Choujuu Giga

The anime uses a sumi-e (traditional Japanese ink painting) motif, and features Japan's famous Sengoku-era warlords as animals. The show depicts the characters in historically important events as well as in casual everyday situations.

Two Ghibli created shorts about the happenings in fictional animation studio, presumably based to some extent on their own. The first was aired during a TV special about Ghibli, the second shown in theatres alongside 'The Cat Returns'. Note that the animation studio in these shorts is not spelled ジブリ (hepburn: 'jiburi'), but ギブリ (hepburn: 'giburi'), so pronounced with the hard 'gi' of 'give' rather than the 'ji' of 'jigsaw' used for Ghibli.

The story circulates around a mysterious and dangerous island referred to simply as "G". A long time ago, a powerful god named Gestalt was banished to the earth and he had found refuge in the island known as G. To utter the name for which it stands is forbidden, for people were so afraid of the wrath of the god that they considered his name a curse. Father Oliver is a priest who has left his order and traveled to the island of G in order to discover the truth behind it. He ends up making the acquaintance of a young girl named Ohri, who turns out to be quite adept in magic. Meanwhile, the head of the order has hired a dark elf named, Suzu, to track down Oliver and bring him back. Suzu finds him easily enough. However, she hadn't anticipated the powerful sorceress in his company, Ohri. The girl disposes of Suzu for the moment, and she and the Father continue on. As if things weren't rough enough, the island of G has it's share of monsters and magic-users to get in the way of their travels.

Time has come to a standstill. A whale appears from a glassy ocean and spends half a day soaring gracefully across the skies. What makes this works extraordinary is the artist's decision to use the transparency and visual bulk of 3D computer graphics only for the un-moving ocean and glaciers. The people, whale, and ships are all hand-drawn, and with this contrast, he invites the viewer into a different world. This is a poem written in animation, the creation of a true fantasy. This project was a considerable under taking, and the results are marvelous.