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It’s a Zoom world and we’re living it in as we all take our meetings via the video chat platform and try to avoid showing off our embarrassing home decor or our roommates making sandwiches in the background. Luckily, virtual backgrounds allow us to hide the more intimate parts of our home living spaces and instead drop our meetings in exciting locales like levels from Street Fighter or backgrounds from Final Fantasy.
But if you prefer a softer sort of background, perhaps one that evokes coziness and transforms loneliness from a heavy burden into a sort of wistful comfort, might we humbly suggest the official Studio Ghibli backgrounds? The Ghibli website released a handful of backgrounds from various movies, with some vertical options for mobile. They can be used for simple wallpapers — or virtual backgrounds.
Call into your daily meetings with the soft forest background from My Neighbor Totoro, discuss updates against the lush cherry blossoms of The Tale of Princess Kaguya, or sip tea while listening to your boss in the cozy little hat shop from Howl’s Moving Castle. These are not backgrounds that scream look how clever and cool I am. These are subtle backgrounds, ones designed to say sit, stay awhile, let us vibe.
All the Ghibli movies will be available to stream on HBO Max starting May 28. Until then, let a comforting Zoom background remind you of the your favorite one. Want more of that Ghibli essence? Most of the soundtracks are available on Spotify. We recommend the oddly poignant cover of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” from Whisper of the Heart.
The full gamut of backgrounds is available on the Ghibli website.
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Roku Premiere Plus
- $60
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Walmart-exclusive Roku Premiere Plus can stream in 4K and includes a voice command remote.
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