If the anime industry needs to thank anyone for the global fame and recognition it has achieved in the past few years, it should be Hayao Miyazaki. The co-founder of Studio Ghibli and the creator of some of the greatest anime movies in the world, Miyazaki has been contributing to the growth of the anime industry for over sixty years.
His works have inspired many other creators and have also represented the world of anime on global stages like the Academy Awards. However, what many people don’t know is that Miyazaki was going to leave the community more than ten years ago. He was going to retire and focus on other aspects of life, as he had given most of his life to anime.
In fact, he even officially confirmed in an interview that he doesn’t have the age to create feature-length movies like his previous projects. But the love for creation and anime brought him back, and he created one of if not the biggest movies of his life, which also earned him his second Oscar.
Hayao Miyazaki was going to retire ten years ago
One of Miyazaki’s greatest works was The Wind Rises, which was based on his own manga series and came out in 2013. The movie was quite popular, and it was supposed to be the Japanese creator’s last movie, as he claimed in an interview after the release of the movie(via Evert Vriezinga – English). Not only that, he even revealed his plans for the future.
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Miyazaki stated:
I don’t have the age anymore to make a feature-length film! I have other projects. I would want to do some other projects. Do comics as a hobby! Make short films for the Ghibli museum. Design for temporary expositions of our museum. And I would want to have time to do long walks.
When Miyazaki was asked about why he wanted to retire after creating The Wind Rises, the Japanese creator explained that he has reached an age when he is no longer capable of making full-length motion pictures.
He pointed out that he would much rather do other projects like mangas, make short films, focus on the Studio Ghibli museum, and spend some time on himself. Considering his long contribution to the anime world, this decision seemed understandable.
Hayao Miyazaki’s return after retirement
Although Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement after The Wind Rises, he actually did not take it seriously. He enjoyed his life away from work for a few years, but eventually, he came back and created probably the biggest project of his life in the form of The Boy and the Heron. He also made a short film called Boro the Caterpillar, which came out in 2018.
However, The Boy and the Heron stole the show because it got him his second Oscar for the Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. It was also the fifth highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. Studio Ghibli announced the film in 2017, but the storyboarding began in 2016 and was scheduled to be released in 2020.
The movie brought back the Miyazaki charm and was celebrated all over the world. To this day, it is considered one of his biggest works, and although the Japanese creator has once again taken retirement, there is a chance that he might make a comeback once again if he gets a better story than his previous works.
The Wind Rises and The Boy and the Heron are available to stream on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
