Hayao Miyazaki, creator of beloved animated films like “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away” (to name only a pair of his amazing works), disappointed fans in 2013 when he announced he would retire from the world of feature-length films forever.
Well. Given that Miyazaki has been rumored to have announced retirement a total of six times until now, I think we all knew it wouldn’t be permanent. Or, at least we certainly crossed our fingers and hoped that was the case. Especially since he’s been reportedly still involved with Studio Ghibli and has made a short film that will be screened at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka later this year.
So when Toshio Suzuki, a producer at Studio Ghibli, recently revealed that Miyazaki was currently in Tokyo, “working hard right now” on a new feature-length film, it’s probably safe to say that the world reverberated with jubilant cheers from fans. Suzuki made the announcement at a pre-Oscars event in LA while being interviewed about the Oscar-nominated film “The Red Turtle,” which was co-produced by Ghibli.
There are, as yet, no complete details on the story of the new production, but if it was powerful enough to get Miyazaki out of his “last” retirement, then it must be worth the wait.
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