Studio Ghibli, the animation studio co-founded by famed director Hayao Miyazaki, has been sold. According to AP, the studio will become a subsidiary of Nippon Television Network Corp. This deal was reportedly discussed last year when producer Toshio Suzuki approached a Nippon TV executive in an effort to preserve Ghibli as its two leading creatives age and begin to think (maybe earnestly, in Miyazaki’s case) about retirement.
AP states that Nippon TV wants to “[honor] its creative independence so it can focus on animation and other artistic projects.” While Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki, an animation director himself, had been eyed to succeed his father, AP reports that “he had expressed doubts, saying the responsibility was too great.”
Studio Ghibli and Nippon TV have had a long-standing collaborative relationship. In 1985, Nippon TV aired Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and then went on to help produce all but one of Studio Ghibli films, starting with Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989 . Miyazaki also designed the mascot for Nippon TV in 1993, and in 2001, Nippon TV helped found the Mitaka-no-mori Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo.
Studio Ghibli’s latest work, The Boy and the Heron opened this summer in Japan under the title How Do You Live? It was the lead title at TIFF this September and will open in North American theaters on December 8.
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