real totoro

We’ve already seen what can happen when artists take the creations of Studio Ghibli and thrust them into the world of the macabre, but the following collection of fan-art posters has left us feeling quite on edge.

Reimagining all of your animated favourites with a shocking level of impact and realism, it’s fair to say that these posters are perhaps truer to their films’ roots than Ghibli would ever care to admit, but at the same time we’re quite sure that, had the films had debuted with these as their official posters there would be far fewer kids pestering their parents to go and see them.

Studio Ghibli’s films almost always feature brave, warm-hearted or quiet and misunderstood protagonists who shy away from acts of violence and strive to do the right thing. Despite their underlying themes of justice and morality, if we were to take a guess at the films’ content based entirely on the following fan-art posters, we wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if blood were spilled in the opening scenes and at least one protagonist’s heart got broken before the credits rolled.

▼ Faces in the sky – it can only mean heartache and turmoil for Howl.

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Castle in the Sky or Bioshock Infinite?

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Laputa looking a little like a North Korean propaganda poster.

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▼ Probably a little closer to reality.

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▼ Nausicaa’s war, too, just got real (and kinda sexy).

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Ponyo meanwhile still manages to be adorable in a Tim Burton kind of way.

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▼ Perfect for the time in which it is set.

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Spirited Away gets a little closer to its dark roots.

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▼ Though quite how Homer Simpson had a hand in this one we’re not sure.

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▼ This Totoro poster, meanwhile, is enough to give kids nightmares.

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As unnerving as a few of these are, now that we’ve seen them we can’t help thinking how cool it would be to see of these movies remade by Western animation studios. Perhaps there’s a Kickstarter project already out there…

Source: Kotaku Japan via My Game Sokuhou (Japanese)