Ghibli Magic System Creation : Worldbuilding Tower

What makes Ghibli's and Miyazaki's worldbuilding, and particularly magic systems feel so different from your usual hard VS soft magic discussion? How can they be so unique?

Here's my proposal on how to draw inspiration from Ghibli's work and make some unusual magic of out own.

If you're feeling daring, write your own version of the exercise on the comments below and please interact with other worldbuilders too!

- - -

I finally created a Worldbuilding Tower playlist, here it is:

If the name Worldbuilding Dojo sparked your curiosity:

- - -

If you wanna help me believe this can be a real future for me, here's my Patreon page. I will never forget my first 10 patrons.

Subscribe here =)

Twitter!

- - -

Soundtrack:
Dwyer - Things Will Probably Get Better from Here

- - -
#ghibliworldbuilding #miyazakiworldbuilding #magicsystems #ghiblimagicsystems

[JoriamRamos]

Any daring worldbuilder would care to share their own version of the exercise here? ;) Find your peers!

[downhillk]

I’ve never clicked on an advertised video that was actually good

This is the only exception so far

[downhillk]

This reminds me of Adventure Time’s “magic system”, where the “amount of magic” in the world changes over large periods of time, and the events of the show just happen during a high-magic era

the earth was essentially magic-less until “the great mushroom war”, where the humans employed nuclear weapons that flooded the earth with magic

[DanielAlvarez-sgyd]

Princess mononoke is one of the coolest movies I've seen as a kid and still love it to this day

[yeetskeet]

I'm gonna give this a shot. So my metaphysical system is centered around the idea that similarities breed reality. That's just a fancy way of saying if something *looks* like another thing, the lookalike morphs and takes on traits of the image.

Some examples of this could be:
- A tree with knots in the shape of a face would slowly gain sentience, as it takes on human-like qualities.
- Likewise, if a human styles themselves as something else, say they paint their skin like fur and wear an antler headpiece this person would take on deer-like aspects such as the aforementioned fur and antlers.
- One last example could be that a rock shaped like a turtle, becomes a turtle but an incredibly slow one.

I'm not sure what defines specific images, like how the rock knows it's "turtle" shaped instead of "tortoise" shaped, but maybe this system has a hierarchy of traits, like for example going back to the turtle-rock: it starts off with "shelled creature" if the rock has a shell-like shape, and then the natural geometry of the rock influences what type of shelled creature it becomes, or even perhaps if the rock isn't specifically defined enough it remains a "blurry" image, like halfway between multiple images.


That's just my half-baked quickly-whipped-up idea that this video inspired me to make. Keep up the great work Joriam and anyone else feel free to critique my idea!

[purplepoet]

Only about 3 minutes in and I can tell this is gold. Subbed.

edit: It is, in fact, gold.

[NumianVonKami]

First time on this channel, the content is really good :D

[JayFolipurba]

I'd like to add that in Howl's Moving Castle, there is talk about a magic academy, so magic is very much a craft. Yubaba and her sister in Spirited Away also seemed to have had many years of practicing and mastering magic as a craft. And if I recall correctly, the hermit from Earthsea is also someone who has studied magic.
Only in Princess Mononoke, PomPoko and My Neighbor Totoro, is magic not something commonly studied and practiced by humans, but comes from nature. Then there is also Kiki and the bad guy from Ponyo, who seem to have been born with innate magical abilities, but still need to practice in order to get better, or rather in Ponyo it's both from nature, but can be practiced.

[tijmensmulders]

Thanks for putting up the ad, dont think i would've found your channel otherwise. I absolutely love Princess Mononoke and I've always wanted to integrate the same vibe into my world.

Absolute top-tier content! Thanks alot :)

[ashanarchy]

What i love about more than a few the miyuzaki films, is that they could easily take place in the same universe. With Nuassica Valley of the winds being the mid point between the human and magic world.

[haiiro]

In my own worldbuilding I use a metaphysical system based on this wish-animisim beliefs you talk about. I don't know if you have already seen the anime Noragami, but I recommend it. It helped me to understand more about animism beliefs and the wish-based japanese shintoism.

[Distortion]

This is one of the best ads I've ever clicked on.

