7 ms·

Studio Ghibli marks 40 years, but future looks uncertain

122 points by gslin 1y ago

IG_Semmelweiss 1y ago
archive link https://archive.is/RcD0w https://archive.is/RcD0w
IG_Semmelweiss 1y ago
Unfortunately the article does not really explore its own title, just implying it could happen since, Miyazaki is old. We are all left to hope that Ghibli's studio keeps going even after Miyazaki stops.
HideousKojima 1y ago
Well their top directorial talent is retired (and even if it's another fake retirement like his last two, he's too old to do too much more) or dead. Miyazaki's films seem to be more popular and well known than Takahata's (personally Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns are the only Takahata films I've seen), but both men were the heart of the studio. Goro Miyazaki has improved since his debut but is still nowhere as talented nor as visionary as his father. Also The Boy and the Heron was quite a letdown for me for Miyazaki's final film. I understood the point he was trying to make, that the films he made were his attempt at creating a perfect world, but the malice in his own heart made him unable to accomplish his vision. But the rest of the film didn't really seem to be built around that message, it seemed like an afterthought for the final scenes where the great-uncle is trying to pass the mantle on to him. In any case, Princess Mononoke is my favorite film of all time, and the closest that Miyazaki (and Studio Ghibli) ever got to perfection. If you haven't seen it you should absolutely check it out.
- Magi604 1y ago
  Mononoke is also my favorite film. It's also (imo) one of the few animes that is equally good both in sub and dub.
  - HideousKojima 1y ago
    The dub is good, but Moro's Japanese voice actor makes the subs superior every time.
  - echelon 1y ago
    > Mononoke is also my favorite film. How are there that many of us? It really is a spectacular film. > equally good both in sub and dub. The dub has decent voice acting, but is plagued with changing the meaning of several scenes. Kaya is Ashitaka's little sister, not betrothed. They inserted fart jokes. Moro's voice is significantly different [1]. Also, Neil Gaiman was involved in the localization. I've never been a fan of his. There was also a really great anecdote about Miyazaki winning out over Harvey Weinstein [2]. "No Cuts!" Back when I was a kid, I bought Miramax's old Princess Mononoke marketing site [3]. I still have it floating around, I think. [1] https://www.out.com/film/2022/8/24/meet-japanese-drag-queen-who-voiced-iconic-ghibli-character https://www.out.com/film/2022/8/24/meet-japanese-drag-queen-... [2] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f4BgE1kdTGQ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f4BgE1kdTGQ [3] http://www.princess-mononoke.com/ http://www.princess-mononoke.com/ (not SSL, whoops!)
    - justsomehnguy 1y ago
      > They inserted fart jokes Whaaa? Can you provide any details? The fondness of Americans of anything butt-related is well known but this is something penultimate.
      - xdavidliu 1y ago
        i also was surprised at this and don't exactly remember one, but i were to guess, its one of the scenes of Jigo (short squat guy in sandals) eating porridge and laughing too hard maybe?
        echelon 1y ago
        It's at the introduction of Ashitaka, Eboshi, Toki, and Gonza at Iron Town. They used it to add levity to the situation, I guess? It was entirely pointless and stupid. edit: Actually, it was from the scene with Eboshi, Gonza, and the women talking about the threat from the emperor around the 1:17:00 - 1:18:00 mark. Right before Ashitaka wakes up in the cave and talks with Moro. It's comedic effect to get the women to laugh at the supposedly-tough Gonza. It's meant to be either a fart or someone blowing a raspberry, but none of the characters mouths are moving. I think it's clearly meant to be the former. I just watched the English and the Japanese versions and only the English dub has it. I need to watch this again. It's such a good movie.
- pimeys 1y ago
  It's either Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Lauputa, or Kiki's Delivery Service for me. Depending on the phase of the moon. But yeah, there are not many directors like Miyazaki or Kubrick left. Maybe I could count Céline Sciamma to the same company. I wish she would make a new movie soon.
  - onetokeoverthe 1y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Balconettes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Balconettes 2024. She's been at it nearly 20 years. True creativity has limits.
    - pimeys 1y ago
      Should put that to my watchlist. The trio of Tomboy, Girlhood, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire are some of my all time favorite movies.
  - pcthrowaway 1y ago
    Nausicaa for me, I feel like that movie is criminally underrated among his catalog. Totoro is certainly a close second though.
    - GuB-42 1y ago
      Is it really underrated? That's a shame then. Nausicaa is my favorite for several reasons. It may also be the most significant as it is technically not a Ghibli but the movie that lead to the creation of the studios.
    - HideousKojima 1y ago
      I thought Nausicaa was ok, but I'd read the entire manga before ever watching the film snd the changes from the manga were just too drastic for me.
  - yazantapuz 1y ago
    Porco Rosso is my favorite Ghibli/Miyazaki film.
- chucky_z 1y ago
