Is Studio Ghibli Still Making Films?

In Japan, this has been a hot subject on the internet in recent weeks.

First and foremost, as mentioned in the BBC article, Ghibli is just going to do some “house cleaning.” This means there is no indication that it would fully stop producing.

Let me begin by explaining why Ghibli is forced to make such a decision.

Ghibli is best known for its animated films directed by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, particularly after Yoshifumi Kond died in 1998. Given that both directors are in their 70s, it’s not shocking that they chose to step down last year. Ghibli will be without a manager as well-known as them until they leave.

Worse still, Ghibli’s financial position is precarious. Isao Takahata’s most recent film cost over 5 billion JPY, but only made a little more than 2 billion JPY at the box office. The payroll cost is estimated to be about 2 billion JPY per year due to the high number of workers. It’s worth noting that in Japan’s animation industry, hiring animation workers as employees and paying set wages is uncommon. Animator studios typically have a limited number of permanent staff and will recruit temporary animators if required.

 

As a result, it’s apparent that, after the retirement of Miyazaki and Takahata, Ghibli will no longer be able to produce films that generate much box office income to offset its costs. It’s past time for Ghibli to spice things up.

 

A new film by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who is only 41 years old, is part of the “altar.” In 2010, he made his directorial debut with Arrietty, and this time, When Marnie Was There is Ghibli’s first film without Miyazaki or Takahata.

 

On July 20th, the day after When Marnie Was There was out, rumors began to circulate on the internet that Ghibli would cease production and concentrate solely on handling copyrights for previous films. Then, on August 4th, a TBS television program aired Suzuki’s speech at Studio Ghibli’s annual general meeting, in which he announced that Ghibli would take a break and restructure its animation department.

 

When Marnie Was There had a box office gross of marginally more than 1.5 billion JPY, which I feel is not very satisfactory. And this is likely to influence the above-mentioned decision.

 

According to my interpretation of the constraint, Ghibli would most likely have a much smaller animation department in order to save money. It, like other smaller animation companies, can also employ contract animators if required.

After all, even though Ghibli really wanted to halt manufacturing, it was not completely unexpected. This possibility was foreseen by Miyazaki a long time ago.

 

When asked about Miyazaki, he said, “In the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, he was asked if he was concerned about the future of Studio Ghibli, and he said, “The future is open.” The studio will not be able to continue operating. That’s something I’ve noticed.”

 

How do you react to this news? Leave your comments below to discuss with us!

 

Cre: https://www.quora.com/Will-Studio-Ghibli-stop-making-movies