Studio Ghibli to shut down its production dept. and halt new project

Aug 7, 2014: UPDATE is available here

According to a TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) documentary program, Jonetsu Tairiku (情熱大陸), Toshio Suzuki announced his plan to dismantle their in-house production department and halt new projects " for a while."

The world famous Japanese animation studio, which is famous for "Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)", is on their trial to survive.

Screenshots of TBS's Jonetsu Tairiku from Twitter

Jonetsu Tairiku (情熱大陸) is a popular documentary TV program to feature one person's life every Sunday night.

Yesterday night (Aug 3, 2014), they featured Toshio Suzuki, the producer & president of Studio Ghibli.

One of the highlights of the program was the shareholder meeting on June 27, 2014. Toshio Suzuki announced his plan in front of the shareholders.

In the program, he said:

"It may be very tough to say. But I'm planning to dismantle the production department... It's restructuring our company... After all, the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki made a big impact.... We need to think what we should do with Ghibli. It's not impossible to keep producing new films, but I think we need to take a break to think about the future."

What is true

• Studio Ghibli is planning to shut down its production department.
• Ghibli won't be producing new films "for a while".
• The retirement of Hayao Miyazaki had a key impact for this decision.

What is NOT true

• Studio Ghibli is shutting down? NO.
  • NO. They won't be shutting down. Suzuki said that Ghibli can still produce new films. However, since they are losing their revenue, Suzuki thinks that they must come up with a more realistic plan.
  • Suzuki said what he's planning to do is "restructuring" so that Studio Ghibli can stay strong for the future generations.

Studio Ghibli maintained its high quality animation by having an in-house animation studio.

However, as many Japanese animation studios subcontract their work to other companies and foreign countries to save some costs, Studio Ghibli is no exception to the others.

Let's see how Suzuki's restructuring plans go through the tough times of this generation.