  As I've gotten older, I have grown to understand that while a lot of these films are popular for good reason (and are extremely good!) some of the best films, objectively to me, are some of the 'quietier' ones. I'd say that Up On Poppy Hill is probably my partner and I's favorite Ghibli film. It's 'small' and 'quiet' in that the scope is a single town, and there's nothing super fantastical about it. Every time I watch it I see and hear something new. This is definitely Goro's best film as a director at Ghibli. The film that hit me the hardest though is The Wind Rises. If you are a married man this is a film that will absolutely effect you emotionally. There are some films that are targeted as extremely specific audiences and this is one of those. I think everyone can enjoy it, but there's a handful of scenes that are so specific that I connected with so directly that I could feel every moment that Miyazaki was trying to convey at that exact time. There's another film that is definitely more biased to adults, that is Only Yesterday. It's probably the slowest paced film that Ghibli has made, however it's one that's stuck with me so thoroughly. Especially the final few scenes, which only when they're over do you realize was something like 15-20 minutes with maybe a handful of dialogue lines. This is also another non-Miyazaki film that is extremely good.
  - CobaltFire 1y ago
    I completely agree. I adore the Ghibli classics, but the three you mentioned are my personal favorites for much the same reason.
- timr 1y ago
  > personally Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns are the only Takahata films I've seen You owe it to yourself to watch the Tale of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語). It might be his best film, and quite possibly one of the best ever produced by Ghibli. Takahata was robbed of the Oscar that year which went to...Big Hero. Ugh. Between Kaguya and Grave of the Fireflies, Takahata had two of the best films ever made, in any category, and never got an Oscar.
  - hedora 1y ago
    I know the Oscars are prestigious, but I can’t think of a single film in my top fifty favorites that won one. For me, they are a contrarian indicator.
    - nottorp 1y ago
      Grave of the fireflies can be described as depressing Oscar bait. I believe the reason Miyazaki's movies are so popular is because there is at least hope in them.
      - hedora 1y ago
        I think that’s unfair; it’s semi-autobiographical
        timr 1y ago
        It's based on a short story published by Akiyuki Nosaka [1] which was based on his own experiences, and in general, the fate of many children after the war [2]. As far as I can tell, the movie was a faithful re-enactment of the story, which itself was only slightly removed from the author's own experiences. War is fundamentally depressing, and the only thing you could reasonably call "oscar bait" was the choice to make the movie at all. Others might call it brave -- particularly when you realize that it was released at the same time as Totoro. The brilliance of the film was that it used "kids animation" to portray the misery of war in a way that I don't think any other movie ever has. It was a fundamental re-imagining of the scope of the medium, and the deep irony of a comment like the GP is that the entire reason it gets dismissed is because it pushes the boundaries of animation far beyond what is usually deemed acceptable. Miyazaki plays metaphorical footsie with themes like death and pain and obligation -- and maybe he's more successful because of it -- but Takahata just takes them head-on. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_... [2] https://thoughtmight.com/movie/grave-of-the-fireflies-misinformation/ https://thoughtmight.com/movie/grave-of-the-fireflies-misinf...
- wodenokoto 1y ago
  Cat return isn't directed by Takahata. Neither is the predecessor Whisper of the Heart, so I'm not sure which film you are thinking of, or if you've only ever watched one of his films. I agree that The Boy and Heron wasn't a very good film. It honestly felt like an imitation.
  - HideousKojima 1y ago
    For some reason my brain was remembering The Cat Returns as being directed by him, my bad
coldtea 1y ago
Studio Ghibli is Miyazaki. It goes with him.
coldtea 1y ago
Studio Ghibli is Miyazaki. It goes with him. Maybe not as a business name, but as an ethos and artisty, yes.
- hn_throwaway_99 1y ago
  I'm the same vein, though, wasn't Disney essentially Walt (and Roy) as well? Disney (the animation studio) went through a nadir between the death of Roy in 1971 before the start of the "Disney Renaissance" with The Little Mermaid in 1989 brought them back to form. I see no reason that Studio Ghibli couldn't eventually find outsized success after the death of Miyazaki.
  - kjkjadksj 1y ago
    It did die with Walt. They walked back a lot of his plans for the parks. They don’t make movies like they made in his era any longer. It is all CGI and live action lately. And after a certain point you have to wonder if there has been a significant loss of institutional knowledge on how to make a lot of those old hand made animations.
    - ronsor 1y ago
      > wonder if there has been a significant loss of institutional knowledge on how to make a lot of those old hand made animations No need to wonder: there has been, and basically all Disney 2D animation, even what little they do for the cinema, is outsourced overseas.
      - mitthrowaway2 1y ago
        Wasn't Cuphead done in the traditional hand-animated style, using many of the original techniques?
        h2zizzle 1y ago
        On the one hand, yes, but also consider that game animation is fundamentally different from cinematic animation. It often has to be modular and loopable, but that also means that much of it can be treated like anime's "sakuga" stock footage (high quality, because it's going to be seen a lot). Cuphead was also something of a passion project, and the studio insisted on studying and replicating the older techniques to the best of their ability. Basically, reverse engineering that process is probably a more expensive undertaking than most studios are willing to take. Look also at the Cuphead animated series, which was animated like a modern production (sadly).
