The Studio Ghibli aesthetic is often referred to as cottagecore.
Cottagecore romanticizes and sentimentalizes the rural way of living, which is obvious from the Studio Ghibli scenery that usually takes place in the countryside.
Cottagecore was coined in 2018 on Tumblr, and according to the e-zine VOX, it is:
[…] doilies, snails, and DIY fairy spoons crafted from seashells. It is illustrations from Frog & Toad, stills from Miyazaki movies, two girls kissing in a forest in springtime. It is a laughably arduous tutorial on how to make homemade rosewater whispered to you in a British accent. It is eyelet blouses and soft cardigans and hair ribbons and too much blush. It is Beatrix Potter, The Secret Garden, Miss Honey from Matilda, the Shire. Taylor Swift’s indie rock quarantine album Folklore? Cottagecore […]
– Rebecca Jennings, Vox.com.
Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki’s scenery portrays a nostalgic love for Japanese rural life mixed in with aesthetic magic elements of folklore.
About Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio best known for some of the world’s most popular Japanese animated feature films. Directors Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki founded the studio after success with Topcraft’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984).
Topcraft was Ghibli’s predecessor known for other popular animated films like The Last Unicorn (1982) and The Hobbit (1977).