New Studio Ghibli movie announced

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
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In addition to Goro Miyazaki's Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea), Studio Ghibli have announced that they are working on another movie for release (in Japan) in 2006; Night of Taneyamagahara is based on a 1924 play and will be directed by debutant Kazuo Oga. Oga's impressive anime C.V. includes working on the background art of many of Ghibli's highest profile movies (Sprited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle to name but a few).

More information can be found over at Ghibli World.
 
It's good to see that someone with plenty of experience in the studio is getting to direct the next project. It looks like Ghibli are working hard to bring some fresh talent up from their ranks too (let's face it, the background art in Ghibli films is second to none).

After being worried about the approach they were taking towards the Earthsea production this shows more promise to me. Exciting news indeed.
 
There was a translated interview with Toshio Suzuki linked somewhere (he's the background guy, but he is actually pretty interesting, very outspoken and speaks for the Isao & Hayao who generally don't like the limelight), and while he didn't directly respond to a question on the whole Hayao vs Goro spat he countered with an interesting point:

Studio Ghibli is 3 guys (Hayao, Isao & Toshio) surrounded by a lot of talented staff. The main three players are old and their death will end studio ghibli unless they bring in a second generation of new blood. To date the only feature length ghibli films not done by Isao or Hayao were Whisper of the Heart, and the Cat Returns. Although I think one of (Only Yesterday/Ocean Waves) may have been a team effort.

There is conscious effort on his part to groom new talent and ensure the studio has a legacy. It's possible that we may not see another Hayao Miyazaki (already made his 'last' film 3 times already) or Isao Takahata film as they allow newer developers the chance to shine and develop their skills. Mind you them is big boots to fill.
 
Very true. I was impressed with the Cat Returns, so hopefully with Morita and now Oga they will have two talented directors to keep things going.
 
There must be so much pressure on the people directing new Ghibli movies- considering they have to step into the shoes of the most successful anime director ever, it must be daunting to even be considered. To this end, I'm glad they are bringing people through their ranks rather than depending on outside mavericks- the traditions of Ghibli are far more likely to survive in the hands of someone like Oga and he will be less likely be over awed by the whole thing anyway.
 
The Ghibli style of film is inherently Ghibli. You get other movie making out there, but the style and tone are completely different. Certainly the other premium directors out there focus on very differnet work indeed. A GHibli film can only come from Ghibli staff.

My main concern is that the newer directors may not be challenging expectations enough, and are staying within the Ghibli comfort zone. Will confirm that when I see Whisper of the Heart. I really want to see the emergence of a strong willful direction. This is something that I found lacking in The Cat Returns, a charming and funny film, but it missed a slice of excellence, and in many ways was quite regressive, sticking to tried and true formulas. Gedo Senki is on paper a regressive choice. It was originally the film that Hayao Miyazaki wanted to make instead of Nausicaa (so Gedo is making his Dads film).

That could be commercial reality, and an odd comeabout for a team of two bad boys who challenged every barrier, defined the state of the art and broke many rules - that their success made them the definition of mainstream.

I don't think that the ghibli new blood would be intimidated by the big shoes to fill. Ghibli staff are pretty much the japanese animator elite. I believe they still retain the mentoring aspect that anime production used to have; new kids used to enter in at the bottom, get familiar with the more menial tasks like painting, before being rotated through in-between, key, background, storyboards, the works. By the time they got to be senior enough to specialise they had a very thoroughly rounded apprenticeship. It is also solid foundation for directorial roles.


Actually ... I havent even watched that trailer yet of Gedo Senki... well I guess I am doing nothing else at the moment. ...
 
Laughing Manji said:
My main concern is that the newer directors may not be challenging expectations enough, and are staying within the Ghibli comfort zone. Will confirm that when I see Whisper of the Heart.
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I wouldn't say that Kondou counts as a "newer director" because Whisper is now over 10 years old! Sadest of all, he died in 1998 so he was unable to have any effect on Ghibli's eventual course.

And Oga's film will be a "in a picture story show style." according to Nausicaa.net. No I don't know what that is supposed to mean, though it sounds suitably underwhelming for a project which has emerged so very close to its release, with little fanfare.
Paul said:
To this end, I'm glad they are bringing people through their ranks rather than depending on outside mavericks
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How can you say this with any kind of conviction? Isn't Goro Miyazaki the ultimate outside maverick? He isn't even in the animation industry! So what do they do, they give him the biggest job at Ghibli. Directing the next big movie; Not Oga, the insider with decades of experience. Ghibli is a funny place right now. People talk of how they're "nurturing talent", but really they're just putting their experienced staff on minor projects and bringing in utter-non-entity Goro for no better reason than his surname.
 