[francescoalaimo]

Glad I started following you. I study literature here in Italy, and I'd like to start a project that mix literature critic and the things that I love (movies, animation, games, ttrpg). I think you're great at what you do and I'm looking forward to see more. Thanks.

[maxtheawesome]

I've always been quite interested in magic systems based on psychological ideas and having those ideas manifest in the world. Like the idea of gods only being born because people believe in them, or with places transforming into how people perceive them, or desires and fears becoming real. It doesn't really work for things like wizards throwing fireballs, but more like an ever-present dimension of magic that influences our own world.

[joshuawolterding]

metaphysical system:

In a contemporary system the world is infused with natural laws. If you start something then there is power in finishing it, if you do a kindness for someone and never tell them about it then they owe you on some karmic level. Inspirations behind this are from Narnia when White witch was talking to Aslan about some "old magics" that are sort of like cosmic laws. In addition it's inspired by in Harry Potter Dumbledore has access to some kind of meta-magical knowledge like when he talks about how harry was protected by his mothers sacrifice and when he reads into Voldemort's secret door that it asks for a blood sacrifice. The magical metaphysics is influenced by concepts of Daoism.

Some of the newer Kami that exist are taking on animist properties of funny new objects that occur in our contemporary time. There have been sightings of a vending machine kami and a clothes iron kami. A toy bird Kami is always trying to fly so that it can join the migration of other birds but can never get off the ground and it doesn't understand it's not a real bird.


All the living animals are slowly leaving the earth to disappear into another world that we can't follow.



(yours has lots of juicy bits in it, I was very impressed with wishes having to compete in a spirit world and being influenced by the real world actions of the wisher - I would read that story)

[Insane-Howl-Cowl]

Love the info! Keep up the good work, happy to be climbing the Worldbuilding Tower with you!

[jeffbot]

Giving it a shot, so here's a rough one

It turns out that dancing is the very thing that holds the universe together.

Everything dances.

The earth dances around the sun, the moon around the earth. And in turn they all dance with each other. When the earth dances with the sun we get day and night. When oceans dance with the moon it creates the tides. The winds all dance together, practically in a melee, and it gives us the weather. Bees dance day and night, this is why such ridiculous creatures can fly against all logic. The Platypus, is for sure the result of some very drunken dancing that really got out of hand, and the platypus continues this bizarre dance to this day. Even trees dance (Although they do it so slowly you'd hardly notice) and that's why trees grow so giant and live for so long.

When things dance together, with unified thought and movement, it creates a Melody. This melody contains everything the dancers want to achieve. Once created it leaves the dancers and joins the symphony of the sky, and in doing so adds its contents to the fabric of the universe. But with so many Melodies its easy for a single one to be drowned out, so for the change to stick, the dance has to be done again and again

People can dance for a long time, but eventually they'll get tired, lose focus. So they can send off Melodies, but they never last. Not like the planets who can dance forever. But it means that even by yourself you can dance around like an idiot, and you make little difference for your self. If only for a moment.

[nourmasalkhi]

Glad I clicked your ad.
This is a take I had not heard before and I will be keeping it in mind going further.

[Kye]

It's not quite a magic system, but a fun idea I had in mind was imagining the different objects & such in your house as nations or landscapes. Ex. The Republic of Ooshamp, located within the land of Utb-Tahb. Its allies are North Ition, The Dominion of Recam, and the city state of Boshymp.

Different rooms could be worlds, with ways to ascend or descend realms down accessible but tenuous paths that could be a breezy, though draining flight or deliver severe harm to you, or passing through nearby worlds by bargaining with large wooden guardians.

Quite silly, but a fun and creative exercise that allows you to see worlds within your own.

[spacemanproletariat]

My magic system is inspired by the way Warlocks or Clerics of Dungeons and Dragons (so distinctly un-Ghibli lol). My setting is sci-fantasy so I needed a dynamic magic system that remained interesting across an adventure spanning a galaxy. All magic is basically procured from a patron, which are generally close to Star-Sized beings which have certain properties, for example the origin of all other patrons is a massive semi-Zeus inspired skeleton that is filled with (and randomly shoots) lightning, and magic-users may harness it's power to cast lightning-oriented spells. There's also a beholder inspired patron of the same size which is encased by a matrioshka brain, and nearby planets don't only use it for magic but also the energy it produces.