2023-09-21 16:32:08
Created in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, his producer Toshio Suzuki, and the late Isao Takahata, the Japanese animation studio will become a subsidiary of the television group Nippon TV Holdings. But there is no question of ceding one’s independence in terms of creation.
At 82 and 75 years old, the two still living co-founders of Studio Ghibli, the brilliant Hayao Miyazaki and his appointed producer Toshio Suzuki, obviously do not yet see themselves lasting decades at the head of their animation company, a pioneer in the industry. of Japanese cinema through its independence. But who should manage the store? The decision was made official this Thursday, September 21: Studio Ghibli, created in 1985 by the two friends and the late Isao Takahata, will come under the control of the television group Nippon Televsion Holdings.
It is the culmination of a “difficult reflection” begun a long time ago by these two patriarchs to ensure their succession, explains Ghibli. The “natural successor and candidate” was Hayao’s son Goro, himself a director and already involved in direction. But the person concerned declined, considering it “difficult for a single person to take over”. He “considered it preferable that the company be entrusted to someone else to ensure its future”. Goro, who is struggling to emerge from his father’s shadow, already has a lot to do with the Ghibli Park opened last year in Nagoya. This while his father was still busy between 2017 and this year making his most recent feature film entitled in Japanese “And you, how will you live?” which will be released in France in November, under the title The Boy and the Heron.
Content strategy
Several succession options were studied by Miyazaki and Suzuki but the choice of Nippon TV stood out. Following the transaction scheduled for October 6, this group will hold some 470 shares corresponding to 42.3% of the voting rights within the board of directors. It will thus be the “largest shareholder” of Ghibli. Nothing has been communicated on the details of the other title holders or the price paid by Nippon TV.
The fact remains that Miyazaki and Suzuki cede effective control of the company, retaining respectively only the titles of honorary president and chairman of the board of directors. It is a manager of Nippon TV, Hiroyuki Fukuda, the one who manages the content strategy of the audiovisual group, who will become general director of Ghibli. Three other Nippon TV managers and a lawyer appear in the new management chart, alongside Goro Miyazaki, whose precise functions have not been communicated to the media.
New space at Ghibli Park
Studio Ghibli and its animated feature films have been supported almost from the start by Nippon TV (broadcaster of Ghibli films), co-founder of the Mitaka museum, etc. The studio says it is “certain that its way of making its films and the values it carries will be well defended by Nippon TV” and that international development will be even better supported.
However, according to Ghibli, there is no question of ceding its independence in terms of creation. “The studio maintains control over the production of animated films, the management of the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka (Tokyo) and Ghibli Park” where a new space, the fourth, will open at the beginning of November. And even if Hayao Miyazaki stopped driving his Citroën 2CV last year and returned his license to the administration, he has not returned the keys to the studio or thrown away his apron. Junishi Nishioka, vice-president of Ghibli, recently announced at the Toronto International Film Festival that he no longer considered The Boy and the Heron as his last film.
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