Studio Ghibli president Koji Hoshino has announced that acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker and studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki will retire following a prolific career that has spanned some fifty-two years. No formal date was set for Miyazaki's retirement, but Hoshino confirmed
The Wind Rises to be the animation visionary's final film.
Miyazaki began his career in 1963 at Toei Animation, where, in 1968, he served as chief animator on director Isao Takahata's
Hols: Prince of the Sun. In 1971, Miyazaki re-teamed with Takahata to co-direct fourteen episodes of the
Lupin III television series. In 1979, Miyazaki would direct his first feature film:
The Castle of Cagliostro, followed in 1984 by fan-favorite
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which remains one of his finest films.
Rising high on the critical and financial success of
Nausicaä, Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, along with Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. Ghibli has since released eighteen feature films, of which Miyazaki was directly involved in eleven as director, writer and/or producer. There are currently nine Studio Ghibli films available on Blu-ray,
Grave of the Fireflies being the only one not credited in some way to Miyazaki:
Miyazaki has received accolades for two films above all else, both of which have yet to arrive on Blu-ray in North America:
Princess Mononoke, having earned several best director awards (among many others) and a Japanese Academy Award for Picture of the Year, and
Spirited Away, a stunning coming-of-age story that garnered dozens of prestigious awards throughout the international film community, up to and including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.
Miyazaki's final film,
The Wind Rises, is set to arrive in U.S. theaters in 2014 courtesy of Disney. A Blu-ray release is expected to follow, as ultimately are the Blu-ray debuts of other key Miyazaki films, most notably
Kiki's Delivery Service,
Porco Rosso,
Princess Mononoke and
Spirited Away.
The Wind Rises Synopsis: Built on the stories of Jiro Horikoshi, visionary designer of one the most beautiful airplanes in history -- the famed Zero fighter -- and the writer Tatsuo Hori, The Wind Rises is a tale of love and perseverance in a turbulent world brought to life by the vivid animation of Studio Ghibli. Inspired by the aesthetics of design and the freedom of flying, Jiro pursues a life dedicated to the creation of a beautiful aircraft. The film covers the passage of time from Jiro's childhood, filled with dreams of engineering, to adulthood as he creates an elegant, flight worthy plane that eventually is used for something quite different than he expected, war.