This site is written and published by one person. It is independent, it has no connection to Studio Ghibli or to the operators of the Ghibli Museum or Ghibli Park, and it exists because I kept writing these notes anyway and eventually decided to put them somewhere.
Who writes this
- Name
- Thomas Sonnabend
- Based in
- Estero, Florida, United States
- Postal address
- 8010 Via Sardinia St, Estero, FL 33928, United States
- Telephone
- +1 (603) 945-2452
- Site
- themultiplane.com
I am an American reader and viewer, not a scholar of Japanese cinema and not a Japanese speaker beyond the functional. That shapes what this site is good for and what it is not. I can tell you what forty years of a studio's output looks like from the outside, what the two physical sites are actually like to walk around, and where the English-language consensus is repeating itself without checking. I cannot offer you a reading of these films from inside the culture that made them, and I try not to pretend otherwise.
Why it exists
Because most English writing about Ghibli falls into two piles. One is academic and excellent and largely inaccessible. The other is aggregated listicles that copy each other's errors — the Jiufen claim, the Dogo Onsen claim, the confusion between a museum in Tokyo and a park near Nagoya. There is a large gap in the middle for careful, plainly written, non-commercial notes, and this is my attempt at filling a corner of it.
If I cannot show you where something came from, I will tell you that I cannot.
How I decide what goes in
- Sourced or flagged. Where a claim rests on the studio's or an operator's own statements, or on contemporaneous reporting, I treat it as fact. Where it is widely repeated but unconfirmed, I say so explicitly — see the real places page, which is largely an exercise in this.
- Opinion labelled as opinion. Readings of films are mine. You are free to think I am wrong about Ponyo. Many people do.
- Operators are authoritative about themselves. Anything on this site about opening hours, admission systems or facilities is a description of what the operator publishes, is dated, and will go out of date.
- Corrections are published, not quietly patched. If I get something materially wrong and fix it, the page says what changed.
How this site is funded
Advertising, and nothing else. I do not sell tickets or merchandise, take affiliate commission, accept sponsored posts, or receive anything from Studio Ghibli, the museum, the park, or any travel operator. No advertiser has any influence over what is written here — I would not have anything to offer them if they asked, since there is no product to feature.
The site may run paid advertising to bring readers in, and it may carry advertising on the page. Both are disclosed. What that means for your data is set out in the privacy policy, and you can change what you allow at any time from “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any page.
What this site is not
It is not official. It is not a booking service. It is not a travel agency, and it is not a substitute for the operators' own current information. Studio Ghibli, the Ghibli Museum and Ghibli Park are trademarks of their respective owners; film titles, characters and imagery belong to their rights holders. The disclaimer sets this out properly.
If you write about Ghibli yourself and you think I have taken something of yours, or characterised your work unfairly, write to me directly rather than to a platform. I would much rather fix it than argue about it.
This page last reviewed August 25, 2026.