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Kotaku/NewsCafe report that Studio Ghibli might stop making films

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K

krYlon

Member
ЯAW;122156077 said:
Takahata is money drain.
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The way I saw it, Miyazaki made the mainstream films to fund Takahata making the proper arthouse films :)

I mean how many films has Takahata made anyway? You can't call him a drain when he hardly makes anything. I think everyone at Ghibli knows his films aren't there to make loads of money, and kaguya would have been made with this realisation.
 
B

Blader

Member
Maybe Miyazaki's retirement and Ghibli's closure would light a fire under Anno's ass to do that Nausicaa sequel.
 
J

jerry1594

Member
They should do a Lupin III movie. Based on the little I've seen of the series I don't care for it but Castle of Cagliostro was amazing.
 
M

MikeHattsu

Member
Originally posted by Quasar in AnimeGAF:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...rns-less-than-half-of-arrietty-in-1st-weekend

Studio Ghibli's latest anime film When Marnie Was There directed by 41-year-old Hiromasa Yonebayashi opened in Japan with 461 screens on July 19 and earned a very disappointing 379,000,000 yen (about US$3,734,000) with 285,200 ticket sales in its first weekend.

It took third place in the weekend box office following Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction in 1st and Maleficent in 2nd. The result was only 42% of his first feature film The Secret World of Arrietty, which made about 900,000,000 yen with 680,000 tickets in its opening weekend on July 17-18, 2010, in 447 screens.
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Confirmed bomb?
 
F

Farslain

Member
Did they accidentally read Kotaku and lose the will to keep going?

OT, I think I'd happily accept Ghibli at their average level for many years to come. I'd prefer more Spirited Away and Mononoke of course, I don't think anyone else is capable of reaching so high.

Sad news if this isn't more bullshit click bait.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Blader said:
Maybe Miyazaki's retirement and Ghibli's closure would light a fire under Anno's ass to do that Nausicaa sequel.
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It'll be an incoherent R-rated sequel produced by Studio Khara in full CG with nudity and violence, followed by years of lewd merchandising pandering to sick otakus. Yes, I can see it now. The future. It's so clear.
 
R

Roi

Member
Maybe they should stop before the high quality falls.. On the other end, Disney also had its ups-and-downs but I'm glad they're still around.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
Farslain said:
Did they accidentally read Kotaku and lose the will to keep going?

OT, I think I'd happily accept Ghibli at their average level for many years to come. I'd prefer more Spirited Away and Mononoke of course, I don't think anyone else is capable of reaching so high.

Sad news if this isn't more bullshit click bait.
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Well, its not. But I would take this about as seriously as Miyazaki retiring. This isn't the first time this has been suggested and they always seem to bring it up near/after a films release...
 
D

duckroll

Member
Well, it's worth noting that regardless of whether this rumor is true, Ghibli probably won't have another movie for 2-3 years. Yonebayashi and Goro Miyazaki seem to be the only two other directors at the studio capable of managing a production. Takahata will probably never release another film again. Hayao Miyazaki has retired. Since Marnie just came out, it'll be 2-3 years before Yonebayashi can make another film even if they decide to go ahead with it. Goro Miyazaki is currenting directing a CG anime TV adaptation of Ronia the Robber's Daughter at Polygon Pictures, which will be starting this Fall. So he wouldn't be free to start production on a new film at Ghibli until later next year at the earliest.

If Ghibli chooses not to address these rumors, they can continue on for a couple of years without there being any certainty to their claims.
 
T

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
Of course then the unflinching tyrant leaves nobody knows what to do. An unflinching tyrant doesn't want to take other unflinching tyrants under his wing. And other unflinching tyrants have different visions anyway. Ghibli is Miyazaki's house and it should die with him.

Hand drawn animation is finished. Goodbye.
 
O

omnislayer

Member
Timedog said:
Of course then the unflinching tyrant leaves nobody knows what to do. An unflinching tyrant doesn't want to take other unflinching tyrants under his wing. And other unflinching tyrants have different visions anyway. Ghibli is Miyazaki's house and it should die with him.

Hand drawn animation is finished. Goodbye.
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Mokoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda make great films, and while they're not animated on cels like ghibli films they're still hand drawn. It would be more accurate to say tradition animation is dead, as ghibli is the only studio I know of that still uses cels.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
omnislayer said:
Mokoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda make great films, and while they're not animated on cels like ghibli films they're still hand drawn. It would be more accurate to say tradition animation is dead, as ghibli is the only studio I know of that still uses cels.
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I'm pretty sure they have been digital since/after My Neighbor the Yamadas and Mononoke.
 