The Miyazaki-Junior situation (which is allegedly so complicated that I'm not even going to speculate on it) is a bit of an anomaly really. Of the three latest films from the studio that have NOT been directed by Miyazaki Senior or Takahata, he's only directed one of them. The other two have been directed by two long-standing members of staff - as an aside, The Cat Returns isn't the studio's best but as a debut directorial effort it's fantastic.

There is a definite 'Ghibli look' though - the name carries certain expectations and distinguishing features as a result of the collective talent. This won't be affected too much by who directs it - they're just one member of the team, albeit an influential one.
 
ConcreteBadger said:
Of the three latest films from the studio that have NOT been directed by Miyazaki Senior or Takahata, he's only directed one of them. The other two have been directed by two long-standing members of staff
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But which is the most important of the features? Earthsea by a long, long shot. It's the one with three times the hype and publicity, and an internationally reknowned story behind it.

And technically speaking, Ghibli's importing of outside talent is at least equal to its inside, when you consider that Howl's Moving Castle - a far more important feature than Cat Returns or Taneyamagahara - was originally assigned to outsider Mamoru Hosoda, director of two Digimon movies. True, he left early when his work was unsatisfactory / he had "creative differences", but it still tallies that Ghibli approached two of their own and two from the outside. We can romanticise the hand-over of one generation of mentors to their apprenticies all we like, but the fact of the matter is that they find just as much talent from elsewhere to direct their movies too, and Suzuki in particular isn't too concerned about where he gets it from, so long as its likely to make the studio similar revenue to what it does currently.
 
kupoartist said:
Paul said:
To this end, I'm glad they are bringing people through their ranks rather than depending on outside mavericks
Click to expand...
How can you say this with any kind of conviction? Isn't Goro Miyazaki the ultimate outside maverick? He isn't even in the animation industry! So what do they do, they give him the biggest job at Ghibli. Directing the next big movie; Not Oga, the insider with decades of experience. Ghibli is a funny place right now. People talk of how they're "nurturing talent", but really they're just putting their experienced staff on minor projects and bringing in utter-non-entity Goro for no better reason than his surname.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I was speaking in the context of this news rather than Ghibli in general but I see your point; the whole Earthsea project reeks of desperation. But then Ghibli aren't known to make many mistakes, so I assume there must have been something behind their decision other than just banking on the Miyazaki name.

Laughing Manji has a good point too; will the people Ghibli are bringing through have the same drives and ambitions as the current founders? (Hayao) Miyazaki strikes me as a very opinionated man and I can't help but feel that it's these strong feelings that really push his movies beyond similiar but unoriginal fare.
 
I think at this stage Ghibli have to be careful they don't fall into the same trap that Disney did once Walt died, and really start churing out crap. To be honest though, I'm not too worried about the quality of these new films. While not every Ghibli film has been a masterpiece, there hasn't yet been a truly bad one.

And besides, if there's any hint that either of these these films aren't going to live up to the expected quality levels, the plug will be pulled and/or other people brought in. Simple as that.
 
Hmmm. I have been reading some of Goro's translated blog on nausicaa.net. I would certainly recommend it to anyone here as it is quite illuminating on a lot of factors. (ie. its interesting form an animation production point of view alone).

As an ultimate outsider you don't get more outside than Goro. Literally learning on the job, and his expectations of what the job entailed were underestimated.

His core vision though is interesting: a back to basics approach that strips out flash and allows the core story elements to drive the story. That takes real skill - he is placing the rock and hard place himself. It means that his contribution or direction will be that more obvious, or very obviously lacking if he fails. He has a passion for the material, I will give him that, and an eye for scenes. But does he have enough talent to bring it off? It certainly appears that the studio's staff are carrying the production - they know what to do.

However the story is complex (my recollection of the original book is a little fuzzy) and it will take true talent and inspired vision/directorship to bring it to screen. IME that requires a lot of things have to be done right at once, and I have seen nothing about the writing/screenplay.

In any case I saw the trailer, and I was at least impressed visually.

As for Studio Ghibli lookign within/without for talented directors, I think the dominance of the 2 main directors stymied the development of any internal talent. They simply never got the opportunity for a shot at the top spot. Certainly there have been recent moves to correct this, the Ghibli shorts/museum no less, but I am waiting for a visionary director. Who knows, Goro may have the right stuff. He's certainly putting himself in a position that we will know for sure in about 6 months.
 
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