Studio Ghibli is synonymous with anime in mainstream culture. The average person could recognize Totoro at this point. Despite focusing almost entirely on film, Studio Ghibli has cemented itself as one of the most recognizable animation studios. Anime fans know Studio Ghibli, and those who don’t even understand what “anime” is are more likely to recognize it than any other animation studio.
Founded over 40 years ago, Studio Ghibli created some of the most awe-inspiring animated works ever, the kind that audiences and critics across the world continue to praise.
From My Neighbor Totoro in 1988 all the way to The Boy and the Heron in 2023, Studio Ghibli is very accomplished, but that’s largely on the back of the co-founder, honorary chairman, and storyteller extraordinaire - Hayao Miyazaki. The staff of artists and animators at Studio Ghibli have done amazing things, but Miyazaki has been the leading visionary and symbolic figurehead.
Miyazaki has been behind most of the studio’s top works, but at 85, with multiple retirements under his belt, what does the future of Studio Ghibli look like?
Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata
While Hayao Miyazaki has often been the face of Studio Ghibli, serving as its most prolific director in its 40+ year history, he was not the sole creator. It also was not the beginning of his career.
As a child, Miyazaki wanted to be a manga artist, and he quickly formed his ideology around art, seeing legends of the industry like Osamu Tezuka as “fellow artists” rather than figures to idolize. Later, he watched The White Snake Enchantress (1958), Japan’s first animated feature in color, and discovered his interest in animation and his desire to create meaningful work.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Miyazaki evolved, turning from an in-between artist to an animator and then director, working at Toei Animation, A-Pro, Zuiyō Eizō (which split and became Nippon Animation), and Tokyo Movie Shinsha. While also working on a manga series, People of the Desert (1969-1970), he worked on projects such as:
- Moomin (1969)
- Animal Treasure Island (1971)
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974)
- And Lupin the III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
Isao Takahata had a similar trajectory, becoming interested in animation after seeing Le Roi et l'Oiseau (1952) and then working for Toei Animation. Both he and Miyazaki met and helped lead Toei’s labor union and had an almost identical path through studios until Toshio Suzuki came into their lives.
Suzuki was an editor for anime and entertainment magazine Animage, under the parent company Tokuma Shoten. Suzuki previously approached Miyazaki and Takahata for interviews, and now Tokuma Shoten was interested in a manga from Miyazaki, as well as a potential animation project.
Miyazaki began working on the manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982-1994) with Topcraft animation studio for the 1984 film adaptation. However, he quickly brought Takahata on as a producer when he had issues with Topcraft’s staff.
Nausicaä was a critical and commercial success, helping lay the financial and professional foundation for Miyazaki and Takahata to create a new animation studio for premium, original anime films - Studio Ghibli.
Studio Ghibli 1984 - 2008
Like a warm wind coming from the Sahara and the Italian warplane they named it after, Studio Ghibli was a force the Japanese animation industry had not seen. Propped up by the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984, Miyazaki, Suzuki, and Takahata wanted to put out fully fleshed-out animated works that had the care and attention they deserved.
In this era, Studio Ghibli was a subsidiary of Tokuma Shoten, and Toshio Suzuki essentially served as its representative. He served on the production committee for Castle in the Sky (1986), as well as My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988). In 1989, he left Tokuma Shoten and officially joined the studio as a producer.
Until 2005, the team was under the Tokuma Shoten banner, releasing works like:
- Princess Mononoke (1997)
- The TV film Ocean Waves (1993)
- Shorts like the On Your Mark (1995) music video
The partnership ended here, and Studio Ghibli went independent.
This era saw success with 2008’s Ponyo, but people didn’t love the other releases. Gorō Miyazaki, Hayao’s son, directed Tales from Earthsea in 2006. It was a critical and box-office disappointment, a precursor to what Studio Ghibli projects would look like without Miyazaki at the helm.
Studio Ghibli 2008 - 2015
From the beginning, Miyazaki directed in addition to Isao Takahata and other names like Yoshifumi Kondō (1995’s Whisper of the Heart) and Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010’s The Secret World of Arrietty). Most were successful, but they were not in the same league as Miyazaki’s works, commercially or critically. Even though Miyazaki and the others may not have liked to admit it, when people thought of the studio, they thought of him.
As the studio progressed, Miyazaki continuously expressed his desire to retire. His first official retirement was in 1998, and Yoshifumi Kondō succeeded him. Just a week later, Kondō tragically passed away at 47. It wasn’t but a few days later that Miyazaki came back.
Miyazaki was also vocal about wanting to retire in 2005, which contributed to Suzuki wanting Gorō to direct the Earthsea film.
