The year is 1997 and the famous director of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki announced plans to retire after the release of Princess Mononoke, a film that set new box office records for Japanese animation and revolutionized the medium. The year is 2001 and Miyazaki announced plans to retire after the release of Made to disappear, saying that he can no longer work on animated feature films. The year is 2013 and Miyazaki announced plans to retire after the release of The wind increases, Saying that “If I said I wanted to (make another feature film), I would sound like an old man saying something stupid.”
The year is 2023 and Miyazaki is an old man who says something stupid when releasing a new movie, titled How do you live in Japan and renowned The boy and the heron for the international market.
The point is, it’s hard to say for sure if this will actually be the moment when Hayao Miyazaki steps away from animation for good (he’ll probably never completely step away from animation, as he directed a new short for the Ghibli Museum during his last retirement , Boro the caterpillar).
