Or is it?

Will Hayao stay retired, or will he make a stunning return to film years later? With the way people have been receiving his son’s films so far (not so great to mixed), your guess is as good as mine. But more importantly, will Hayao’s final film leave us with fond memories of the man? Or will he be leaving us with a sour taste in our mouths?

Retiring? Really??

“Am I retiring? No… Yes I am! Oh ho ho~”

Okay, so Hayao “retired” a handful of times already, actually. Some people say he’s “retired” five times already, others say he just “retires” once every three years. But all of these weren’t actually official and some were just rumor or speculation.

Except for one time.

After the international success of Princess Mononoke (a great film to end your legacy on, by the way), Hayao officially left Ghibli and “retired”. Apparently the amount of work he did on Princess Mononoke was insane. He oversaw 144,000 animation cells and personally redrew about 80,000 of them. Holy crap. I can understand someone being worn out after something like that.

Anyway, after he officially left, he created another studio called Butaya/Nibariki. It was located very close to his old studio and was known as his “retirement place”. While there, he created a manga based on the exploits of Otto Carius, held weekly classes to teach young animators, hosted other activities, and made some animated short films.

In my opinion, this is a pretty awesome and respectable thing to do after retiring. Working on little side projects and teaching others all the great animation knowledge and know-how he possessed? Fantastic. However, he returned to film a mere four years later to direct Spirited Away.

Spirited Away was awesome too, so he probably could have re-retired again and it would have been a great bittersweet moment. But Hayao soldiered on and stepped in to take over Howl’s Moving Castle when the original director left the project. This film wasn’t as amazing as the previous two, but it was still pretty solid.

But this latest retirement announcement sounds like it could actually be legitimate. It seems that Hayao has been “training” his son Goro to take over the family business, but his son (in my eyes) is currently having one hell of a struggle to fill his father’s gigantic shoes. From Up On Poppy Hill was painfully boring. Even if Hayao doesn’t make a second return to film, hopefully he’ll be working with his son behind the scenes to improve the quality of his work.

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

At 72 years old, Hayao is one of the most celebrated figures in animation. The Wind Rises is his 11th feature length film. Together with Isao Takahata, he founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 which has produced 18 feature films to date, so Hayao’s had a pretty fulfilling career. Studio Ghibli films are loved by many and several of them have topped the Japanese box office. Spirited Away even won an Academy Award for best animated feature over in the good ol’ US of A.

Hayao’s latest film does have the makings of a director’s swan song. The Wind Rises is described as Hayao’s first film made specifically for adults. It’s a very personal film, and it’s also stirring up a bit of debate among the political circles of Japan. Let’s get into that.

The Wind Rises

Hayao’s final film, The Wind Rises, tells the tale of a man named Jiro during World War II. Jiro is a brilliant but naïve engineer, and his character is based on the real designer of Japan’s Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane, Jiro Horikoshi. The story looks to explore love, responsibility, and death.

From what I can tell, it’s certainly not going to be as lighthearted as what we’ve come to expect from Hayao’s films. This one looks to be more akin to the likes of Ghibli’s most famous heart-string puller, Grave of the Fireflies.

Even so, the film still seems to maintain a bit of that classic Ghibli whimsical feel. This should add a nice contrast to all of the terrible sorrowful feelings that look to be so prevalent in this film. The sad things will probably be made even more sad and striking due to the dichotomy between them and the occasional fantastical whimsy.

The film takes us along on Jiro’s journey from a child fascinated by planes to a man creating one of the most feared aircrafts of the war. Jiro’s love for planes and flight is depicted as simple and pure. Jiro doesn’t care about the war effort, he just wants to make a great plane that he can be proud of. But by the end of the film, Jiro starts to question everything.

The Reception Thus Far

Hayao has traditionally been somewhat of a pacifist, so some fans were a bit confused as to why he would choose a film like this to go out on. Some people think that it was strange for Hayao to choose the manufacturer of a vehicle of destruction as the star for his film, but Hayao doesn’t see it that way.

