How many times has Hayao Miyazaki retired?
In the arts, when you love what you do and retirement isn’t something forced upon you, the word is often a choice you can swing around with, like animation icon Hayao Miyazaki.
He co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 and has since directed ten animated films, winning the Academy Award for ‘Best Animated Feature’ twice, all while retaining the unique creative spirit and hand-drawn tones that make them so magical and an emotionally moving dialogue between the viewers and the story.
To Western audiences raised on animation being primarily aimed at children, his vibrant fantasy adventures laced with understated maturity from all corners, from topics about environmental waste to war and being an orphan, have always been revelatory.
Thus, when he announced that The Boy and the Heron would be his last film at 82 years old, most of the world mourned the proclamation yet were understanding. However, those in the know refused to pay heed to it, and for good reason, as barely a day after the film was released, Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki reassured fans that Miyazaki had slept on it and thought better of calling it a day.
“He thinks about this new project every day,” he revealed at a press conference, noting how the fluffy-haired grandfather was unstoppable, hovering around the office with new ideas. “I’m no longer trying to dissuade him, even if it might be a bad film. In life, only work enchants him,” Suzuki joked about his fear that Miyazaki would keep going until he turned 90, and even then, he’d still be there to support him.
So, how many times has Hayao Miyazaki retired?
Interestingly, Miyazaki’s 2023 non-retirement isn’t actually the first time he’s flirted with the idea of leaving it all behind, but his fifth stint, and he’s gone back on it each and every time.
His first declaration in 1997 came in the wake of the release of Princess Mononoke, going so far as to design a new personal office within walking distance from Studio Ghibli headquarters, which he named Buta-ya [pig house]. His farewell party on January 14th, 1998, was thrown at the new office, and fellow animator Yoshifumi Kondō was intended as his replacement, but when he unexpectedly died on January 21st, Miyazaki agreed to return to the director’s chair.
Then, in a less official capacity, he twice declared in 2004 and 2008, after making Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo, “This will be my last feature”, but nothing came of it on either occasion. However, his fourth retirement in 2013, following the release of The Wind Rises, was a much bigger deal, as he held a press conference to announce to the world, “This is my retirement”. Three years later, though, like a man possessed, he was linked to working on The Boy and the Heron, which turned into a seven-year odyssey to bring to the screen this rumination on grief and existentialism.
Now, with his fifth claim of retirement also swept under the rug, it’s enough to make you wonder if the legendary animator will ever truly ride off into the sunset. However, something he said in a 2024 interview certainly seems to point to a man who will forever be drawn to the hold of what he loves and what gives his life meaning. “In order to bring out the original spirit of the work, I can only return,” he mused, which perhaps says more than a million temporary retirements ever could.
