WEBVTT - Studio Ghibli Doesn’t Really Care What’s Coming Next 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:05.160 Studio Jibli doesn't really care what's coming next. The ambiguous 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:08.440 future of Japan's most prestigious group of animators won't get 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.760 clearer anytime soon. By so He Kim and Felix Gillette 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:17.799 read aloud by Mark Leindorf. On a Friday morning in April, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.640 at Studio Jibli's headquarters on the outskirts of Tokyo, Goro 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:26.520 Miyazaki faces an excruciating test. After roughly a year of toil. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.760 It's time to screen his animated short for his famously 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:34.080 demanding father, Haiau Miyazaki, one of the most celebrated directors 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.480 on the planet, and then listen to his unvarnished feedback. 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:42.200 The Miyazakis have often clashed over the years, constant arguing, 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.240 constant fighting. Goro recalls of one of their early collaborations, 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.960 but perhaps this project will be different, the passage of 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:54.440 time occasionally being a mellowing influence Haiau is eighty five, 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.840 Goro fifty nine. For a long time, the creative dynamic 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.560 inside Jibli has largely revolved around the older filmmaker's eye. 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.120 Over the previous four decades, the studio has forged a 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.039 distinctive style of richly layered hand drawn animation in more 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.720 than twenty feature length films. The movies, which appealed to 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.720 both children and adults, often star young heroes saving war 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:23.640 torn environments from nefarious forces amid phantasmagoric phenomena. Collectively, the 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.880 films have generated over two billion dollars in ticket sales, 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.000 won two Academy Awards, and helped trigger a global boom 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.960 in anime, a market now worth in excess of twenty 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:39.080 five billion dollars annually. According to the Association of Japanese Animations. 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.399 It's been, by many accounts, the greatest run in animation 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.240 since the heyday of Walt Disney. Now, with Haiau in 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:50.640 his professional Twilight, things are inevitably changing, although into what 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.400 exactly is still unclear. After starting his career as a 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.160 landscape architect, Goro joined Geebly in the late nineteen nineties 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.960 and went on to direct three major fiere elms. When 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.680 giebiologists speculate about potential creative airs, his name is inevitably 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.200 front and center, But so far Goro has brushed aside 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.880 such chatter, and his dad has offered nothing close to 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.720 an endorsement, at least not yet in a private screening 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.840 room at headquarters, Goro presents A Night in the Valley 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.519 of the Witches. It's a short, playful film fifteen minutes 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:28.080 long that Goro directed alongside animator Akihiko Yamashita. Unlike Jibli's 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:32.040 most acclaimed films such as My Neighbor, Totoro or Spirited Away, 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.120 this featurette won't have a wide release in cinemas. Instead, 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.640 it made its debut in July at a single theater 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.560 inside JIBLI Park, a kind of anti Disneyland. The studio 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.480 operates in Naga Kute, a couple hundred miles southwest of Tokyo. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.000 A short while after the screening, Goro strolls into a 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.920 nearby conference room for an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Naturally, 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.480 everyone is curious, how'd your father like the movie? He 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.800 went insane, Goro says, before or clarifying, insaying in a 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.600 good way. His dad, he says, was happy with what 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.800 he saw. The film is something children will enjoy, and 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.080 the feeling of children being happy, that is other people's 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.440 children in the abstract sense, has always been important to 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.240 his father. We would have to take his word for it. 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.840 With reporters in the vicinity the elder Miyazaki had maneuvered 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.640 out of prodding range. He saw it, and then he 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:28.200 was exhausted. Goro says he went back home. Studio Jibli's 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.480 headquarters are on a serene suburban block dotted with single 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.560 family homes. The outside of the main building is covered 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.480 in dense creeping vines, creating a green exoskeleton that gives 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.360 the place a puckish larval aura, like a shaggy caterpillar 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.160 on the cusp of molting. Goro is joined in the 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.560 conference room by Kinichi Yoda, an up and coming executive. 