The 40th anniversary exhibition of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater will display never-before-seen sketches by acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki. The exhibit opens at the The Sekai Meisaku Gekijōten on July 30 in Ikebukuro, Tokyo and will run until August 18.

The omnibus of works covered classics like Anne of Green Gables, Dog of Flanders, Rascal the Raccoon, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Swiss Family Robinson, and Daddy Long-Legs. Series were made as early as the 1960s and continued until the most recent Before Green Gables in 2009. During that time, both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata worked for the franchise before founding Studio Ghibli together in 1985.

The exhibit will include 30 layout sketches by Miyazaki from Anne of Green Gables, and other art from Rascal the Raccoon and Dog of Flanders.

The exhibit will also display background art by Takamura Mukuo and art by Seiji Endo.

Another series of previously "lost" sketches from Miyazaki and Takahata's planned Pippi Longstocking adaptation were recently compiled into a soft-cover book titled Maboroshi no 'Nagakutsushita no Pippi' .

[Via Rocket News 24]