Insanely Cute Cat Commercials from Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki’s Legendary Animation Shop

Back in 2010, Hayao Miyaza­ki’s com­pa­ny Stu­dio Ghi­b­li pro­duced a com­mer­cial for the mas­sive food con­glom­er­ate Nissin Sei­fun. The spot cen­ters on a rotund cat named Kon­yara who bats lazi­ly at a red but­ter­fly – Nissin’s logo. Kon­yara is ren­dered in sim­ple thick, black lines that recall Japan­ese sumi‑e paint­ing.

Miyaza­ki report­ed­ly didn’t have much to do direct­ly with the piece but his influ­ence is all over it. The com­mer­cial was pro­duced by Miyazaki’s long time col­lab­o­ra­tor Toshio Suzu­ki and ani­mat­ed by Kat­suya Kon­do, who did the char­ac­ter design for per­haps Miyazaki’s most cat-cen­tric movie Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice.

Anoth­er Miyaza­ki col­lab­o­ra­tor, pop leg­end Akiko Yano, did the music. More to the point, Kon­yara looks like some of Miyazaki’s most endur­ing char­ac­ters from Totoro to Ponyo to the Kodama from Princess Mononoke. Adorable, ele­gant and vital.

The com­mer­cial was so suc­cess­ful that Nissin com­mis­sioned two more. The sec­ond one aired in 2012 and fea­tured a sleepy Kon­yara strug­gling to grab 40 winks while her off­spring, named Ko-Kon­yara (trans: Lit­tle Kon­yara), insists on cud­dling. The cal­lig­ra­phy on the side reads “Always togeth­er.”

The most recent Ghibli/Nissin com­mer­cial came out a few months ago. Konyara’s brood has expand­ed to three – the two new cats named Kuroneko and Buchi. All three tum­ble into the frame as Kon­yara presents them with a fish while text appears read­ing, “I’m hun­gry.” When the lit­tle black kit­ten, who looks a lot like a soot sprite from Totoro, runs off with din­ner, Kon­yara gives a resigned sigh. It’s an expres­sion that any­one who has spent long peri­ods with very young chil­dren will rec­og­nize.

You can watch all three above or here.

via Car­toon Brew

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Simp­sons Pay Won­der­ful Trib­ute to the Ani­me of Hayao Miyaza­ki

How to Make Instant Ramen Com­pli­ments of Japan­ese Ani­ma­tion Direc­tor Hayao Miyaza­ki

French Stu­dent Sets Inter­net on Fire with Ani­ma­tion Inspired by Moe­bius, Syd Mead & Hayao Miyaza­ki

Jonathan Crow is a Los Ange­les-based writer and film­mak­er whose work has appeared in Yahoo!, The Hol­ly­wood Reporter, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low him at @jonccrow. And check out his blog Veep­to­pus, fea­tur­ing lots of pic­tures of vice pres­i­dents with octo­pus­es on their heads.  The Veep­to­pus store is here.