godzillabrennus 1y ago
My Neighbor Totoro is a family favorite in our household. My wife loves it. We even play the soundtrack in the car and in our backyard. We also greatly enjoy the Ernest & Celestine movies. We are waiting for the show to make it to a streaming service for us to try that. I hope the next generation of Studio Ghibli isn't afraid to further explore the "Miyazaki universes" he envisioned. I know that AI will make it possible for others to do so, even if they drop the ball. I'm grateful for the work these people have done to entertain so many with heartfelt animations.
- ToucanLoucan 1y ago
  > I know that AI will make it possible for others to do so Disgusting take. If indeed Ghibli goes with Miyazaki, then let it go. Sometimes art is just done and that's a concept as a culture we have so much friction with. If a game isn't updating, it's dead. If a movie isn't getting a sequel, it's dead. If a studio stops creating it's treated like some kind of loss, as if the beautiful things it's already made aren't good enough because there can't be any more. Not every movie needs sequels, not every "universe" needs to have every corner of it documented and turned into subsequent works. For fucks sake just let stuff be finished, and that attitude comes with a bonus feature where maybe creatives won't be constantly burning themselves out under the demands of every audience. I genuinely can't fathom the sort of person who is like "this artists' work moved me and elevated me as a person, but I guess if they die I can use shitty image gen programs to see more of what they might've made." Gross. Just gross.
  - sifar 1y ago
    In Passing - Lisel Mueller How swiftly the strained honey of afternoon light flows into darkness and the closed bud shrugs off its special mystery in order to break into blossom as if what exists, exists so that it can be lost and become precious
    - ToucanLoucan 1y ago
      Beautiful piece. And yeah, I just don't get this. If you want this sort of never ending, never permitted to end media system you can have it, Disney is right there, with Star Wars, with it's live action remakes, with it's Marvel. Like it's comical how many juggernaut IP's they own that just churn out the very definition of content. And that's not to say all of it's bad, Andor is quite incredible, Wandivision combined it's tropey comic book story with genuinely heart-wrenching writing from House of M, and I could cite many other examples. But the vast majority, especially after Endgame, has just been completely forgettable, disposable shows and movies that are famously mediocre and disliked specifically because they have nothing to say, no point to make, and simply exist to occupy space on the Marvel treadmill. And to have that desired from Studio Ghibli is just... full body shudders man.
kilimounjaro 1y ago
The ghibli image generation meme was clearly responsible for a significant portion of openai’s growth to being a $300 billion company. If altman didnt throw ghibli at least a few hundred million for that, ghibli should sue openai.
- thr0waway001 1y ago
  It was a big deal for like about a week. It has died down now.
- GuB-42 1y ago
  The meme is likely to have profited both Studio Ghibli and OpenAI, as the studios probably got some publicity for it, without direct competition as Ghibli is not in the business of drawing memes. Either way, it probably doesn't amount to much, it was just a fad.
deadbabe 1y ago
One day you will read the headline “Hayao Miyazaki has died.” And you know that will also be the end of Studio Ghibli. Whatever comes next under that name, will only be a shadow of what it once was.
rvz 1y ago
Well the style has been destroyed by the grifters. On to the next one.
StopDisinfo910 1y ago
Some comments here are kind of weird. Ghibli is a production vehicle which was put in place to allow Takahata and Miyazaki to make and release their own movies. The studio also coproduced an interesting movie of Dudok de Wit and produced an awesome one by Kondo, a correct one by Morita and some unequal ones by Goro Miyazaki. It’s a midsized company employing plenty of producers, animators and other specialists. It could stop with Miyazaki retirement. It could keep going on making other movies which might or might not be as good as the Takahata and Miyazaki’s ones. Neither solution is inherently better. But, no, Ghibli isn’t Miyazaki. The idea makes as much sense as talking about a Studio Ghibli style while Takahata made movies which were widely different from one another.
- wodenokoto 1y ago
  > The studio also coproduced an interesting movie of Dudok de Wit and produced an awesome one by Kondo, a correct one by Morita and some unequal ones by Goro Miyazaki. Can you elaborate here? Is Kondo, Yoshifumo Kondo's Whisper of the Heart? Is Morita, Hiroyuki Morita's Cat return? I thought Cat return was a pretty bad movie by any account, but I'm also not sure what you mean by it being "a correct one".
  - StopDisinfo910 1y ago
    Yes, indeed, both are Ghibli movies. Whisper of the Heart is by all accounts a very successful movie and a critic darling. The cat return while not a masterpiece is an overall ok movie - I think pretty bad is harsh. Anyway the key point is that there is more to Ghibli that Miyazaki and even Takahata in the same way there is more to Miyazaki than Ghibli.
astnai 1y ago
i don’t think studio ghibli should shut down just because miyazaki retires. great studios outlive their founders—their spirit and vision can be passed on, refined, and kept alive through new talent. look at apple: steve jobs defined it, but the company kept going and still carries his legacy. ghibli could do the same. miyazaki shaped its soul, but that soul doesn’t have to vanish with him. it’d be a real loss to the world to never see anything new from ghibli again.
humanlity 1y ago
[dead]

