Toshio Suzuki ('The Boy and the Heron' producer) on Miyazaki's decision to come out of retirement

So there are a few signs. He gave a few hints multiple times. One time was after he said he was going to retire. I actually teamed up with Michael Dudok de Wit, the Dutch director, and we made what was to become The Red Turtle together. Miyazaki noticed that and was curious about it. He came up to me and said, 'Are you sure you want the last Studio Ghibli film to be directed by a non-Japanese?' I was like, 'What?' He said, 'I think you should make the last film with a Japanese director.' That was about seven or eight years ago. I told him that obviously I would like to make a film at Studio Ghibli with a young and very talented Japanese director, but it's very rare to find one. Then Miyazaki responded, 'I know there's not much out there.' One day, I was in the editing room going through rough cuts of The Red Turtle with the cutting staff and the team. I noticed somebody standing behind me, and when I turned around, it was Miyazaki. He told me that if I had this team, I could make another film. After a while, he came over and handed me a letter. The letter contained what was going through his mind, and he asked me to read it. It basically said what I think is in the press release: 'I know it's pathetic. After making such a big announcement of retirement and then immediately coming back to do another film, people might ridicule it, but I do want to make another film.' My immediate response was, 'Well, I've seen many great legendary directors at the end of their career always come back and want to make another film as their swan song, but most of them, I have hardly seen any film that had succeeded in their last. Do you want to do the same?' But he ignored me and said, 'Okay, I'm going to spend six months putting together a storyboard worth of 20 minutes. Can you watch that?' That was our conversation.

Is this a personal story for Miyazaki? Yes. Did it resonate with me? I don't think so. In Japan recently, not many films have succeeded with a male protagonist. When Miyazaki came to me and said he wants to make a film with a protagonist based on himself, I wasn't sure if that would be interesting enough for the audience. He knew that too, so in his mind, he wanted to have many interesting visual scenes to support the male protagonist. That was his idea.

I first met him when he was working on The Castle of Cagliostro. Although it's said to be a classic, back then, the staff supporting the film in the beginning were very supportive and saying it was a masterpiece. However, it was a box office failure, and not many people went to see it. So the staff and team left him, and he was all alone. I was the only one left, so I thought I needed to be the one to support him. That's why I decided to make a studio.

Objectively observing them, I feel that Miyazaki and Hisaishi make a good pair. They have similarities in their personality, so I thought they would be a good team, one of a kind, two of a kind. That's why we've continued the collaboration.

One of the big challenges in making this film was that we decided to bring in a younger animator to work on the animations. The big challenge was whether the chemistry would work between that young animator and Miyazaki. I was kind of caught in the middle trying to make things work, so that was a huge job for me.

That's always a difficult question for me, how to answer, but today I'll make an exception and tell you: it's My Neighbor Totoro.