The latest Studio Ghibli film, The Boy and The Heron, is widely billed as Hayao Miyazaki’s last feature film after announcing his plans to retire due to his advancing age. However, fans now have a reason to celebrate as the Japan-based animation company’s vice president teased it might not be the case, and there might be more animated movies coming from the legendary director.
Miyazaki doesn’t only serve as the co-founder of Studio Ghibli. He has attained international acclaim and is dubbed the greatest director of Japanese animated features. He’s widely regarded as the most accomplished filmmaker in animation history, thanks to his classic movies My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle, to name a few. His success has even made him one of the most influential animators in the world, inspiring many.
Hence, many were saddened when they learned that The Boy and The Heron might be Miyazaki's final film, especially now that he’s 82 years old. But in a talk with Eli Glasner at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival, Studio Ghibli Vice President Junichi Nishioka revealed The Boy and The Heron would not be the animator’s final film. He even said that Miyazaki had returned to the office with brand-new ideas for future movies.
Is Hayao Miyazaki retired?
This isn’t the first time that Miyazaki has announced his retirement, only to come out after to create a new animated movie. He has retired several times throughout his career. The first was in the late 1990s, but he returned to direct Spirited Away in 2002. The film won an Oscar Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Before The Boy and The Heron, the last film he did was The Wind Rises in 2013. After that, he came to retirement, but later did Earwig and the Witch with his son, Goro, for the Ghibli Museum. The film came out as the studio’s first CGI movie.
In 2021, Miyazaki officially returned to the world of movie animation and did The Boy and The Heron, which has a Japanese title, How Do You Live? When asked why he decided to do a film again, he told The New York Times, “Because I wanted to.”
Truly, no one can surpass or even match Miyazaki’s great talents in doing quality animated movies. So, no matter how often he comes out of retirement, he will always get the people’s support. The Boy and The Heron will officially be released internationally on December 8.