122 points by gslin 1y ago

archive link https://archive.is/RcD0w https://archive.is/RcD0w

Unfortunately the article does not really explore its own title, just implying it could happen since, Miyazaki is old. We are all left to hope that Ghibli's studio keeps going even after Miyazaki stops.

HideousKojima 1y ago

Well their top directorial talent is retired (and even if it's another fake retirement like his last two, he's too old to do too much more) or dead. Miyazaki's films seem to be more popular and well known than Takahata's (personally Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns are the only Takahata films I've seen), but both men were the heart of the studio. Goro Miyazaki has improved since his debut but is still nowhere as talented nor as visionary as his father. Also The Boy and the Heron was quite a letdown for me for Miyazaki's final film. I understood the point he was trying to make, that the films he made were his attempt at creating a perfect world, but the malice in his own heart made him unable to accomplish his vision. But the rest of the film didn't really seem to be built around that message, it seemed like an afterthought for the final scenes where the great-uncle is trying to pass the mantle on to him. In any case, Princess Mononoke is my favorite film of all time, and the closest that Miyazaki (and Studio Ghibli) ever got to perfection. If you haven't seen it you should absolutely check it out.

Magi604 1y ago
Mononoke is also my favorite film. It's also (imo) one of the few animes that is equally good both in sub and dub.
- HideousKojima 1y ago
  The dub is good, but Moro's Japanese voice actor makes the subs superior every time.
- echelon 1y ago
  > Mononoke is also my favorite film. How are there that many of us? It really is a spectacular film. > equally good both in sub and dub. The dub has decent voice acting, but is plagued with changing the meaning of several scenes. Kaya is Ashitaka's little sister, not betrothed. They inserted fart jokes. Moro's voice is significantly different [1]. Also, Neil Gaiman was involved in the localization. I've never been a fan of his. There was also a really great anecdote about Miyazaki winning out over Harvey Weinstein [2]. "No Cuts!" Back when I was a kid, I bought Miramax's old Princess Mononoke marketing site [3]. I still have it floating around, I think. [1] https://www.out.com/film/2022/8/24/meet-japanese-drag-queen-who-voiced-iconic-ghibli-character https://www.out.com/film/2022/8/24/meet-japanese-drag-queen-... [2] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f4BgE1kdTGQ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f4BgE1kdTGQ [3] http://www.princess-mononoke.com/ http://www.princess-mononoke.com/ (not SSL, whoops!)
  - justsomehnguy 1y ago
    > They inserted fart jokes Whaaa? Can you provide any details? The fondness of Americans of anything butt-related is well known but this is something penultimate.
    - xdavidliu 1y ago
      i also was surprised at this and don't exactly remember one, but i were to guess, its one of the scenes of Jigo (short squat guy in sandals) eating porridge and laughing too hard maybe?
      - echelon 1y ago
        It's at the introduction of Ashitaka, Eboshi, Toki, and Gonza at Iron Town. They used it to add levity to the situation, I guess? It was entirely pointless and stupid. edit: Actually, it was from the scene with Eboshi, Gonza, and the women talking about the threat from the emperor around the 1:17:00 - 1:18:00 mark. Right before Ashitaka wakes up in the cave and talks with Moro. It's comedic effect to get the women to laugh at the supposedly-tough Gonza. It's meant to be either a fart or someone blowing a raspberry, but none of the characters mouths are moving. I think it's clearly meant to be the former. I just watched the English and the Japanese versions and only the English dub has it. I need to watch this again. It's such a good movie.
pimeys 1y ago
It's either Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Lauputa, or Kiki's Delivery Service for me. Depending on the phase of the moon. But yeah, there are not many directors like Miyazaki or Kubrick left. Maybe I could count Céline Sciamma to the same company. I wish she would make a new movie soon.
- onetokeoverthe 1y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Balconettes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Balconettes 2024. She's been at it nearly 20 years. True creativity has limits.
  - pimeys 1y ago
    Should put that to my watchlist. The trio of Tomboy, Girlhood, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire are some of my all time favorite movies.
- pcthrowaway 1y ago
  Nausicaa for me, I feel like that movie is criminally underrated among his catalog. Totoro is certainly a close second though.
