Studio Ghibli just set a July 2023 release date for Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, How Do You Live?.
The renowned animation studio announced on Twitter that How Do You Live? will arrive in Japanese cinemas on July 14, 2023. It’s currently unclear when the movie will debut in other markets. Studio Ghibli’s tweet didn’t include any additional information regarding the plot of How Do You Live?, which reportedly revolves around the impact of Yoshino Genzaburo’s real-life novel of the same name on the movie’s protagonist. That said, the studio did confirm that the How Do You Live? title remains tentative at this stage, and its tweet included a promotional poster for the film depicting what appears to be a close-up of a bird.
Miyazaki came out of retirement to work on How Do You Live?, which entered production in 2016. Studio Ghibli president Koji Hoshino updated fans on the movie’s progress in October 2022, confirming that the How Do You Live? is nearly finished. At the same press conference, producer Toshio Suzuki commented on the scale of the project, which involves a far higher number of animators than Studio Ghibli’s early productions. Despite this, Suzuki was quick to point out that the larger animation staff doesn’t necessarily equate to a faster production cycle. “Back when we were making My Neighbor Totoro, we only had eight animators. Totoro we made in eight months,” he said. “[For] the current film that Hayao Miyazaki is working on, we have 60 animators, but we are only able to come up with one minute of animation in a month.”
Studio Ghibli Expands Beyond Animation
Miyazaki’s last-ever movie isn’t the only major news generated by Studio Ghibli in recent months, either. The studio made headlines when its crossover collaboration with Lucasfilm landed on Disney+ in November 2022. The collaboration, an animated short titled Star Wars Zen: Grogu and Dust Bunnies, was produced to coincide with the third anniversary of The Mandalorian. As its name suggests, Star Wars Zen: Grogu and Dust Bunnies unites The Mandalorian’s breakout character Grogu (affectionately known as “Baby Yoda” by fans) with the soot sprites featured in earlier Studio Ghibli releases My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. It runs for three minutes and was realized via hand-drawn animation.
Studio Ghibli also made waves in November 2022 when it opened its first theme park, Ghibli Park, in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. Ghibli Park tickets for the remainder of 2022 sold out soon after the theme park opened its gates, giving rise to a lucrative scalping market. Reports claim that tickets to Ghibli Park are currently selling for 2,000% more than their face value on e-commerce website Mercari. Aichi Prefecture governor Hideaki Omura condemned the practice of purchasing Ghibli Park tickets solely for scalping purposes the day the attraction first opened. “It is not ideal for tickets to be bought just to be resold at a premium. I hope people refrain from doing things like this,” Omura said.
Source: Twitter
