A recent Bloomberg feature paints a picture of Studio Ghibli at a fascinating transitional moment: co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is now 85, his son Goro is being positioned as a potential creative successor, and Kenichi Yoda has stepped in as the company’s new CEO.
Even with these shifts, the legendary animation powerhouse remains fiercely dedicated to its craft, refusing to morph into a corporate IP factory that churns out endless sequels or adopts standard mass-production anime models. As for what’s coming next from the studio, it remains strictly under wraps.
In the meantime, Goro has directed a 15-minute short titled “A Night in the Valley of the Witches,” while Hayao continues to cast a long shadow over every artistic choice. In fact, Goro noted that bringing in an outside director is “absolutely impossible” as long as his father remains active at the company.
The biggest enigma, however, is Hayao himself. Following the Oscar win for “The Boy and the Heron,” Ghibli has kept quiet about his next official venture, even though Yoda reports that the master animator still shows up at the office every single day. What is he actually doing behind closed doors? Virtually nobody knows for sure. As staff put it, “Only he knows exactly what he’s working on.”
Miyazaki has famously walked back his retirement declarations more than once, and for now, he is officially back at work. Yet his daily routine at the studio is shrouded in mystery, with colleagues just as in the dark as the general public regarding his current creative endeavors.
Bloomberg journalists attempting to spot him near his home found themselves none the wiser, operating on the assumption that he would simply reappear at his desk by Monday morning. Ultimately, Ghibli’s trajectory remains tightly bound to Hayao, leaving whatever he is currently sketching out as his own closely guarded secret.
What we do have are pieces of a puzzle. After “The Boy and the Heron” debuted, Miyazaki made it clear he wasn’t retiring and was actively developing another picture. Although early reviews dubbed that film his definitive “swan song,” Studio Ghibli VP Junichi Nishioka quickly clarified that it wouldn’t be his last. Additionally, Goro shared with ComicBook.com that his father’s latest undertaking resembles a nostalgic, old-school action-adventure project.
Clearly, something new is taking shape behind the scenes. True to Miyazaki’s famously solitary creative process, the world likely won’t find out what it is until he decides it’s ready to be seen—because even those closest to him aren’t letting anything slip.