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.960 Three years ago, JIBLI announced it was selling a forty 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.480 two point three percent stake in the business for an 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.120 undisclosed sum to Nippon Television Holdings, a major Japanese media 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.080 conglomerate that had had long invested in the studio's films. Yoda, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.440 then a producer at Nippon TV, joined gibli's board of 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.680 directors and has since served as the primary liaison between 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.560 the two camps. Whatever happens next, Yoda, fifty one will 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.800 be a driving force. In May, the companies announced that 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.080 he'd been promoted to become Jibli's president and chief executive 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.960 officer starting on June twenty second. For the next two hours, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.240 the younger Miyazaki and Yoda hold forth on Jibli's future, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.280 from their inchoate plans for the next feature film, to 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.960 their stance on artificial intelligence, to the importance of extending 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.640 the brand beyond the screen. Yoda declines to say anything 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.680 about Jibli's financial situation or Nipon TV's assessment of it. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.599 According to public records, as of March thirty first, twenty 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.040 twenty five, JIBLI had forty four billion yen, about two 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.719 hundred and seventy nine million dollars in assets, and brought 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.560 six billion yen and net profit over the past year. 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.960 JIBLI is not a company focused primarily on profit, Yoda says. 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.440 At a time time of great flux in the entertainment industry, 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.760 many incoming CEOs like to position themselves as agents of change, 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.680 guiding anxious flocks into a brave new world of technologically 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.360 optimized content creation. Not Yoda, if anything, He describes himself 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.919 as Jibli's protector of the old ways. JIBLI is not 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.120 a place that works hard to maintain a company. I 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.520 think it is a place to make art, Yoda says 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.720 when I'm often asked about this outside. I say what 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:32.560 matters is that nothing changes. Despite its small staff and 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.400 the many years, often three to five, it takes to 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.640 produce a future length animated film, JIBLI has managed to 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.640 grind out a new movie roughly every two years, no sequels, 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.960 but recently the studio's cadence has gotten off track. It's 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.360 been more than two and a half years since Jibli's 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.560 latest film hit theaters, Hayao's The Boy and the Heron. 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.600 The movie about a youngster who loses his mother and 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.080 gets mixed up with mystical birds, was a success, winning 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.560 the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and generating more 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.800 than two hundred and ninety million dollars in global ticket sales. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.960 But since its premiere, JIBLI has announced no theatrical movies, 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.680 intensifying scrutiny of the Gnomic company. The hunt for something new, 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:19.080 Yoda and Miyazaki say, is ongoing, but tricky. The process 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.200 is driven by the intuition of the studio's aging founders, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.360 rather than more prosaic concerns such as market research, investors 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.240 or the calendar. They don't think ahead that much, Yoda says, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.640 we have put out films inspired by whatever's happening at 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.799 that point in time. If it doesn't feel right, he says, 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.279 JIBLI won't force something into production. It doesn't mean that 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.479 they have stopped thinking about or coming up with creative ideas. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.760 They're constantly thinking about, Okay, if we were to put 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.240 a film out now, what would that be. Meanwhile, the 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.760 global demand for anime that Jibli helped ignite decades ago 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.640 has since attracted competitors from beyond Japan. The top film 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.919 in the world last year was najah III, an animated 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.239 fantasy adventure from China that built off the huge reception 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.880 for naja in twenty nineteen, the sequel grows more than 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.440 two billion dollars globally, topping the best offerings of Hollywood 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:16.440 and Japan. Movie making, Miyazaki says, has become more industrialized. 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.440 It's very hard to just create a feature film and 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.400 put that into theaters and then make financial sense from that. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.040 A lot of the animation you see out there now 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.360 is based on a manga and then it becomes a 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.920 TV series, and then you have the partnership with the 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.600 music company to have a big theme song attached to it, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.440 and so there's this wholesale business scheme. There's like a 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.760 template almost to make sure that it's a profitable business 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.240 in creating an animation film. We as a studio have 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:48.200 never done that. Gibli's competitors have no such qualms. Major 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.960 US animation studios continue to pump out sequels to prior hits. 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.640 This year alone, we'll see Toy Story five, The Angry 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.239 Birds Movie three, and new installments in the Minion's Super 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:04.320 Mario Brothers and Paw Patrol franchises. Once years earlier, Hayau 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.840 considered making a sequel to his two thousand and eight 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.680 fantasy adventure film Ponio, but the idea was eventually scrapped 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:15.040 in favor of another original, The wind Rises. Sequalization just 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.640 isn't appealing to them. The Jibli executives say they aren't 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.800 considering My Neighbor Totoro II or anything similar. When you 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.000 make a film, it's not like a fun, happy, exciting process. 