Back in 2013, the animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki of Ghibli fame announced that he’ll be retiring. It was sad news for many anime and non-anime fans alike as his body of work in Ghibli Studios have been brilliant to watch.
However, it looks like this year, Miyazaki has decided to come out from retirement not only to work and animate a 10-minute short film specifically for the Ghibli museum in Tokyo but also to work on what he calls his final feature anime.
While the 10-minute short he worked on was called Boro the Caterpillar (only available to watch at the Ghibli Museum), we had yet to be told what his new feature film was to be called.
Now, however, we won’t have to wonder anymore. On 28 October at a Waseda University event to commemorate Shinjuku’s Natsume Soseki Memorial Museum, Miyazaki announced the title of his new feature anime and it’s called Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka which translates to How Will You Live?
https://twitter.com/mamenoki0305/status/924466346733199360
The new anime feature is loosely based on the 1937 novel of the same name, written by Japanese author Genzaburo Yoshino, which was also adapted into a manga.
A journalist, critic, translator and author of children’s literature, Yoshino was the founding editor of monthly pro-democracy opinion journal Sekai, which became a highly influential publication in postwar Japan.
While not a direct adaptation of the original novel, it will still hold a significant meaning for the main character of Miyazaki’s anime feature.
Considering the subject matter of the anime feature, we can expect more wonderful animation paired with compelling storytelling in Miyazaki’s next anime feature, and for that, we’re glad he’s out of retirement, even if it’s for the last time (or so he says.)