  - GuB-42 1y ago
    Is it really underrated? That's a shame then. Nausicaa is my favorite for several reasons. It may also be the most significant as it is technically not a Ghibli but the movie that lead to the creation of the studios.
  - HideousKojima 1y ago
    I thought Nausicaa was ok, but I'd read the entire manga before ever watching the film snd the changes from the manga were just too drastic for me.
- yazantapuz 1y ago
  Porco Rosso is my favorite Ghibli/Miyazaki film.
chucky_z 1y ago
As I've gotten older, I have grown to understand that while a lot of these films are popular for good reason (and are extremely good!) some of the best films, objectively to me, are some of the 'quietier' ones. I'd say that Up On Poppy Hill is probably my partner and I's favorite Ghibli film. It's 'small' and 'quiet' in that the scope is a single town, and there's nothing super fantastical about it. Every time I watch it I see and hear something new. This is definitely Goro's best film as a director at Ghibli. The film that hit me the hardest though is The Wind Rises. If you are a married man this is a film that will absolutely effect you emotionally. There are some films that are targeted as extremely specific audiences and this is one of those. I think everyone can enjoy it, but there's a handful of scenes that are so specific that I connected with so directly that I could feel every moment that Miyazaki was trying to convey at that exact time. There's another film that is definitely more biased to adults, that is Only Yesterday. It's probably the slowest paced film that Ghibli has made, however it's one that's stuck with me so thoroughly. Especially the final few scenes, which only when they're over do you realize was something like 15-20 minutes with maybe a handful of dialogue lines. This is also another non-Miyazaki film that is extremely good.
- CobaltFire 1y ago
  I completely agree. I adore the Ghibli classics, but the three you mentioned are my personal favorites for much the same reason.
timr 1y ago
> personally Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns are the only Takahata films I've seen You owe it to yourself to watch the Tale of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語). It might be his best film, and quite possibly one of the best ever produced by Ghibli. Takahata was robbed of the Oscar that year which went to...Big Hero. Ugh. Between Kaguya and Grave of the Fireflies, Takahata had two of the best films ever made, in any category, and never got an Oscar.
- hedora 1y ago
  I know the Oscars are prestigious, but I can’t think of a single film in my top fifty favorites that won one. For me, they are a contrarian indicator.
  - nottorp 1y ago
    Grave of the fireflies can be described as depressing Oscar bait. I believe the reason Miyazaki's movies are so popular is because there is at least hope in them.
    - hedora 1y ago
      I think that’s unfair; it’s semi-autobiographical
      - timr 1y ago
        It's based on a short story published by Akiyuki Nosaka [1] which was based on his own experiences, and in general, the fate of many children after the war [2]. As far as I can tell, the movie was a faithful re-enactment of the story, which itself was only slightly removed from the author's own experiences. War is fundamentally depressing, and the only thing you could reasonably call "oscar bait" was the choice to make the movie at all. Others might call it brave -- particularly when you realize that it was released at the same time as Totoro. The brilliance of the film was that it used "kids animation" to portray the misery of war in a way that I don't think any other movie ever has. It was a fundamental re-imagining of the scope of the medium, and the deep irony of a comment like the GP is that the entire reason it gets dismissed is because it pushes the boundaries of animation far beyond what is usually deemed acceptable. Miyazaki plays metaphorical footsie with themes like death and pain and obligation -- and maybe he's more successful because of it -- but Takahata just takes them head-on. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_... [2] https://thoughtmight.com/movie/grave-of-the-fireflies-misinformation/ https://thoughtmight.com/movie/grave-of-the-fireflies-misinf...
wodenokoto 1y ago
Cat return isn't directed by Takahata. Neither is the predecessor Whisper of the Heart, so I'm not sure which film you are thinking of, or if you've only ever watched one of his films. I agree that The Boy and Heron wasn't a very good film. It honestly felt like an imitation.
- HideousKojima 1y ago
  For some reason my brain was remembering The Cat Returns as being directed by him, my bad