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:31.120 Goro says, it's very laborious. It's very tedious. If anything, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.920 the process of creating any animation has grown even more laborious. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.040 In part that's because Jibli's gaggle of animators is older 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.040 and less suited for round the clock binge working than 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.520 they used to be, and in part because of labor 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.520 laws enacted to curb such workplace successes. So even when 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.439 the engine gets going, we have to stop. Yoda says, 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.800 that is extremely frustrating. Miyazaki says he's not planning to 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.120 pitch any movies to his dad anytime soon. Where the 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:04.680 executives considering ideas from aspirational filmmakers outside their ranks, Yoda replies, 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.040 if there's someone willing to do the film, yes, we 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.760 would love to. But doing so, Miyazaki points out, wouldn't 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:15.319 be easy under the current circumstances. As long as Hayau 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:20.440 is around, He says, it'd be absolutely impossible. Yoda nods 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:24.160 and chuckles. Any sane animation director would not come close 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:29.000 to this castle. To the outside world, how exactly Jeebli 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.200 operates has always been something of a mystery. In nineteen 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.600 eighty four, Hayau directed NAUSICAA of the Valley of the Wind, 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.320 a haunting kaleidoscopic film based on a manga series he'd 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.680 created for Enimage magazine. Critics swooned over the movie, about 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.800 a daring princess searching for salvation in a toxic post 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:52.080 apocalyptic world. Following Nausica's commercial success, Hayau and his creative 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:56.720 partner Isao Takahata, an erudite director who translated French poetry 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.880 at the University of Tokyo, reinvested the proceeds into a 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.240 new film project. They also began molling over how to 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.560 establish a permanent base for their productions. Toshio Suzuki, the 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.200 editor of ANIMAJ who champion NAUSICAA and its adaptation for 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:15.160 the big screen, approached his boss, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, with a 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.120 business idea. Brash and politically connected, Tokuma was the head 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.920 of Tokuma Shoten, a media conglomerate that, in addition to animaj, 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.680 controlled extensive holdings in books, music, graphic novels, magazines, live 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.679 action films, and video games. Years earlier, Tokuma had been 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:36.000 a supporter of legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Now, listening to 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.600 Suzuki's pitch, he sensed similar potential in this pair of 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.920 mid career animators. In nineteen eighty five, Hayao, Takahata and 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.360 Suzuki formed Studio Jibli as a semi independent subsidiary of 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.040 Tokuma Shoten. At the time, Hayau was known within the 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.920 industry not just for his storytelling, but also for his 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:59.240 leftist wariness of capitalism. As the new studio's top producer, 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:01.680 Suzuki to took on the business side of the operation 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:06.000 and let Hayau and Takahata tackle the creative challenges. Thanks 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.599 to films such as My Neighbor, Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:14.640 Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away, along with 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.720 the alluring musical scores of frequent collaborator Joe Hisaishi, the 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.720 co founders made JIBLI into a globally renowned studio. On 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.800 the road, meeting with theater owners or the press, Hayau 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:30.120 and Suzuki, in particular, enthralled audiences. The duo were an 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:35.439 irresistible study in contrasting styles. Haiau was brooding and tempestuous, 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:41.520 Suzuki steady and optimistic. Haiau hated using computers, Suzuki loved 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.640 gadgets of all sorts. Haiau was blunt and unsparing, Suzuki 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:50.559 diplomatic and calculating. Together, they mesmerized the entertainment industry wherever 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:55.480 they went. As Jibli's reputation soared, Haiau wore himself down 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.960 again and again. He worked marathon sessions to finish his 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:03.800 painstaking film, tensely chainsmoking while inserting himself into every facet 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.920 of the process, scribbling and re scribbling sketches, drawing thousands 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.720 of storyboard panels, assessing the color for every object, character, 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.679 and costume, going over each vector of movement, line of dialogue, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.839 and sound, frame by frame, act after act. Afterward, he 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:24.319 would repeatedly retire from the studio in exhaustion, then unretire, 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.160 storming back to do it once more. Promising proteges came 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:30.680 and went. It seemed as if Haiyau might not be 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:35.160 temperamentally suited to nurturing a creative air. I trained successors, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.880 but I couldn't let go. Hayau would later concede in 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:42.920 a documentary Never Ending Man, Haiau Miyazaki, I devoured them, 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.760 I devoured their talent. There was no one left to 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.440 take over. From an early age, Goro, the elder of 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.200 the two sons of Haiau and his wife, former animator Akimiota, 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.640 had stayed well out of devouring range. He chose to 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.839 work in landscape, architecture and design, but then in the 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.520 late nineteen nineties he teamed up with his dad to 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.679 devise a playful configuration for the Jibli Museum, a fantastical 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.960 exhibition hall dedicated to the technology and art of animation. 