I have talked about Studio Ghibli earlier on my YouTube, mentioning their best movies including Totoro, Howl, Mononoke, and Porco Rosso.

Granted, those are the main characters, but if you REALLY want to know why Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and the acclaimed Japanese studio is so revered in animation circles, you need to understand what the two storytellers stood for. Environmentalism, teen slash adolescent angst, the interplay between technology and nature, and myths shine bright.

Almost the entirety of Studio Ghibli's ouvre is watchable by kids - which spurred me to mention them to Adwitya when she was just an infant! :)

There are many non-definitive listicles that rank Ghibli movies, and then there's Wikipedia, of course. But what about OpenAI's Ghibli art generator? Is it ars gratia artis? Or is it good to expand people's minds?

I stand for creator's rights - and their demand to be paid if AI uses concepts they painstakingly created. It took a LOT of effort of many people to create the worlds in which Studio Ghibli's movies are set.

Asking permission or citing influences and sources is not enough. Thieves of ideas often benefit most from their anonymity, while creators languish. Miyazaki doesn't need money - but is this a dangerous precedent to set for anime, manga, mythology, symphonies, rhythms and rhymes, artistic styles, and avenues of creative expression?

What about the millions of pieces of music created and published free of royalty or copyright claims, using artificially intelligent tools like Beatoven? Puns on Western composers apart, classical music is already out of copyright - and Hindustani or Eastern classical music encourages practising and experimenting on the ragas and melodies. Visual styles are different, because they are combos of individual imagination, not mathematically pleasing chords and arpeggios by a musician/group.

Contravening music industry royalties is not the same as copying a studio's distinctive style. If more people know about it, good - but that doesn't mean they should use it for monetary gain, which in today's social media-driven world means clicks, views, likes, and shares.

Update: how to pronounce 'Ghibli.' It is a hard 'g' like goat if you follow the original Italian word origin, but in Japanese, they say 'jiburi,' like in my post title. Ghibli means hot wind in Italy - and Miyazaki blew one through the animation industry in Japan when he embarked upon creating his visions.

Thanks to Sonal Mathur/Storytellers BlogHop for this trending prompt!