Make Work from Home Fun with Ghibli Zoom Meeting Backgrounds

Nationwide Entertainment Stayhome

2020.04.23

These background images were released by Ghibli Studio themselves, and yes, they actually said they're for web meetings.

The COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdowns have a lot of us working from home these days. That means, if your work is even a little bit like what we do here at Japankuru, you've been participating in a LOT of web-based meetings through your service of choice - Zoom, Skype, maybe even Discord? Of course the meetings are necessary to keep things going and have everyone on the same page, but after spending an hour staring at people on your computer screen... well, if you're anything at all like me, you might be getting a little bored with the whole set up. Can't we jazz things up a little?

↑(We demand cuter Zoom meetings!)↑ (Image from Ghibli)

The answer from Studio Ghibli is: of course we can! The ultra-popular, much-beloved animation studio has been releasing a variety of images on their official website throughout the month of April, all specifically for use as video meeting backgrounds.

So, of course, I had to try them out at my next very serious work meeting.

I started by downloading a few of my favorite Ghibli images, and uploading them to the virtual background settings in Zoom...

Before inviting some very serious coworkers to my very serious meeting, to show off my very serious background.

They were very impressed with my very serious (seriously adorable) Totoro companions!

So we carried on with our very important work discussions while shopping for hats at Sophie's hat shop from Howl's Moving Castle...

...And we spent some time feeling mildly terrified by the school of Ponyo's little siblings.

And of course, you can too! There are 12 different Ghibli background options up right now, including the Kiki's Delivery Service bakery background that's actually for people who use their phone in portrait mode. I look forward to seeing if they add any more while we're all stuck at home!

Of course, for anyone less enamored with Ghibli, you've got other options too.

So get creative out there with your work-from-home meetings, and show me what silly Japanese images you've been using as backgrounds! The Japankuru team would love to hear from you on our twitter, instagram, and facebook!