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.080 When the museum opened on the outskirts of Tokyo in 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.400 two thousand and one, it featured storyboards and sketches from 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:20.040 Jibli movies, a whirling three D zootrope, and a lush 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:25.040 rooftop garden. Fans loved it after the opening, despite battling 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.839 with Haiau over everything from construction design to materials, Goro 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.960 joined Jibli's artists. In two thousand and five, Tokuma Shoten 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.680 spun off the studio. Moving forward, the animation shop would 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.760 go solo, navigating through a consolidating entertainment industry increasingly controlled 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:46.199 by corporate giants. The following year, Goro made his directorial 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:50.000 debut with Tales from Irsey, an adaptation of an Ursula 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.559 kaylea Gwen fantasy series. The film, which begins with a 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.360 dramatic moment of royal succession, in which a prince stabs 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.840 his father, the king, to death, did well virtually, but 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:04.040 reviews were mixed, and the one that mattered most was 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.640 far from glowing. At the premiere, Haiau walked out of 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.000 the theater for a cigarette break, unable to hide his frustration. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.920 According to Ten Years with Haiao Miyazaki, a documentary about 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.160 the studio from Japanese public broadcaster h K, from there, 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.440 the creative relationship improved. On Goro's second film, From Up 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.080 on Poppy Hill, the Miyazakis found a way to work 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.040 together productively. When it premiered in twenty eleven, the elder 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.440 Miyazaki was cautiously satisfied, according to the documentary. Even so, 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.960 in a moment captured by nh K, he challenged his 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:41.240 son to create something that could astonish him, presumably by 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.120 surpassing his own work. Go ahead, threaten me, Haiau said 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.520 at the time. As the years passed and his experience 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.040 in the business deepened, Goro seemed perfectly positioned to lead 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:57.000 Jibli's next chapter, but still both Miyazakis hesitated. At a 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.760 press conference in September twenty twenty three, Suzuki, the co founder, 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.320 explained where things stood. Since Jibli is a company I 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.360 built together with Hyo Miyazaki. I wanted Miyazaki's eldest son, 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:12.240 Goro to succeed us, he said, but Goro refused, and 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.080 Haio opposed it. He believed it would be better to 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.920 have a broader perspective and do various things. Goro, too, 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.640 wasn't interested in leading the business alone. At the very least, 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.960 they'd likely need to pare Goro with a suitable business partner. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.360 Some went to step into the role of Suzuki, who, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.120 like Hayau, was well into retirement age. He'll turned seventy 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:36.200 eight on August nineteenth. Like Suzuki, Kinichi Yoda had spent 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.240 some of his early professional years in journalism. In the 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.160 two thousands, while working as a reporter for the newspaper 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.960 Yomiuri Shimbun, he crossed paths with Suzuki when writing an 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.600 online feature about JIBLI. A few years later, Yoda jumped 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.200 to Nippon TV, which had long controlled the rights to 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:56.160 air the studio's movies on television in Japan. Yoda took 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.200 on a role managing the growing number of collaborations between 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:03.000 Nippon TV and JIBLI, including art exhibitions dedicated to the 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.200 studio's work and a twenty twenty two stage adaptation of 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:10.600 My Neighbor Totoro. At one point, Yoda facilitated an introduction 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:16.120 between Suzuki and Nipon TV chairman Yoshikuni Sugiyama. Afterwards, Suzuki 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.240 invited Sugiyama to a hot spring in the Tohoku region, 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:24.120 known for its therapeutic mountain waters, breathtaking landscapes, and premiumsake. 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.359 At some point, amid the invigorating steam of corporate diplomacy, 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.640 a plan got hatched for a deeper entwinement of the businesses. 