Miyazaki wrote and directed Ponyo in 2008, and five years later, he announced his retirement alongside the release of his most personal film to that point, The Wind Rises (2013). The story here stepped away from childhood and fantasy, instead telling the story of Jiro Horikoshi, real-life warplane designer. In a 2013 press conference after the film’s release, Miyazaki stated at a press conference:
I know I’ve said I would retire many times in the past. Many of you must think, ‘Once again.’ But this time I am quite serious…this will never happen again.
- Hayao Miyazaki
The same year, then-77-year-old Isao Takahata released The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and stated that this would be his last film for the studio. He stayed on as an artistic producer and passed away in 2018.
Toshio Suzuki moved to the role of Studio Ghibli general manager in 2014, following Takahata and Miyazaki’s retirements. Later that year, he announced Studio Ghibli would restructure, figuring out its direction for the future. Amidst this restructuring, multiple producers, staffers, and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi left, creating Studio Ponoc in 2015.
Studio Ghibli 2015 - 2023
It was a weird time for the studio. Gorō released the computer-animated anime Ronja, the Robber's Daughter in 2014-2015. The next year, Studio Ghibli co-produced The Red Turtle alongside multiple French studios.
In 2017, Suzuki announced Miyazaki, then 76-years old, was out of retirement and working on what became The Boy and the Heron. The only other Studio Ghibli release during this time was Gorō’s TV film, Earwig and the Witch (2020), an entirely 3D CG-animated film. Aside from Gorō’s project, all hands at Studio Ghibli were working on The Boy and the Heron. It took some time and a lot of resources, with Suzuki claiming it was the most expensive film to ever come out of Japan, but they eventually released it in 2023.
The film was a return to form for the studio. It became the highest-grossing Japanese film that year and won Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards. Many thought this was a sendoff for Miyazaki, especially when examining the film’s themes (which I will touch on later), but it seems this is far from the truth. Suzuki stated that Miyazaki regularly talks about working on new projects.
Studio Ghibli: Now and Into the Future
While Miyazaki is apparently working quietly in the background on his next project, chugging along at 85, Studio Ghibli still has to make money. They released The Boy and the Heron in July, and a few months later, Nippon Television Holdings, Inc (NTV) acquired a large stake in the company.
This move has not been easy for Studio Ghibli. It presented itself as being simple, but it has been anything but. In the background, there have been accusations of financial impropriety directed at Toshio Suzuki, leading to a musical-chairs battle for the company president and chairman roles. However, these accusations are hearsay, uncorroborated by mainstream Japanese media.
Aside from the interviews where Suzuki discusses Miyazaki’s new projects, the only new release has been A Night in the Valley of Witches (2026), Gorō Miyazaki and Akihiko Yamashita’s new short for Ghibli Park (the amusement park Studio Ghibli opened in 2022).
Studio Ghibli has shown care for the Ghibli Museum (opened in 2001) and this new amusement park, but aside from these offerings, their output has steadily gone down. Amidst retirements, deaths, and company turnover, the studio’s future is unclear. It can seem sad comparing the recent output to the “glory days” of the studio, but I think Miyazaki himself has an interesting perspective on the situation that we can piece together after closely examining The Boy and the Heron.
Miyazaki and Letting Go
Suzuki says that Miyazaki was originally inspired by his relationship with Takahata and Suzuki when creating the film, but after Takahata’s death, he made some revisions, taking the more personal themes in a slightly different direction.
Granduncle in the film is trying to build and stop his tower of blocks from crumbling, in turn keeping his fantasy world alive. This creation is a burden, and it’s worn on him for years. He wants Mahito to inherit the blocks, but says that only someone free of malice can maintain this “pure fantasy world.” Mahito chooses not to inherit this legacy, believing he is too impure. Granduncle accepts.
If you interpret Miyazaki as Granduncle in the story, you can see that he wanted someone to inherit his legacy and succeed him. He’s tried this, tried retiring multiple times, but The Boy and the Heron and his commitment to work after release seem to signal he’s come to terms with the idea that Studio Ghibli may end with him.
Miyazaki, his stories, and the messages he wishes to espouse with his art don’t need to last forever in order to make a difference - throughout the years, they’ve already been able to change the lives of millions of people.
There may be loose ends with his career and Studio Ghibli, but it’s these loose ends that others will weave into new stories. Not everything needs a resolution or clean ending. Sometimes they will simply move on and create the foundation for something new - a rich tapestry of life and art. Studio Ghibli may end with Miyazaki. It may continue on. Either way, it will have existed and left an indelible impact.