S

SporeCrawler

Member
Ratrat said:
If that's true then they should close and Takahata and Yonebayashi should never have been allowed to make films. Its the 18th highest all time grossing film in Japan, 6th if you only count Japanese films. Yes, five of those are Miyazaki but none of those targeted an adult audiences. It's honestly miraculous that it made that much.
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after marnie i really cant wait for the next yonebashi film
 
D

duckroll

Member
Aquamarine said:
In general, Studio Ghibli produces their films digitally (no cels) but still hand-draws all of the scenes...as opposed to using a computer to help create the animations.

Hand-drawing + using domestic in-house talent without outsourcing leads to lots of overhead and expensive productions that might not be so viable anymore.
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Lots of the anime industry is still hand drawn. Nothing particularly unique to Ghibli. They just do better work because they're a big movie-only studio with larger budgets. It's not like Ghibli doesn't use CG animation either for their films. Most are not 100% hand drawn. There's a ton of pretty obvious and iffy CG in Earthsea for example. Ghibli outsources too. Everyone in the animation industry does. You can't animate "everything" in-house. There just isn't enough resources to do enough animation in a timely manner internally, especially for the in-betweening process. Makes no sense either.

There's really nothing magical about Ghibli's production process that makes them different from any other animation studio other than talent, oversight, and effort. Many of the top animators who work on Ghibli features are freelancers too, who are only contracted to the studio for the films, instead of studio employees.
 
S

SporeCrawler

Member
ЯAW;122274520 said:
For me it didn't really feel like Ghibli film. It was a movie that anyother studio could have produced. Good movie, but just not enough. Hopefully Goro's tv project works out.
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miyazaki did a lot of great pre-ghibli tv anime. i would welcome them making those kind of things
 
X

/XX/

Member
omnislayer said:
Mokoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda make great films, and while they're not animated on cels like ghibli films they're still hand drawn. It would be more accurate to say tradition animation is dead, as ghibli is the only studio I know of that still uses cels.
Click to expand...
Ratrat said:
I'm pretty sure they have been digital since/after My Neighbor the Yamadas and Mononoke.
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Yeah, full-digital workflow for a long time now, with Princess Mononoke as a transition work and My Neighbors the Yamadas as definitive. Along with partner Hewlett-Packard Japan Ltd., they have touted this system processes as totally digital in promotion events for their workstations:

スタジオジブリ、「ゲド戦記」のフルデジタル制作環境を説明
http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20060626/hp.htm

As an anecdote and largely symbolical move, the long-standing production and biggest stronghold of 'hand-drawn on celluloid' work that was the series Sazae-san went full-digital too this past year.
 
X

/XX/

Member
Oh, and I think people are taking this as a definitive proof of an end to the studio's productions, when this is not what is being implied! It's all in the air, and transformations on how they affront big budget works may occur compared to the continuous stream of projects they were green-lighting, but they could definitely continue on a case-by-case basis.

Look, on the very same TOKYO FM's GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE radio program that has been mentioned as a source Toshio Suzuki talked about how, if someone related to the traditional studio's culture wants to affront a new project, a new team structure will be formed to accomplish it. This makes clear the intention of keeping Studio Ghibli as an animation production company but without the full-time employees at the animation dept. and such the studio was hosting until now.

Now, they have to make clear this offer for Mr. Takahata, who said doing a new film would depend on the studio's willingness to entrust him with the work. :)
 
G

GCX

Member
ЯAW;122276572 said:
I never understood why Ghibli didn't do more TV projects. I would even imagine it would have been better way to teach new talent.
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Despite making TV shows for decades, Miyazaki has always hated the insane work load and schedules of a Japanese TV production.

In the Starting Point book for example Miyazaki tells a story of some finish inspector co-worker woman who slept only two hours every night for years. She only went home to do her laundry and otherwise was always at work. That continued until her health collapsed and she was hospitalized. But of course since she had turned into a workaholic, she continued the same work after she got a little better.

If you want to make an anime show better than average with the limited time and money avalaible, it takes extreme dedication like that to happen. Feature film production must feel like heaven compared to that.
 
B

Barkley's Justice

Member
Ghibli hasn't been making compelling movies for a while now. Poppy Hill was whatever man. I haven't seen Marnie but it looks uninteresting. Even Wind Rises wasn't all that...Shoot, I'd even argue the fall off started at Howl's Moving Castle.

Ghibli has a high standard to live up to. It has to be daunting for a young animator there. I'd imagine it's very restrictive too, with characters all seemingly modeled in the "Ghibli" way. That is unlike, say, Pixar where characters from The Incredibles look different than characters from Up, etc. Creativity, in other words, seems stiffled or limited for anyone but Miyazaki. With so many restrictions on style, it's no wonder Ghibli is capping out.
 