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.400 In twenty twenty three, Nipon TV announced it was buying 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:38.280 a hefty portion of JIBLI, which would become a semi 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.560 independent subsidiary. Crucially, Yoda would take charge of the integration 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:47.000 strategy of respectful non interference. Three years later, listening to 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.000 Yoda and Goro banter in the conference room, it's easy 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:54.240 to hear echoes of their predecessors. I always ask Goro, okay, 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.960 let's come up with a new film, Yoda says, and 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.640 then his answer is always, well, I want to retire. Repeat. 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.720 I'm confident if I say that I will retire, that 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:08.200 I will retire. Gorel responds somewhat convincingly. His dad says, 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:12.680 Yoda said the same thing. His dad says, Yoda said 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.399 the same thing. We'll be right back with Studio Jibli 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:23.600 doesn't really care what's coming next. Welcome back to Studio 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:27.639 Jhibli doesn't really care what's coming next. At the beginning 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.960 of Spirited Away, Jibli's two thousand and one hit, a 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.640 family driving through an unfamiliar, secluded patch of Japan takes 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.560 a wrong turn and happens upon a mysteriously deserted amusement park. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.840 The mom, dad, and their school age daughter explore on 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.920 foot and find an empty restaurant with a surprisingly sumptuous buffet. 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.720 Without hesitating, the adults stuff their faces. Soon they're magically 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:56.040 transformed snout to tail into grunting pigs. Haiau's sly send 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.200 up of the gluttony at the heart of many amusement 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.240 parks will likely resonate with anyone who's visited one. Naturally, 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.800 Jibli's version is different. At Jibli Park, which opened in 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.639 twenty twenty two, there are no roller coasters, no carnival games, 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:14.359 no gut busting buffets. Located in Nagakute, Jibli Park is 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:18.160 full of dense greenery, winding walking paths, and bird song. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.440 On a recent spring day, clots of visitors drift through 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:25.920 its tranquil grounds. Meticulous recreations of settings and characters from 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:30.320 the Jibli universe fill the central indoor exhibition space. Inside, 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.520 there's a small screening room which rotates through featurettes that 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.879 are difficult to see elsewhere, including twenty eighteen's Borrow the Caterpillar, 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.640 Haiau's first extensively computer animated film. Since early July, it's 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:44.879 also served as home to a new series of art 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:50.000 pieces by Haiau, thirty one handcrafted panorama boxes displaying original 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:55.240 illustrations arranged in layered three D scenes. Despite its pastoral trappings, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.960 Jibli Park is not entirely uncommercial. Each day, the park 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.480 can accommodate about five thousand paying visitors, and there are 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:06.000 gift shops with shelves of collectibles. The plush totoros are 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.720 a hot cellar. Fans make the pilgrimage to Jibli Park 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.600 from all over the world, but despite the interest from overseas, 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.800 Jibli executives say they aren't planning to open additional theme 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.760 parks outside Japan. Lately, however, they've been rolling out traveling 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.040 art exhibitions that so far have appeared everywhere from China 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.240 to South Korea, to Singapore to Los Angeles. The attractions 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.480 typically explore one aspect or another of the jibli Ouvre, 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:37.320 often with tactile displays alongside artifacts from the filmmaking process. Elsewhere, 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.960 Jibli has extended its brand into the theatre world overseeing 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.240 intricate stage adaptations of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, along 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.399 with the one of My Neighbor. Totoro Goro says the 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.280 purpose of all this is to ensure people don't forget 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.359 the studio's name. For a long time, he notes the 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.880 Jibli brand wasn't widely recognized even in Japan. That changed 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.920 with the opening of the museum, which helped establish its identity. 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.720 He says, before that audiences loved the films, but weren't 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.000 very aware of who made them. In twenty twenty, the 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.320 studio licensed its movies to HBO Max in the US 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.960 and to Netflix most everywhere else. The resulting fees help 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.840 sustain the studio's coffers while it figures out its next 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.400 theatrical release, and while fans await the next movie they 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.880 can get their Jibli fix via the studio's museum, theme park, 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:31.280 traveling exhibitions, stage adaptations, and Donguri Republic Stores, a chain 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.080 of dozens of retail outlets in Japan and elsewhere that 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.119 sell all sorts of Jibli merchandise. When it comes to 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.280 Jibli's next move, even its partners are oftentimes left guessing. 