Mimi Wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart) Smartphone Wallpapers

This is just too cool to pass up. The ever-reliable Ghibli Collector has captured this series of pan shots from the 1995 Studio Ghibli movie Mimi Wo Sumaseba (aka Whisper in the Heart in the West) for use as smartphone wallpapers. Each of these are taken directly from the movie and look absolutely sensational. In order to use these, click on the photo and download the full-size version.

As always, I am reminded of the brilliant art design of Ghibli's illustrators and artists, who create a romanticized version of Tokyo's Tama Hills. All of the locations in Mimi exist in real life, and after the movie was released to theaters, one could follow local tour guides on a sightseeing spree of all your favorite scenes. It's this dedication to realism and naturalism that sets Studio Ghibli apart from so many other animation studios. In the West, such a concept barely even exists.

But, to be fair, we do have The Emoji Movie, The Angry Birds Movie, Cars 3, Peter Rabbit and Sherlock Gnomes. So...yeah. Take that, Japan.

I have to go now, my planet needs me.

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Artist Spotlight: Studio Ghibli Pixel Art by Richard J. Evans

Three years ago, artist Richard J. Evans embarked on an interesting project: a series of digital artworks based on the movies of Studio Ghibli, rendered entirely in "pixel art." This is an art style that is deliberately low-fi, low-resolution and quite blocky, inspired, one supposes, by the look of computer graphics from the 1980s. This sub-genre of art has become very popular in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down.

Evans successfully captures the hand-drawn animation style of the Ghibli films quite masterfully, with a very wide color palette at his disposal (much more than what was available on computers and videogamess of the 1980s), and everything is sharply detailed, which maintaining those large blocky pixels. The ones you see here are my personal favorites, but the artist has also paid tribute to nearly every Ghibli movie ever made, and they're all terrific.

Overall, great job. Creating art within very hard limitations can be quite challenging, but the results are equally rewarding.

You can see more of Evans' work on his website. Be sure to send him a thanks for his efforts.

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