K

krYlon

Member
Barkley's Justice said:
I'd imagine it's very restrictive too, with characters all seemingly modeled in the "Ghibli" way. That is unlike, say, Pixar where characters from The Incredibles look different than characters from Up, etc. Creativity, in other words, seems stiffled or limited for anyone but Miyazaki. With so many restrictions on style, it's no wonder Ghibli is capping out.
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Well, I mean I don't want to become Takahata's spokesperson, but you really need to watch some of his films before making crazy statements like that. His films are a lot more creative than Miyazaki's. And the characters are always modeled differently.

I'm not sure if the other younger directors have been told to animate in the "ghibli" way (if that's the point you're trying to make), but certainly creativity isn't "stiffled or limited for anyone but Miyazaki".
 
R

ryan-ts

Member
Barkley's Justice said:
Ghibli hasn't been making compelling movies for a while now. Poppy Hill was whatever man. I haven't seen Marnie but it looks uninteresting. Even Wind Rises wasn't all that...Shoot, I'd even argue the fall off started at Howl's Moving Castle.
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Going by date of release, the last Ghibli movie I loved was Whisper of the Heart. I'm still happy they kept releasing movies even if I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as their earlier works. While I don't love movies like Princess Mononoke or Arrietty, I'm sure there are still plenty of people who will cherish them for years to come.
 
S

Semantic Continuum

Member
Ratrat said:
But I would take this about as seriously as Miyazaki retiring. This isn't the first time this has been suggested and they always seem to bring it up near/after a films release...
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I don't know. This time, He made a pretty divisive movie with The Wind Rises, that has garnered a lot of criticism in Japan. Also he is starting to get REALLY old (73 this year), and I can't imagine that it has no influence on getting the work done, even if the movie schedule is more lax.
Although I guess most of it is that I can't think of something he hasn't already done/said. To me TWR brought definitive closure to the H.M. era, unlike his other retirement scares.
 
S

SporeCrawler

Member
Barkley's Justice said:
Ghibli hasn't been making compelling movies for a while now. Poppy Hill was whatever man. I haven't seen Marnie but it looks uninteresting. Even Wind Rises wasn't all that...Shoot, I'd even argue the fall off started at Howl's Moving Castle.

Ghibli has a high standard to live up to. It has to be daunting for a young animator there. I'd imagine it's very restrictive too, with characters all seemingly modeled in the "Ghibli" way. That is unlike, say, Pixar where characters from The Incredibles look different than characters from Up, etc. Creativity, in other words, seems stiffled or limited for anyone but Miyazaki. With so many restrictions on style, it's no wonder Ghibli is capping out.
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thats the problem
 
Jex

Jex

Member
BadWolf said:
No way.

There is barely anything there when you take into account the full story in the manga.
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The manga just highlights that Miyazaki can't really do long form storytelling very well. It's a mess, a bit like the Akira manga. The important essence of the tale is already found in the movie.
 
pants

pants

Member
Timedog said:
Of course then the unflinching tyrant leaves nobody knows what to do. An unflinching tyrant doesn't want to take other unflinching tyrants under his wing. And other unflinching tyrants have different visions anyway. Ghibli is Miyazaki's house and it should die with him.

Hand drawn animation is finished. Goodbye.
Click to expand...

You sound very bitter
 
K

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
I'm torn on this.

Ghibli peaked with Mononoke and Spirited Away and has never managed to make anything quite like those ever since, if only commercially. What came afterwards had charm sometimes but was derivative (Howl), too childish/simple (Ponyo, Return of the Cat), not Ghibli-like (Poppy Hill) or just plain bad (Earthsea).

I did love Kaguya, but Ghibli can't rely on Takahata to stay afloat. His movies are too far and few between, and Kaguya wasn't even a commercial success.

Still, Ghibli has no equivalent in the movie industry. I'll be sad to see it go nonetheless.
 
K

krYlon

Member
Jexhius said:
The manga just highlights that Miyazaki can't really do long form storytelling very well. It's a mess, a bit like the Akira manga. The important essence of the tale is already found in the movie.
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Wow. I like both the Nausicaa and Akira movies, but I see them as companion pieces to the Manga. In no way are they worthy replacements.

I definitely wouldn't call them messes, they are flawed yes, but far more powerful, satisfying and well, epic than the Anime.

I'm just glad the manga and anime exist for both.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
ЯAW;122274520 said:
For me it didn't really feel like Ghibli film. It was a movie that anyother studio could have produced. Good movie, but just not enough. Hopefully Goro's tv project works out.
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I wasn't crazy about it, though it was an incredibly good looking movie, but i think it did have that Ghibli spirit in it, if only in some elements.
Like the attention to little details when they cook, how they spend time to show how they get every ingredient from various cabinets and such in the kitchen, that felt very typical of them, to me.
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
If Studio Ghibli were to stop creating new films I think the younger talent within SG should branch off and form their own studio, then they can try some stuff without the pressure of living up to Miyazaki's name every time.
 
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