coldtea 1y ago

Studio Ghibli is Miyazaki. It goes with him.

coldtea 1y ago

Studio Ghibli is Miyazaki. It goes with him. Maybe not as a business name, but as an ethos and artisty, yes.

hn_throwaway_99 1y ago
I'm the same vein, though, wasn't Disney essentially Walt (and Roy) as well? Disney (the animation studio) went through a nadir between the death of Roy in 1971 before the start of the "Disney Renaissance" with The Little Mermaid in 1989 brought them back to form. I see no reason that Studio Ghibli couldn't eventually find outsized success after the death of Miyazaki.
- kjkjadksj 1y ago
  It did die with Walt. They walked back a lot of his plans for the parks. They don’t make movies like they made in his era any longer. It is all CGI and live action lately. And after a certain point you have to wonder if there has been a significant loss of institutional knowledge on how to make a lot of those old hand made animations.
  - ronsor 1y ago
    > wonder if there has been a significant loss of institutional knowledge on how to make a lot of those old hand made animations No need to wonder: there has been, and basically all Disney 2D animation, even what little they do for the cinema, is outsourced overseas.
    - mitthrowaway2 1y ago
      Wasn't Cuphead done in the traditional hand-animated style, using many of the original techniques?
      - h2zizzle 1y ago
        On the one hand, yes, but also consider that game animation is fundamentally different from cinematic animation. It often has to be modular and loopable, but that also means that much of it can be treated like anime's "sakuga" stock footage (high quality, because it's going to be seen a lot). Cuphead was also something of a passion project, and the studio insisted on studying and replicating the older techniques to the best of their ability. Basically, reverse engineering that process is probably a more expensive undertaking than most studios are willing to take. Look also at the Cuphead animated series, which was animated like a modern production (sadly).

godzillabrennus 1y ago

My Neighbor Totoro is a family favorite in our household. My wife loves it. We even play the soundtrack in the car and in our backyard. We also greatly enjoy the Ernest & Celestine movies. We are waiting for the show to make it to a streaming service for us to try that. I hope the next generation of Studio Ghibli isn't afraid to further explore the "Miyazaki universes" he envisioned. I know that AI will make it possible for others to do so, even if they drop the ball. I'm grateful for the work these people have done to entertain so many with heartfelt animations.

