LONDON—The performers spoke in Japanese, but the British audience remained mesmerized throughout the play.

The daunting project of transforming one of Japan’s most popular animated movies into a theater production has proved a success.

In late June, a sold-out London Coliseum featured “Spirited Away,” originally an award-winning Japanese animation movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli.

British director John Caird, known for “Les Misérables,” adapted and directed the theater version of “Spirited Away,” with Toho Co. as a producer.

Actors Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi, who performed the main characters in stage performances in Tokyo, spoke Japanese on the stage in Britain.

The audience in London smiled when “Kaonashi” (No-face) and “Kamajii” (Boiler Geezer) appeared in similar form as in the original film.

An English translation of the dialogue was visible from all seats, but the audience seemed solely focused on what was happening on the stage.

Mercedez Ekanem, 28, a big fan of Studio Ghibli, praised the performance.

“I thought it was really good, really innovative, really exciting. And I thought it did a very good job of bringing a cartoon to stage,” she said. “You wouldn’t think it would work, but it worked really well.”

Local newspapers’ theater review sections gave the play four or five stars out of five.

Toho said ticket sales have increased since the first performance at the end of April. Almost all tickets were sold out until the run of “Spirited Away” ended on Aug. 24.

Initially, Toho did not have plans to offer an overseas theatrical performance of a Japanese animated film.

“International performances were not originally on our mind,” Atsuo Ikeda, managing executive officer of Toho, said.

In 2021, when Toho announced that a stage adaptation of “Spirited Away” would be performed in Japan, the company received many inquiries from overseas.

So, the company invited interested organizations from abroad to the first stage performances in Japan.

Iain Gillie, a producer at PW productions, was among them, encouraged by director Caird to make the trip.

Gillie suggested a stage performance of “Spirited Away” in London.

“We knew it didn’t matter who the audience would be, they were going to really love it,” he told The Asahi Shimbun.

Gillie also had no doubts about performing the play in the Japanese language in London, saying: “It is a 100-percent Japanese production. I think that adds to the experience for the audience.”

STREAMING SERVICES FUEL POPULARITY

Behind the success of the “Spirited Away” theater performance in London was the familiarity among foreign people of Japanese animation film.

The overseas popularity of Japanese manga and anime has spread through streaming services, soon after those were broadcast in Japan.

Netflix started streaming Studio Ghibli films worldwide in 2020.

“We couldn’t be able to create such a large audience only with theater fans,” Toho’s Ikeda said. “The popularity of the original film contributed to such a large number of fans.”

Toho has recently produced other stage adaptations of manga and animation pieces. And Ikeda said the company will increase such adaptations for its overseas operations.

Musical dramas performed in Japan are predominantly influenced by the productions of Western countries.

On the other hand, the British theater industry is paying increasing attention to Japanese productions.

In London, a theater version of “Death Note the Musical” produced originally by Horipro Stage was performed last year, while the stage drama “Your Lie in April” produced originally by Toho opened this summer in the British capital.

British companies joined in the production of both theater dramas. The performers were British actors who delivered their lines in English.

Foreign producers have also started to produce theater dramas of Japanese animation films.

MUSICIAN JOE HISAISHI’S IDEA

The famed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) of Britain and Nippon Television Network Co. co-produced a stage adaptation of “My Neighbor Totoro,” another Studio Ghibli animation film directed by Miyazaki. It was performed in London for the first time in autumn 2022.

Music composer Joe Hisaishi was the first to suggest adapting the animation film into a theater drama overseas.

Hisaishi’s idea was to create it abroad to extract the “universalities” of the work, which has a huge fanbase around the world.

Nippon TV producer Kenichi Yoda then asked RSC if it wanted to produce the adaptation together.

Yoda chose RSC because of its dedication to detail, the same approach of Studio Ghibli. He also admired the high quality of RSC’s productions, including family-oriented works like “Matilda the Musical.”

When Yoda proposed a theater adaptation of “My Neighbor Totoro,” RSC directors said they were already looking into such a project.

The two sides began planning together in 2015.

“We were more interested in the creative opportunity than the business opportunity,” said Griselda Yorke, a producer at RSC.

The “My Neighbor Totoro” animation film was released in 1988.

Yoda said that when they started planning a theater version, the film was not widely known in Britain.

“RSC workers said they don’t create theater dramas that won’t last for more than 50 years,” Yoda said. “It inspired us to think that we had to make ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ a decent theater drama.”

They inserted conversational lines showing the characters’ growth, which was not directly featured in the film, as well as dialogue to describe certain animated scenes.

It took two years for them to complete the script.

“We took very seriously the details and the importance of the specifics,” Yorke said about describing Japanese life.

She conducted a detailed survey on life in the era shown in the animated film. Asian actors were hired for the play.

Ticket sales for opening day of the play in May 2022 set a record high for the theater.

“It was the latest drama from RSC, and ‘Totoro’ had become known among British people after Netflix started streaming the original films of Studio Ghibli,” Yoda said about the high ticket sales.

The theater production of “My Neighbour Totoro” was highly evaluated for its creativeness, including the stage art pieces that made the audience “feel the nature.”

Also praised were the “kazego” puppets used on the stage, inspired by traditional Japanese “bunraku” puppet theater, along with Hisaishi’s music.

The drama received six prestigious Olivier Awards, including for best director, in 2023.

The theater production was performed again from 2023 to 2024, and it will move to London’s West End theater in March 2025 to continue its long, uninterrupted run.