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.

Studio Ghibli is Miyazaki.

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

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.

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.

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.

archive link

https://archive.is/RcD0w

Studio Ghibli is Miyazaki.

It goes with him.

Well the style has been destroyed by the grifters.

On to the next one.

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.

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.

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.