ToucanLoucan 1y ago
> I know that AI will make it possible for others to do so Disgusting take. If indeed Ghibli goes with Miyazaki, then let it go. Sometimes art is just done and that's a concept as a culture we have so much friction with. If a game isn't updating, it's dead. If a movie isn't getting a sequel, it's dead. If a studio stops creating it's treated like some kind of loss, as if the beautiful things it's already made aren't good enough because there can't be any more. Not every movie needs sequels, not every "universe" needs to have every corner of it documented and turned into subsequent works. For fucks sake just let stuff be finished, and that attitude comes with a bonus feature where maybe creatives won't be constantly burning themselves out under the demands of every audience. I genuinely can't fathom the sort of person who is like "this artists' work moved me and elevated me as a person, but I guess if they die I can use shitty image gen programs to see more of what they might've made." Gross. Just gross.
- sifar 1y ago
  In Passing - Lisel Mueller How swiftly the strained honey of afternoon light flows into darkness and the closed bud shrugs off its special mystery in order to break into blossom as if what exists, exists so that it can be lost and become precious
  - ToucanLoucan 1y ago
    Beautiful piece. And yeah, I just don't get this. If you want this sort of never ending, never permitted to end media system you can have it, Disney is right there, with Star Wars, with it's live action remakes, with it's Marvel. Like it's comical how many juggernaut IP's they own that just churn out the very definition of content. And that's not to say all of it's bad, Andor is quite incredible, Wandivision combined it's tropey comic book story with genuinely heart-wrenching writing from House of M, and I could cite many other examples. But the vast majority, especially after Endgame, has just been completely forgettable, disposable shows and movies that are famously mediocre and disliked specifically because they have nothing to say, no point to make, and simply exist to occupy space on the Marvel treadmill. And to have that desired from Studio Ghibli is just... full body shudders man.

kilimounjaro 1y ago

The ghibli image generation meme was clearly responsible for a significant portion of openai’s growth to being a $300 billion company. If altman didnt throw ghibli at least a few hundred million for that, ghibli should sue openai.

thr0waway001 1y ago
It was a big deal for like about a week. It has died down now.
GuB-42 1y ago
The meme is likely to have profited both Studio Ghibli and OpenAI, as the studios probably got some publicity for it, without direct competition as Ghibli is not in the business of drawing memes. Either way, it probably doesn't amount to much, it was just a fad.

deadbabe 1y ago

One day you will read the headline “Hayao Miyazaki has died.” And you know that will also be the end of Studio Ghibli. Whatever comes next under that name, will only be a shadow of what it once was.

rvz 1y ago

Well the style has been destroyed by the grifters. On to the next one.

StopDisinfo910 1y ago

Some comments here are kind of weird. Ghibli is a production vehicle which was put in place to allow Takahata and Miyazaki to make and release their own movies. The studio also coproduced an interesting movie of Dudok de Wit and produced an awesome one by Kondo, a correct one by Morita and some unequal ones by Goro Miyazaki. It’s a midsized company employing plenty of producers, animators and other specialists. It could stop with Miyazaki retirement. It could keep going on making other movies which might or might not be as good as the Takahata and Miyazaki’s ones. Neither solution is inherently better. But, no, Ghibli isn’t Miyazaki. The idea makes as much sense as talking about a Studio Ghibli style while Takahata made movies which were widely different from one another.

wodenokoto 1y ago
> The studio also coproduced an interesting movie of Dudok de Wit and produced an awesome one by Kondo, a correct one by Morita and some unequal ones by Goro Miyazaki. Can you elaborate here? Is Kondo, Yoshifumo Kondo's Whisper of the Heart? Is Morita, Hiroyuki Morita's Cat return? I thought Cat return was a pretty bad movie by any account, but I'm also not sure what you mean by it being "a correct one".
- StopDisinfo910 1y ago
  Yes, indeed, both are Ghibli movies. Whisper of the Heart is by all accounts a very successful movie and a critic darling. The cat return while not a masterpiece is an overall ok movie - I think pretty bad is harsh. Anyway the key point is that there is more to Ghibli that Miyazaki and even Takahata in the same way there is more to Miyazaki than Ghibli.

astnai 1y ago

i don’t think studio ghibli should shut down just because miyazaki retires. great studios outlive their founders—their spirit and vision can be passed on, refined, and kept alive through new talent. look at apple: steve jobs defined it, but the company kept going and still carries his legacy. ghibli could do the same. miyazaki shaped its soul, but that soul doesn’t have to vanish with him. it’d be a real loss to the world to never see anything new from ghibli again.

humanlity 1y ago

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