Why the deal matters beyond availability
GKIDS is not arriving as a casual custodian. The company has long handled Studio Ghibli distribution across platforms in North America, and this new U.K. and Ireland agreement extends that relationship into a territory where Ghibli’s films already carry a deep cultural charge. The rights package covers theatrical, home video, TV and digital, though streaming rights are excluded; those remain licensed to Netflix outside North America and Japan.
That distinction matters. We are not looking at a simple reshuffling of where to click “play.” The valuable part of this deal is the renewed emphasis on theatrical presentation and physical editions, two formats that serve Ghibli especially well. These are films built from gesture, weather, domestic space and silence: the sway of grass, the architecture of a kitchen, the pause before a child steps into the unknown. Their visual grammar loses something when treated as background viewing.
The agreement was signed with world sales agent Goodfellas. GKIDS president David Jesteadt said the company would take “loving care” of the catalog for U.K. and Irish fans, beginning with an IMAX release of Kiki’s Delivery Service this summer and expanding across home video and digital platforms.
Kiki leads the theatrical return
The first title under the new deal will be Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, receiving a theatrical IMAX release on Aug. 21. Released in 1989, the film follows Kiki, a young witch who moves to the port city of Koriko with her cat Jiji and begins a flying courier service. It is an inspired choice to open the program: not the most apocalyptic Ghibli, not the grandest in scale, but one of the clearest statements of Miyazaki’s interest in work, independence and the fragile confidence of adolescence.
In IMAX, that modesty becomes the point. Kiki’s flights are not just spectacle; they are questions of balance, speed, perspective and self-possession. We experience the city not as an animated backdrop but as a lived environment, a place whose rooftops and streets test the heroine’s sense of herself.
Further Ghibli titles are also slated for IMAX treatment, including Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s The Secret World of Arrietty and Yoshifumi Kondō’s Whisper of the Heart. GKIDS also plans to roll out additional Studio Ghibli 4K remasters in IMAX and on physical media from fall 2026 onward.
What fans should watch next
For collectors and repertory-minded viewers, the home video piece may prove just as important as the theatrical one. GKIDS plans a home video re-release of the entire Ghibli library, including Spirited Away, The Boy and the Heron, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo and Castle in the Sky, among others.
For U.K. and Ireland releases, GKIDS will work closely with Anime Limited, the Glasgow-based distributor recently acquired by GKIDS’ Japanese parent company Toho Global. The two companies have collaborated on earlier releases including Arcane, Perfect Blue and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and are also set to handle the upcoming release of Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero.
The practical advice for audiences is simple: keep an eye on theatrical listings first, especially for IMAX dates, and wait for confirmed edition details before treating any older discs as definitive. The larger story is one of stewardship. Ghibli’s legacy has never depended only on access; it depends on scale, texture and care. If GKIDS and Anime Limited deliver on that promise, the U.K. and Ireland may be entering a rare cycle in which classics are not merely preserved, but allowed to breathe again in the dark.