Carla Chahrour

Japanese animation studio based in Tokyo, Studio Ghibli has shared a series of images of it’s first new film in six years, entitled “Aya and the Witch.”

Aya and the Witch marks the studio’s first-ever CG movie, which is a departure from its signature hand-drawn style and award-winning 2D animated films.

The series of stills from the film reveal the wide range of characters present and provide a glimpse of how CG animation has been used to blend in with Studio Ghibli’s usual visual style.

The movie will be written by Hayao Miyazaki, directed by his son, Gorō Miyazaki and the Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki will be overseeing the project.

Based on Diana Wynne Jones’s children’s book Earwig and the Witch, the movie follows a young orphaned girl called Aya that is adopted by a witch and taken into her unsettling home, which is filled with ghouls and and spirits.

Set to air on the Japanese television channel NHK later this year, it has not yet been made clear how Studio Ghibli’s first CG film will be released internationally.