Forum - View topicNEWS: Ghibli Co-Founder Toshio Suzuki Retires as Producer
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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I really hope Yonebayashi is Ghibli's savior, because I really loathe the idea of Goro running the company into the ground with his emo crap.
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2210 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Oh wow. That's a second blow to Ghibli.
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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How???
How is this all a bad thing. I think a transition has been in the making for a long while now. It's better to leave in good form with the place in good shape than to overstay your welcome and stink up the place. That's something most executives and college presidents have yet to master! I doubt Suzuki --- who I recognize from the subtitled documentaries on the US Ghibli Blu ray/DVD releases -- and Hayao Miyazaki are leaving an organization they built up on shaky foundations. In fact, if anything, it's probably in better shape than it's ever been, period, unless the strings of successes going well over 10 years hasn't built them a good, solid cushion! I don't think the pact with Disney was anything other than a deal to secure stable financing for future Ghibli films in addition to keeping the films in circulation in Japan was well as getting them to the US relatively unchanged. It's been win-win for these guys so far -- and they haven't fallen into the fatal trap of doing Ponyo 2/3 or Princess Mononoke 4 or Zero Fighters V unlike certain CGI animation factories run by "their friends" in America. Ghibli's fathers may be stepping down to let others steer the ship but I doubt they're gone completely, either. I still have a feeling Miyzaki might have a story left in him. He may not supervise/direct again but I would be very surprised if he doesn't provide a new story to adapt in the future... |
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Sneakybeagle
Posts: 17 |
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I'd love for you to provide and example of this so called "emo crap" |
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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Sneaky: He said he wished his father was dead when he was younger. He's a c*nt.
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Eh, I'd take that as youthful indiscretion. Goro's Tales From Earthsea may have been a relative critical and financial flop, but his From Up On Poppy Hill did pretty well on both accounts, and is very much in line with other Ghibli works like Ocean Waves, Only Yesterday, Whisper Of The Heart, and The Wind Rises. Heartwarming story in a historical setting with a dash of fantasy. I'm sure Hayao wouldn't have retired if Goro had fumbled Poppy Hill again.
As for Suzuki's retirement being a blow to Ghibli, I don't think so. He has always been a producer only, not a director or other artist. His only direct influence on the content of the movies was picking the original work to adapt (together with the director of course) and selecting the staff to work on it. Sure, a producer's work is very important, but it's all behind the scenes so to speak. Plus, he isn't gone completely yet. He'll have some time to assist his successor. At 65, Suzuki is the youngest of the trio that founded Ghibli, so he has a few years in him yet I think. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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Kimiko: True, he's not an artist, but he did help to sell the Ghibli brand, back when it was still indie, even in Japan. He also basically kept Miyazaki's more extravagant creative decisions in check. And as much I agree with you that he's not the only factor in that company's success, he was still at the forefront of its success. So I just hope that the younger talent can take up the challenge without any problems.
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koinosuke
 Posts: 274 Location: Fukushima, Japan |
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Somehow, even more than Miyazaki's retirement, this makes me feel like we're really at the end of an era. Suzuki really has been not only the face of Ghibli to the Japanese public since the studio's inception but also a major behind-the-scenes force in terms of directing Ghibli in the right direction. So many movies that Ghibli has made have been made because he saw promise in this idea or that. He's pushed Miyazaki in the right direction so many times, and is personally responsible for Goro's sudden jump to the director's chair, which is something I honestly don't see as negative at all; As said above, Poppy Hill is a perfect story in the classic Ghibli fashion, and Earthsea while muddled is much better than people give it credit for, being superior to pretty much any other non-Ghibli fantasy anime movie out there (it's much better than Shinkai's Ghibli-clone Children Who Chase Lost Voices or such others as Origins or Brave Story).
Without Suzuki, I now really can't see Miyazaki returning to feature films, and with Takahata being 78 I'm assuming he's (very unfortunately) out of the picture as well. It looks like the Studio Ghibli of old is truly passing on the torch. I'm excited to see the new generation of the world's greatest animation studio come into their own, but I can't help but feel very bittersweet regarding all this. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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koinosuke: I'm actually ok with Earthsea, but I don't like Goro's entitled attitude.
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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With all three, it's basically wrapping up the end the "classic story" by losing the heart of the studio, so although it's a new phase, they're also pretty much becoming Every Other Feature Anime Studio, with only regular people at the head. Hopefully, it won't end up as 60's-70's Disney when Ron Miller had to take over for Walt Disney, everyone was figuring out what the late founder "would" do, which was to remake the last one he did work on, Jungle Book, over and over for fifteen years. Here, Earthsea played like a generic list of later-Miyazaki post-Howl fantasy cliche's, and it's easy to imagine the new head saying "Let's do more nationalistic nostalgia, since Poppy Hill and Wind Rises were our last big hits." |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Well one thing's for sure. It'll be goodbye cels, hello CGi soon.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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It's already goodbye cels, aside from the paper they draw line-art on, like pretty much every other anime that's airing. |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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yotsubafanfan
 Posts: 653 |
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My heart is breaking! Two out of the three leading men of Studio Ghibli have retired! And I'm sure Takahata's going to retire soon as well. (Probably after his latest movie gets a world wide release.) It really is the end of an era. And unless they can get some new fresh faces that are equally as talented as these guys. It will be the end of two eras! The end of the Original Studio Ghibli, AND the end of Hand Drawn animation in general!
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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Mohawk: They do incorporate CG. You can tell with certain scenes in Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. They just don't do it in a garbage way which blends badly with the 2-d background like with a lot of anime.
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