Report: Studio Ghibli On Its Next Film, AI, Miyazaki’s Successor, And Why Having No Master Plan Is The Plan

Bloomberg has published a fascinating deep dive into Studio Ghibli’s current state, offering a look at a future that feels completely unplanned yet somehow entirely expected for a studio that has always done things unconventionally. Hayao Miyazaki still comes to work every day, the studio doesn’t know what its next feature will be, and apparently, that’s just fine to the powers that be.

The piece, by Sohee Kim and Felix Gillette, is well worth reading in full. The reporters visited Ghibli’s headquarters outside Tokyo and spoke with Goro Miyazaki and new president and CEO Kenichi Yoda about what comes next for perhaps the world’s most celebrated animation studio.

Here are a few of our biggest takeaways, but the Bloomberg piece doesn’t appear to be behind a paywall, at least not in reader mode, so we recommend checking out the whole thing when you’ve got the time.

Ghibli has no next feature lined up: More than two and a half years after releasing the Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron, the studio hasn’t announced another movie, and it isn’t rushing to do so. Yoda says Ghibli’s founders have never been particularly interested in market research, investors, or release calendars. If the right idea isn’t there, they simply won’t force a film into production while they wait for inspiration to strike.

Hayao Miyazaki, now 85, is still showing up for work every day: What is he working on? Nobody at the studio seems to know or be too worried about it. “Only he knows exactly what he’s working on,” Yoda says. That includes his son, his longtime producing partner, Ghibli’s new CEO, and its investors.

Finding a filmmaker to take over isn’t easy: Yoda says Ghibli would be willing to work with an outside director on a future feature. Goro’s assessment of the likelihood of that happening while his father is still around, however, is “absolutely impossible.” Yoda puts it even better: “Any sane animation director would not come close to this castle,” while the most iconic living animation director is still occupying the throne.

Ghibli isn’t as anti-AI as many may think: Despite Hayao Miyazaki’s famous “insult to life” comments nearly a decade ago and the more recent controversy over AI-generated Ghibli-style imagery, Goro says the studio is essentially agnostic about the technology. “We’re not denying, or feeling negative, about AI technology itself,” he says. It’s a more nuanced position than Ghibli is often credited with, drawing a distinction between the technology itself and how people choose to use it. Goro even suggests that late Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, who was always interested in new technology, would probably have been among the first to experiment with AI.

Nippon TV doesn’t want to turn Ghibli into a franchise factory: Yoda, who took over as CEO in June, says Ghibli isn’t primarily focused on profit and describes his job as protecting what already exists. “What matters is that nothing changes.”

That may be the most reassuring takeaway from the piece after the Japanese broadcaster acquired a majority stake in Ghibli in 2023.

The studio doesn’t know what movie it’s making next, who will eventually replace Miyazaki, or what the studio will look like without him. And, remarkably, nobody seems to think those questions need answering just yet. At least not publicly, anyway.