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.200 Two years ago, Toho, the Japanese entertainment giant that's home 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.560 to the Godzilla franchise and producer of the Spirited Away 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.800 stage play, acquired g Kids, a boutique animation business based 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.240 in New York known for distributing crafty indie films, often 0:20:56.280 --> 0:21:00.359 from overseas. For years, starting in the nineteen nineties, the 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.480 Walt Disney Company had served as the international distributor of 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.800 Jibli films, but the relationship eventually soured, in part over 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.280 Disney's proposals to alter the studio's movies for non Japanese 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.320 audiences in ways the filmmakers found distasteful, such as cutting 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.080 down the run times or cramming sound effects into the 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.160 film's poignant pockets of silence. In his twenty twenty memoir 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:25.399 Sharing a House with the Never Ending Man, former Jibli 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:30.040 executive Steve Albert chronicled the friction. Disney's US marketing team 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.240 had issues with the films we had never considered. Albert writes, 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.480 Castle in the Sky, some one fires a gun at 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:39.040 a young boy. We can't show that to children in 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.760 the US. My neighbor Totoro, the dad gets naked and 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.919 bathes with his daughters. We can't show that in the US. 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:50.119 Pom Poco the raccoons used their scrotums to do magic. 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.720 We can't have children looking at animals scrotums. The list 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.880 of stylistic clashes went on as the relationship unwound. Disney 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:02.480 avoided commenting publicly. Since twenty eleven, G Kids has served 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.040 as the distributor of Jibli films in US theaters. Even so, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.440 Toho and Gkids executives say they don't have much insight 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.639 into what the studio is planning. We of course await 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.919 and welcome if Jibli is producing any new project, but 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:19.720 we cannot ask them, we cannot control. We basically await, 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:25.240 says Toho CEO Hiroyasu Matsuoka. We are discussing many projects 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.360 on a very casual level, and sometimes it becomes realized 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.320 very quickly. Sometimes well that's a great idea. Maybe we 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.160 want to talk about it next time, and it never happens, 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:39.720 so it's very unpredictable. David Jest, president of j Kids, 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:42.760 says he's grateful for whatever comes his way from Jibli. 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.359 I'm not pushing for live action remakes, he says. A 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.480 lot of the kinds of things that studios typically do 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:52.080 to quote unquote refresh ip is not really something that's 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.439 available to us or of interest to the studio for 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.800 the time being. Anyone hoping to decipher Jibli's creative direction 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:01.720 is left to pour over the esthetic and narrative decisions 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.160 in Goro's films for clues. As in his father's movies, 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.840 Goro's young characters must endure the bludgeoning of fate, but 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:13.960 the threats besieging them typically feel narrower by comparison. Dysfunctional families, 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:18.280 more so than clashing civilizations, take center stage in Goro's work. 0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:22.040 His most recent feature film, twenty twenty's Earwig and the 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.040 Witch tells the story of an orphaned girl who's adopted 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.000 into a wicked, demanding family and struggles to learn the 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.840 art of magic under adverse conditions. Billed as Jibli's first 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:36.160 fully three D computer generated theatrical movie. It looked radically 0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:39.919 different from the studio's typical house style, and by and large, 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:42.800 fans and critics did not get on board with the changes. 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:46.720 The movie, which landed during the COVID nineteen disruptions, struggled 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:50.080 at the box office. How its chilly reception might Shapejebli's 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:53.560 willingness to experiment stylistically in the long term remains to 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.119 be seen. Back at Jibli, the executives are happy to 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:01.680 continue cultivating an air of strategic uncertain According to Yoda. 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.560 Suzuki often says that one of Jibli's strengths is that 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:07.800 it doesn't have a long term master plan. Outside the 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.560 studio Gjibli windows, a patch of blooming rhododendrons was dancing 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:14.879 in a balmy, gusty breeze. From the street below, the 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:18.040 faint voices of passing children drifted in, singing the theme 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:22.520 song from My Neighbor Totoro. Days earlier, with multiple wars 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.960 smoldering across the planet, the Japanese government had done away 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:28.560 with the ban on arms exports that dated to World 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:32.440 War II. According to local newspaper reports, the military was 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:36.879 already receiving strong interest in partnering on lethal AI driven weaponry. 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.720 On the home front, a robotic AI powered ping pong 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:45.280 player nicknamed Ace was routinely defeating top level human competitors 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:48.880 as spring rolled toward summer. Such was the prevailing vibe 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:52.679 in Japan and beyond. It was one aggressive AI swing 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:56.560 after another. As in many creative fields, the pressure on 0:24:56.600 --> 0:25:00.800 the animation industry is mounting. AI software is already capable 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:04.840