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Hayao Miyazaki Breaks Retirement Vow Again to Work on New Anime Film


Anyone who has the slightest bit of familiarity with Hayao Miyazaki will be unsurprised to hear he is making another film, despite his claim he was "retiring" from making feature films for Studio Ghibli after The Wind Rises in 2013. As this hilarious comic making fun of Miyazaki's retirement claims notes, Miyazaki has vowed to retire and then broken said vow several times at this point. In the latest example of this, he is now working on making a feature film called Boro the Caterpillar, the Anime News Network reports.

Miyazaki originally planned to make Boro the Caterpillar as a CG short, but the NHK television special The Man Who is Not Done: Hayao Miyazaki revealed he has proposed it be exapnded into a feature-length production. Miyazaki notes that the production could take five years to make, meaning he'll be 80 by the time it is finished. However, he plans to finish the film before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. A staff member joked that if Miyazaki ended up dying while doing the storyboards, it would make the movie a huge hit.

The film has not officially been green-lit by Studio Ghibli yet, but everyone knows there's no way they're going to turn down another Miyazaki film. Miyazaki seems to know this too, as he has already started working on the film's storyboards. He plans on creating boards for about 100 cuts of footage.

The special also showed Miyazaki learning how to use a tablet for animation, which is a huge first. Miyazaki is infamously anti-technology and has been avoiding digital animation his whole life. But the special shows that even an old dog can learn new tricks.

Boro the Caterpillar will focus on a "tiny hairy caterpillar". Miyazaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli and his previous works include My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. He is one of the most revered animators and directors in the industry.

I can't say I'm surprised at the news, but I am definitely pleased to get more great work from Miyazaki. It's pretty safe to say that man will keep working until he dies (if he ever dies) and the world will be richer for it. What about you? Are you looking forward to another Miyazaki feature?

Read: New Korean Anime Movie Criticized For Ripping Off Spirited Away

Watch: Video Essay About "The Essence of Humanity" in Hayao Miyazaki's Films

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