The end of Studio Ghibli?!

STUDIO GHIBLI MAY NO LONGER BE MAKING FEATURE FILMS?

Today is sad day... well in terms of the world of Animation that is. Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese Animation film studio who have created masterpieces such as 'Spirited Away' and 'My Neighbour Totoro' are sadly taking a "small break" to reassess the structure of studio. Rumours on Sunday were reporting that the famed animation studio would be indefinitely be closing down and not be making any more feature films. Even though Ghibli are taking a "small break", it's just for me at least amazing how out of no-where they are deciding to not make any more features for a short amount of time. Toshio Suzuki (Studio Ghibli General Manager) stated: "On what to do with Studio Ghibli's future, it is by no means impossible to keep producing (movies) forever," Suzuki said. "However, we will take a brief pause to consider where to go from here."

Suzuki explained further that Ghibli is still grappling with the departure of Hayao Miyazaki who has been behind the majority projects at Ghibli ever since the studio was found in 1985. "Obviously Miyazaki's retirement is an enormous change and we are considering how to proceed from such an event but.. we don't believe we can just continue with the same approach as we had before".  Miyazaki's departure last year does seem like the main reason into why Ghibli are in this sticky situation. Let's not forget to start things off is that, it's not a total suprise that Miyazaki retired in the first place.

The guy himself is in his early 70's and has in the past decade said at one time or another that he was going to retire after films such as 'Howl's Moving Castle' and 'Ponyo'. Even his final film 'The Wind Rises' which despite receiving an Oscar nomination, only grossed $5.2 Million in America which is lower than they expected to receive .I think the main shock and focal point is that besides Miyazaki and Isao Takahata who did films such as the 'Grave of the Fireflies' and 'Kiki's Delivery Service', there really hasn't been anyone at Ghibli to take over the reigns and become a figurehead animator like Miyazaki was. A good example of this would be Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Goro Miyazaki (Hayao's son) who have never really stepped up to the plate and created content that would equal Hayao's. 

Makoto Shinkai - the guy who CAN turn things around..

In my Opinion, if I was in Suzuki's shoes right at this minute, even though the cause of this "small break" is due to several areas within Ghibli, an animator that I would be itching to hire to turn things around would certainly be Makoto Shinkai. Shinkai if you are not familiar is a promising young animator who has done beautiful works such as '5 Centimetres Per Second' and 'Garden of Words'. Bringing in Shinkai is surely a realistic prospect for Suzuki to do since there is no questioning Shinkai's skill when it comes to his films having a great amount of attention to detail in terms of the vast landscapes he draws up or the stories he writes up. 

Another focal point that Ghibli could turn to is the world of Gaming. Turning their attention to Gaming could be an ideal solution to focus on for the mean time if they want to please the many Ghibli audiences.. and I know they would do a good job. The reason behind saying this is because of their contribution to the RPG game of 'Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch'. Most of the artwork/cut scenes that were done in this game really did make me feel as though I was watching a proper Studio Ghibli film. being that the game is an RPG and took me a while to beat, it was always refreshing to see the amazing animation that Ghibli inserted into this game. By saying this then, it wouldn't surprise me if Ghibli would step into the realm of Video Games once again and make something that I and many others would enjoy for years.

Now in terms of the actual News of Ghibli taking a break to reassess their business structure, I was a shocked of what happened but not entirely. The reason why I'm not completely shocked by this story is the fact that Ghibli have been around for years in the film Industry. if you think about it, 29 years starting from the success of 'Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind' in the 80's up to now is a really long time and just hearing how they started in that time era is really something incredible. Even if they officially stated that they were not to make anymore features ever again, it would never degrade my feelings I have for the films they have produced over the years. I'll never forget the moment when I watched a Studio Ghibli for the first time and how they implemented the hand drawn animation so gracefully. I bet even Disney right now are feeling sorry for Ghibli after their own rivalry over who produced the best hand-drawn animation.

To end, I hope this short reassessment won't lead to a permanent good-bye Ghibli, though. We can think of one more animation studio that nearly packed it in after its visionary founder passed away in 1966. Thankfully , Disney decided to keep going after the successful release of 'Jungle Book' and now owns a film-making empire in the form of Pixar and Marvel.

Fingers crossed Ghibli can turn things around in the same way.

To Honour the genius of Ghibli, check this out!