Artist reimagines Studio Ghibli films as cozy video games
By Bryan Ke
An independent pixel artist has gone viral on Twitter for reimagining classic Studio Ghibli films as old-school JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) titles.
Amour, who goes by the handle @cloudtrumpets on Twitter, recently shared four pictures showing Studio Ghibli’s 1989 movie “Kiki’s Delivery Service” as a JRPG.
The first picture shows a main menu while the second picture features an interaction between protagonist Kiki and 14-year-old aviation fanatic Tombo. The third picture shows what appears to be a feature of the mock-up game that lets players customize bakery treats.
The last picture shows Kiki running on a sidewalk with her magical flying broom as her talking pet cat Jiji follows her around. It also features Kiki’s iconic red radio playing “Rouge no Dengon” (“Lipstick Message”), the opening song of “Kiki’s Delivery Service” performed by Japanese singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya.
Twitter users were left impressed by Amour’s post, with several of them wishing that the reimagining were a real game. One user commented, “I’ve always wanted a Kiki’s delivery service video game. I want to play this!!” while another user said, “Me too!! I know it’s not real but I would LOVE to play Kiki game if it was real!!”
“Holy cow. Where do I even start. LEVEL 10. The perfect colors. The UI. The avatars. The isometric mastery. Yes. I want to play this so badly,” another user wrote.
After their post received such high praise from Studio Ghibli fans and over 222,000 likes, Amour then shared another post they made in May that showcases a mock-up game based on the 2010 movie “The Secret World of Arrietty.”
“Thank you all for the support,” Amour wrote in a follow-up tweet. “This was made for a challenge with the prompt ‘a game that will never be.’”
The pixel artist explained in a Ko-Fi post that their “Arrietty” mock-up was inspired mainly by “Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” and “The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap.”
Another Studio Ghibli-inspired artwork Amour shared on Twitter is their pixel-art GIF of “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
Featured Image via Madman Anime
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