Hayao was drawn to the story because it featured one of Japan’s eccentric geniuses and this appealed to him. Plus Hayao has always been fascinated with planes and flight himself. In an interview, he stated that “It was wrong from the beginning to go to war, but it’s useless to blame Jiro for it.”

“Pipe down, Hayao.”

The film has also sparked some political debate. Hayao recently published an article saying that he was disgusted by the government’s plans to expand Japan’s army. He was also taken aback by the government’s apparent ignorance of history. Though not mentioned specifically by name, most believe these statements were directed at Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Japanese conservatives have pretty much told Hayao to keep his opinions to himself and stay out of politics.

“I’m watching you.”

As for the film itself, some feel that its slow moving style and lack of visual flair make it boring. Overall, though, it’s received favorable reviews and is a box office success. I can understand the slow moving complaints though. I feel that way about a decent amount of Japanese movies, but if Japanese critics are the ones calling this movie slow moving, it must be really slow moving.

I wouldn’t say I’m getting my hopes up too high for this film though. My two favorite films of his were Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, and I don’t think he (or Ghibli for that matter) have come close to matching them since. I do really hope my expectations are exceeded though.

Now I’m not saying that I’m not looking forward to The Wind Rises. I just don’t want to set my expectations too high only to be disappointed. I feel like the film will be a good one, I’m just not sure if it’ll be blowing me out of the water with how good it is. But I really want this film to surprise me and make me glad that it’s the last film he left us with. The trailer makes it seem like the film could be really moving and powerful, and I sincerely hope that it is.

Hayao’s Future

“Sayo~nara~”

I think it would be absolutely fantastic if Hayao returns to Butaya and does what he was doing the last time he retired. His son could still use a lot of training and improvement and I’m sure many other animators could benefit from his vast pool of animation knowledge too.

And just because he’s retiring from film doesn’t mean that he won’t be creating anything. Last time he made a manga and some animated shorts. Who knows what he’ll come up with this time? I know I’m certainly looking forward to finding out.

So, do you think The Wind Rises will be a good one to end his career on (if he really does retire for good)? What do you think he’ll get into over at Butaya? Think he’ll stay retired for good this time? Either way, Hayao Miyazaki has had a brilliant career and he certainly deserves all the respect in the world.

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Sites Referenced:
The Economist
The Guardian
Kotaku

Over the years Studio Ghibli has won many awards for their whimsical creations and in 2002, Spirited Away won a Golden Bear and an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. To this day it remains the only film made outside of the English-speaking world to have done so. Do you know the secret that makes all of Ghibli so magical? No? Read on to find out.

Ghibli and Friends

So where does the name Ghibli come from anyway? Well, Ghibli is based on the Arabic name for the sirocco (Mediterranean wind). During World War II the Italians used the sirocco for their Saharan scouting planes. Although pronounced with a hard g in both Arabic and Italian, the Japanese pronunciation of the word is with a soft g (ji-bu-ri).

The reason the studio chose to go with this name was because they wanted to “blow a new wind through the Japanese anime industry” changing things up and offering a breath of fresh air – pretty ambitious to say the least. But the studio has certainly lived up to its namesake. Check out this quick list showcasing some of the studio’s top highlights.

• The first real box-office success in Studio Ghibli’s history (just over $18 million) was Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989, four years after the studio’s creation.
• The highest-grossing film of 1992 in Japan was Studio Ghibli’s very own Porco Rosso (¥2.8 billion in distribution income).
• The first ever Studio Ghibli film to use computer graphics was Pom Poko in 1992, starring a group of tanuki.
• The first Miyazaki film featuring computer graphics, and the first Studio Ghibli film featuring digital coloring was Princess Mononoke in 1997. Roger Ebert placed the movie sixth on his top ten movies of 1999 (after it had been released in the US) and it was also the highest grossing movie in Japan (overtaking E.T.) with $134 million in box office revenue until the achievement was claimed by Titanic several months later (but not for long!)
• The first Studio Ghibli film made entirely with digital processing was My Neighbors the Yamadas in 1999.
• Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away was the first film to gross $200 million worldwide before opening in North America (eventually making about $275 million in total), and it was the only anime film ever to win an Academy award for Best Animated Feature, and it took over Titanic ($135 million) at the Japanese box office, becoming the top grossing film ever in Japanese cinema.

