Aya grew up in a cozy orphanage since she was a baby and doesn’t know her mother had magical powers. Loved and pampered, the 10-year-old girl never wanted to leave her cocoon and her dear friend Custard. Mischievous, cunning, she leads her little world by the tip of her nose! When a strange couple adopts her, Aya rebels and follows her new family backwards … But what can this mysterious Mandrake and this disturbing Bella Yaga be hiding? To the rhythm of the enchantments, an extraordinary adventure awaits the adorable brazen… because her pretended parents are none other than wizards!

After having been in the shadow of his father, Hayao Miyazaki, with his two first works, Les contes de Terremer and La Colline aux coquelicots, Goro Miyazaki emancipated himself and offered the first Ghibli in 3D! The acclaimed author of Mononoke ou Chihiro, magician of Japanese animation, has always hated this method, preferring hand drawings, the old fashioned way. With Aya and the witch, the son takes flight, leading the famous studio into a new digital era.

Co-produced by Ghibli and NHK, the feature film premieres on Japanese television on December 30, 2020. Designed primarily for the small screen, Aya will ultimately receive a worldwide theatrical release. Six years after Souvenirs de Marnie, Ghibli is indeed back in the cinema and is likely to spill a lot of ink with this switch to 3D. Everyone will have their own opinion on the quality of the animation, but it is clear that the studio is taking risks! However, it might suffer from comparison to Pixar movies or the recent Lupine III The First.