Anime Legend Hayao Miyazaki’s Upcoming ‘Final’ Film Will Have No Promotional Campaign!

From My Neighbour Totoro to Howl’s Moving Castle, Studio Ghibli films have captivated the hearts of many for nearly four decades now, enchanting both the young and the young-at-heart. Studio Ghibli is practically synonymous with beautiful animation and breathtaking music, but it can be argued that the studio’s meteoric rise and subsequent back-to-back successes can be attributed to just one man. Hayao Miyazaki is said to be the mastermind of everything the company releases and is considered a living legend in the global industry.

However, all good things must come to an end, as Miyazaki has gone on record to speak about his retirement and final film. Though the famous filmmaker, animator, and manga artist has talked about retirement in previous interviews, we have reason to believe that he means business this time, and he decided to do something unconventional for his final feature film.

It has been the norm for any film to entice as many potential audiences as possible to watch it; the best way of doing so is by presenting a portion of the film in the form of trailers and advertisements. That way, the audience knows what they are getting and what they should expect. However, Miyazaki wants the film to be released without any of the “frills” that have become the norm in the industry.

Producer Toshio Suzuki, who confirmed this bold plan in an interview with Japanese Magazine Bungei Shunju, said the film will have “no trailers or TV commercials at all… no newspaper ads either.”  He added that, “Deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire.”

However, we aren’t entirely left in the dark here. We know that the film is titled “How Do You Live?” and is scheduled to be released in Japan on Friday, 14th July. Despite the bold move of not releasing any promotional material, observant fans noticed that Studio Ghibli did release a poster for it in December and that Miyazaki revealed some details about the film all the way back in 2017 in another interview. The renowned director claimed that Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name served as the film’s inspiration.

But what about fans outside of Japan? When can we expect the film to be released? Well, luckily, we aren’t devoid of information either, as Studio Ghibli has been very consistent with all their film releases, Miyazaki or otherwise (save for 2020). If we are to look at the pattern, we can expect the film to arrive around next year at the earliest – hence why we should all keep an eye out in case they decide to pull a fast one on us. But it’s worth mentioning that Miyazaki has come out of retirement before to make more films, which does add a bit of doubt in people’s minds about whether this time, his retirement will be real or not.

Sources, Wikimedia Commons [1], [2], IMBd, Polygon, Character Design References, Animation World Network, Good Reads, Ghibli Fandom – Wiki