The achievements above, along with a lot of other information can be found on Studio Ghibli’s Wikipedia page. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the history behind the origins of Studio Ghibli, a good synopsis can be found here.

What Makes Ghibli Special

So what makes a Studio Ghibli film a Studio Ghibli film? Well, their works most often feature common motifs, themes, and imagery for one. These commonalities include female leads (usually younger), (talking) cats, sweet old ladies, things related to aviation, trains, boutiques, characters with multiple forms and identities, flocks of birds, birdlike creatures, misunderstood male characters, secret or hidden places, and in many cases a lack of a clearly defined antagonist.

These were things I never really thought about much before I actually took the time to look back on the films, but once you realize the commonalities they’re pretty easy to spot. Take Spirited Away for example: its setting is in a secret place, we’ve got a young female lead, a sweet old lady, birdlike creatures, characters with multiple forms and identities, and a misunderstood male character. Studio Ghiblianism at its finest.

But did you know that the “first Studio Ghibli film” isn’t actually a Studio Ghibli film at all? Even though Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, the film was created one year prior to the creation of Studio Ghibli. Nausicaä was actually published by a studio known as Topcraft. So even though it’s not technically a Studio Ghibli film, it is often credited as one due to how influential it was to the studio’s creation in 1985.

Another fun fact is that Studio Ghibli has adopted a strict “no cuts” policy. This policy was introduced after the unfortunate butchering of the American release of Nausicaä which can be read more about here. The policy was brought up again after the release of Princess Mononoke in 1997 because Miramax wanted to make changes to the film in order to make it more marketable to the United States when it was released over here in 1999. Apparently Studio Ghibli responded by sending Miramax an authentic katana with a simple message reading “no cuts” attached to it. That’s certainly one way to get your point across.

I really respect this about Studio Ghibli. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always hated it when localized films are cut or altered from their original forms by someone other than the actual creator of the film. Knowing that all of Ghibli’s films are now brought to the United States exactly as they were meant to be viewed is a very comforting feeling even if the American production companies insist on having them dubbed into English. But hey, that’s what multi-language DVDs are made for, right? Right.

Studio Ghibli was even nice enough to give a shoutout to Pixar for their 25th anniversary. How kind! Both studios have collaborated with Disney, drawn inspiration from one another, and have even visited each other on various occasions. Both Pixar and Studio Ghibli are argued to be two of the best animation studios in the world today and are right up there with Disney in my opinion.

Upcoming Films

Is that a berry in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

The next film due to hit the States from Studio Ghibli is The Secret World of Arrietty/The Borrower Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ). I was lucky enough to get to see Arrietty and it was pretty good. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are definitely still my favorites from the studio however, but Arrietty was pretty solid as well.

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If the song at the end of the trailer sounds familiar, it’s probably because you heard it from the Imaginary Flying Machines album I posted about a while back. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should. It rocks.

Studio Ghibli’s From up on Poppy Hill (コクリコ坂から) came out in Japan earlier this year, (trailer can be found here) and The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is currently in the works.

The Studio Ghibli Museum

The Totoro went thataway!

Did you know that Studio Ghibli also has its very own museum? Well they do, and from the looks of it, it’s a pretty cool place to be. Located in Mitaka, Tokyo, the museum promises to make all of your Studio Ghibli dreams come true. Unfortunately I haven’t actually been there myself, but you can read all about it over here.

Have you been to the Ghibli Museum before? Tell us about how cool it is in the comments!

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So tell me – what’s your favorite Studio Ghibli film of all time?

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