Studio Ghibli Inspires Gorgeous Hand-Drawn Pakistani Anime

There are lots of influential artists out there, but few can live up to Hayao Miyazaki's reputation. The director is best-known for his work with Studio Ghibli. Over the years, his visionary films have awed millions, and one animation team in Pakistan is putting all that inspiration to good use.

After all, the folks at Mano Animation Studios did share their first-look at a short inspired by Studio Ghibli's creations.

If you head over to Youtube, you will find a new short that is called "The Glassmaker." The reel, which can be seen above, gives a small glimpse at a feature-length movie that Mano Animation Studios is working on. Its smooth design and hand-drawn artwork will make any Ghibli fan think back to Miyazaki's work, and that kind of praise would make Usman Riaz blush.

The director and artist is a self-professed of Studio Ghibli. Riaz has said he fell in love with the studio's work when he was little, and it inspired his own interest in art. Now, Riaz is the founder of Mano and pioneering hand-drawn animation in Pakistan (via Rocket News).

Along with a team of artists, Riaz studied the animation techniques which Miyazaki is famous for using. The group put them into action for "The Glassmaker," and the touching film would surely make the team at Studio Ghibli proud. The movie is a coming-of-age one that follows a boy named Vincent. As the son of a glassmaker, Vincent grows up helping his family, and his social circle expands when he meets a beautiful young violinist named Alliz.

"The Glassmaker" was slated to be an animated short at first, but Riaz felt it needed to be expanded into an entire movie. The animator's team was able to fund the movie through Kickstarter as Mano Animation raised nearly $120,000 in 2016. Right now, "The Glassmaker" is set to debut in 2020, a release which will put it alongside Miyzaki's next feature film. The heralded director confirmed he left retirement to work on a very personal feature that Miyazaki hopes can be finished by 2020.

What do you think of "The Glassmaker" so far? Does it remind you of Studio Ghibli's films? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!