The Looking Glass Review

A Literary + Art Magazine for Young and Aspiring Creators.

@StudioGhibli

Submit Now!

Submit Now!

The Looking Glass Reviews encourages you to submit to our literary magazine, which accepts poetry, prose, artwork, photography, and more to publish in loosely-themed issues. Whether we accept your work into the magazine or not, we will edit each piece you submit if requested. Have specific/more questions? Check out our FAQs (located at the bottom of our submission page).

Mission

The Looking Glass Review will endlessly support your journey as a creator and lover of the written/artistic craft. We truly understand how intimidating art and especially the literary world can be, so as young writers/artists ourselves, we decided to create an easy-to-use, supportive outlet for your creativity, with a plethora of resources. Hence, The Looking Glass Review. For any questions at all, please feel free to email us at lookingglassrevieww@gmail.com, or message us on our Instagram, @thelookingglassreview.

Why Studio Ghibli?

More on the current theme of The Looking Glass Review’s website.

If you are not familiar with Studio Ghibli already, it is a Japanese animation studio, and creator of many adored animated films such as Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, KiKi’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, and a fan favorite, Spirited Away. The reason The Looking Glass Review decided on the current website theme, Studio Ghibli, is because we feel they showcase talents and skills also needed in writing/art. Studio Ghibli creates worlds that feel real to the viewer, maybe more real than reality. How do they do this? Attention to detail, stunning world-building, and rich, immersive storylines. Visually, Studio Ghibli films excel, and the animators are masterful in their strict attention to even minuscule details in every scene, including character movements + their interaction with the environment surrounding them. This paints a unique new reality on the screen, full of gorgeous objects, life-like characters, and artistic landscapes. Immersive storylines. If you would like to fashion a story or plot that is completely immersive and enriching, you must make readers curious about the untold stories in your tale or background, the characters not followed and the roads not taken. For example, in Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, the bathhouse scenes may have posed many questions in viewers’ minds about stories unfolding in the background, such as '“What would happen if she followed that employee?”, “Why does this client look so different?” “What kind of creature are they?” When your imaginary world seems real enough to question, you know your world-building has succeeded. On the screen, Studio Ghibli uses wide, establishing shots to give the viewer a broad glance at the created world, however in the context of writing, perhaps a broad overview before delving straight into precise details may improve your story. Who knows? There is much to learn from Studio Ghibli. We encourage you to put forth your looking glass to these magnificent animators and storytellers.

Note: Usually, the website theme changes about every 12-14 months

“We don't read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.”

― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society