Hayao Miyazaki announces his retirement

As stated in my official retirement announcement, The Wind Rises took five years to make. Of course, during that time I wasn't continuously making the film — I was writing screenplays, drawing my own short manga, managing the Ghibli Museum, and doing various other things. But it still takes five years.

Now, when I start thinking about the next work, I probably won't have many years left, given my age. As it says here, the next one would take six or seven years. By the time I finish, I'd be 73, and if it takes another seven years, I'd be 80.

You probably don't really understand what an animation director does. Every director has a different way of working. Since I come from an animation background, I have to draw — I can't express myself otherwise.

So what happens is, I take off my glasses and have to draw like this. I have to work on these drawings in a full circle. No matter how well I take care of my health, the amount of time I can concentrate on this work is definitely decreasing year by year. I truly feel this. Compared to when I made Porco Rosso, I leave my desk 30 minutes earlier now. With the next one, it'll probably be even earlier.

This is a physical problem caused by aging, and there's nothing that can be done about it. Complaining about it won't help. Some might suggest I should work differently, but if I could do that, I would have already. I can't. So I have to stick with my own method and my own style. That's why I made the judgment that feature-length animation is no longer possible for me.

I wrote this myself and thought I expressed it well — I wrote that I am free. That means I also have the freedom not to do things. However, as long as I can still drive, I plan to go to the studio every day. When I feel like doing something and something I can do comes up, I'll do it.

This is still a period when I need to rest, so I think I'll figure out various things during that time. But if I make promises here, I'd probably end up breaking most of them, so I'd appreciate your understanding on that point.

I told the staff inside about this retirement, and they said, 'Please keep making bento boxes for us going forward.' I've been told that nobody at my age still makes bento every day, so I'm sorry about that — please continue to look after me on that.

I don't remember being that polite about it, but regarding whether I'm glad I became a director — I've never once thought I'm glad I became a film director. But I've thought several times that I'm glad I'm in animation.

In animation, when you nail a cut, or capture the wind well, or handle water effects properly, or get the lighting right — those things can make you happy for two or three days. Even briefly, you can be happy for about two hours. But as a director, you have to wait for the verdict at the end. That's not a good feeling. So as an animator, I felt like I was working right up until the end. I think being an animator was a profession that suited me well.

When you try to put your own message into a work, you can't create a genuine smile. When you think you have to go this way but end up going that way instead — there may be meaning in it, but you can't capture it with your own consciousness. And when you can't capture it, you inevitably end up somewhere you didn't intend, in places you don't really understand yourself.

Regarding the future of Ghibli, now that the boss is gone, there will be voices saying 'make this' or 'do that.' I hope that Suzuki-san will follow through on that. Truly, without that kind of thing, it won't work.

Whether Suzuki-san can do it comes down to whether he has that determination. When we were in our thirties and forties, if someone told us we could do something, we'd say 'Fine, we'll do it!' and develop all kinds of projects with that resolve. It all depends on whether he has that. Suzuki-san is not someone who turns people away at the gate. So the future depends on all those things — people's motivation, hope, and ability.