Nausicaä to be Ghibli's first blu-ray catalog release

Thus far Studio Ghibli have only released one film on blu-ray disc: Ponyo. Fans of high definition anime have been longing for the studio to dip into their much-loved catalogue of classics, and recently Disney announced some very good news: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is to be released on BD in Japan this summer.

While Nausicaä is not technically a Studio Ghibli film - it was produced before the studio was formally founded - it is generally considered to be their first film anyway. Because of this, I would guess that Ghibli plans on releasing their catalogue on BD in the order that they were originally released. Hopefully it doesn't take them too long to work their way through their impressive list of films, as I can't wait to replace my DVDs with high definition BD goodness.

While Disney only mentioned a timeframe for the Japanese BD release of Nausicaä, there is no doubt that international releases will follow. If you really must get it as soon as possible, you may be in luck: the Japanese BD release of Ponyo is region free and contained multiple audio tracks, so it's possible that the all Ghibli BDs will follow suit... just be aware that Japanese BD prices are ridiculously high compared to most other markets so your wallet will thank you for waiting until it's released elsewhere.