Animé fans are in mourning at the news that Japanese hit-factory Studio Ghibli may have made its final film.
Toshio Suzuki, the general manager of the Tokyo-based animation studio behind My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle and the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away, announced the halt in production on Japanese television on Sunday.
Studio Ghibli will cease film-making after 29 years of production, Suzuki told the show Jounetsu Tairiku, downsizing its staff to manage trademarks and copyrights on its existing portfolio of 20 feature films.
Suzuki took over day-to-day running of the studio when its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki retired in 2013. “Obviously, Miyazaki’s retiring was quite significant,” Suzuki said on air. “What should Ghibli do? ... Right about now, we will take a breather and think about what’s next.”
Rumours of Ghibli’s imminent demise had been circulating in recent weeks. A Ghibli insider forecast its closure on the Japanese website News Cafe, blaming the high production costs and poor profits of its recent releases. “There’s no choice but to dissolve the studio, because it’s unable to cross the high hurdle of announcing a new film on an annual basis,” the staffer said.
Toshio Suzuki, the general manager of the Tokyo-based animation studio behind My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle and the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away, announced the halt in production on Japanese television on Sunday.
Studio Ghibli will cease film-making after 29 years of production, Suzuki told the show Jounetsu Tairiku, downsizing its staff to manage trademarks and copyrights on its existing portfolio of 20 feature films.
Suzuki took over day-to-day running of the studio when its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki retired in 2013. “Obviously, Miyazaki’s retiring was quite significant,” Suzuki said on air. “What should Ghibli do? ... Right about now, we will take a breather and think about what’s next.”
Rumours of Ghibli’s imminent demise had been circulating in recent weeks. A Ghibli insider forecast its closure on the Japanese website News Cafe, blaming the high production costs and poor profits of its recent releases. “There’s no choice but to dissolve the studio, because it’s unable to cross the high hurdle of announcing a new film on an annual basis,” the staffer said.
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This is really sad, they made some awesome and beautifully animated films.
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible news, I have loved so many of their brilliant films over the years - Totoro, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, Laputa... Really not happy about this at all!
ReplyDeleteThis has been the word for the past month! So Sad. They are my favorite Japanese animation company! You would think their partnership with Disney could keep them afloat! I was looking forward to see what Goro Miyazake and Hiromasa Yonebayashi would dish out in the next decade, When Marnie Was There looks SO beautiful! I still hope that maybe they can make some new films, just perhaps not every year...
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who is interested, Hayao Miyazake still hangs out in at the studio and is working on a new Manga: http://kotaku.com/first-look-at-hayao-miyazakis-new-manga-1467313161
This is sad, but after Hayao Miyazake announced his retirement I kind of expected this news.
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