×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Ghibli Co-Founder Toshio Suzuki Retires as Producer


Goto page 1, 2  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:09 am Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
mewpudding101
Industry Insider


Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 2210
Location: Tokyo, Japan
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:51 am Reply with quote
Oh wow. That's a second blow to Ghibli.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:18 am Reply with quote
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...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sneakybeagle



Joined: 12 Jul 2013
Posts: 17
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:06 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
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.


I'd love for you to provide and example of this so called "emo crap"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:10 am Reply with quote
Sneaky: He said he wished his father was dead when he was younger. He's a c*nt.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
Kimiko_0



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 1796
Location: Leiden, NL, EU
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:15 am Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:33 am Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
koinosuke



Joined: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 274
Location: Fukushima, Japan
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:45 am Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:59 am Reply with quote
koinosuke: I'm actually ok with Earthsea, but I don't like Goro's entitled attitude.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 5:06 am Reply with quote
koinosuke wrote:
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.


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."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:09 pm Reply with quote
Well one thing's for sure. It'll be goodbye cels, hello CGi soon. Laughing
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:04 pm Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
Well one thing's for sure. It'll be goodbye cels, hello CGi soon. Laughing


It's already goodbye cels, aside from the paper they draw line-art on, like pretty much every other anime that's airing.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:02 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Mohawk52 wrote:
Well one thing's for sure. It'll be goodbye cels, hello CGi soon. Laughing


It's already goodbye cels, aside from the paper they draw line-art on, like pretty much every other anime that's airing.
Name me one Ghibli /Miyazaki/ Suzuki produced movie that was done in CGi and not hand drawn cels. Wink
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yotsubafanfan



Joined: 28 May 2011
Posts: 653
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:04 pm Reply with quote
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! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:14 pm Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group