so much content from cinema's history, Ghibli's work grades fairly well on the Bechdel Test. Without that foresight and quality of storytelling, it's hard to imagine the studio would be enjoying such widespread critical and financial success. The imaginative weaving of Japanese folklore and spirituality into the mundane realities of everyday life has made a resounding impression on fans worldwide — though not all are as deeply committed as Von Velvet.
Source: Guinness World Records