Report: Studio Ghibli May Be Shutting Down - Update

[schrodinger]

....

This is a huge blow to the world of animation. I have been collecting every movie they've created and to see the studio go is truly terrible.

 

[Shaidz]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*takes breath*OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That really, really suck! Like not a good way to start a Monday morning off on!

 

[otakon17]

.... shit.
Just, fuck I'm goddamn tearing up over here reading this. It's like a part of my childhood has died hearing this. FUCK. Where is this goddamn corner everyone's going into? I need some company for my misery.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

This is a bad omen for anime. I will always believe that Ghilbli made the best of anime, while the rest of the anime out there have become more and more driven by fetish-hungry otaku's.

Excuse me while I go cry while looking for a ghilbli ultimate movie collection on amazon.

 

[Fox12]

*On the fence about buying the Ghibli films from movie stop*

*Sees the studio has shut down*

*Rushes out and buys everything*

To remind all Disney also shut their traditional 2d animation arm a few years ago. The costs on that style of animation are rising. The returns are diminishing. Ghibli made big theatrical movies. But the market for 2d hand drawn animated movies has died.

Also take note Ghibli itself does not appear to be closing. Just the animation studio. Which leaves hope that they may be considering reconstituting some form of 3d animation shop, much like Disney did.

Oh, God no. That would truly be the death rattle of the entire industry. With Ghibli leading the charge everyone would be going 3d. I'd sooner see Ghibli burn to the ground then endorse a form of lower quality animation that ages poorly after less than a decade.


Goodbye Ghibli.

 

[scorptatious]

Wha...

No...

What a damn shame. I really enjoyed the movies I've seen from this company, hell, even my least favorite one, Howl's Moving Castle, had some pretty cool moments.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Only a few more to go and the world will be free of this anime curse, I'm sure the "artists" will be fine. They can get careers producing their fetish material on Deviant Art for donations or something.

I...what? Of all the anime studios to accuse of lacking artistic merit and "fetish material" you pick Studio Ghibli? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water...

Spoiler: Tell me this isn't art. I fucking dare you.

I'll be completely honest; I don't care for every film Studio Ghibli has made. Some of them left me confused more than anything else, likely due to my relative lack of knowledge regarding Japanese culture and folklore (Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke come to mind). That being said, some of their other works rank as some of my all-time favorite animated films (Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Kiki's Delivery Service).

Regardless of whether I enjoyed the story or not, the art and animation was always a wonder to behold (though the main human characters tend to look the same after a while). It's a shame that such a talented group of people are disbanding. If there's a silver lining to all of this, I suppose it's that they're going out on a high note.

EDIT: So it appears they may not be shutting down after all.

 

[Tisiphone1]

ANN and Crunchyroll news now reporting that this appears to be a restructuring rather than an outright shutdown. The effect on any theoretical further releases will depend on what form the restructuring takes. Not dead yet!

Anime News Network [http://4NN.cx/.77263]

Crunchyroll [http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/08/03-1/studio-ghibli-co-founders-tv-appearance-stokes-talk-of-changes]

 

[Super Cyborg]

I need to buy and watch them again, because they were always fun to watch. even Howls Moving Castle which I thought made no sense and didn't care to much. It is a sad day that the studio is shutting down, for bringing us great classics. I do agree that it's better that it ends now on a high note rather than continue and get bad. It's like a few TV series I liked that stopped while still ahead.

Also, reading this thread shows me how some people are really nasty towards the industry. Just because you don't like a certain thing means you have to celebrate and go run it in peoples face. I don't care for Halo, but if it could no longer be made because of reasons, I wouldn't go rub it in.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Gyah, don't scare me like that Bob. Firggen Heart Attack here.

I'm inclined to go with ANN's report (since they have people fluent in Japanese) though I'll still have to be worreied. They've been trying to prep the next generation for a decade now to limited results, so it's hard to say what'll come out of restructuring. I hope for the best.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Gyah, don't scare me like that Bob. Firggen Heart Attack here.

I'm inclined to go with ANN's report (since they have people fluent in Japanese) though I'll still have to be worreied. They've been trying to prep the next generation for a decade now to limited results, so it's hard to say what'll come out of restructuring. I hope for the best.

It did seem weird that only this site was reporting that it was closing, while other sites didn't say it. We'll have to wait and see what happens, but perhaps their restructuring could be that they still do the animation stuff, but do smaller projects that are cheaper and can be profitable? Then they might do the 3D animation for bigger projects possibly. Only time will tell for sure what happens. I'm going to have to play Ni No Kuni when I get home after hearing about this, because reasons.

 

[RA92]

Only a few more to go and the world will be free of this anime curse, I'm sure the "artists" will be fine. They can get careers producing their fetish material on Deviant Art for donations or something.

... you've never seen a Ghibli film, have you? It's like hearing Nintendo is shutting down and responding "Thank God! One less studio that will be making gritty realistic military FPS!" Ghibli is was (*sob*) lovely because they eschewed so many cliches. I'm sincerely asking you to go watch some of their films - try Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies.

<youtube=_9WEyuMq0Yk>

 

[Casual Shinji]

So they're not closing down, only maybe the animation department...

Yeah that pretty much means they're dead. I mean, what else do they have? A museum and that's it?

There goes one of the few if not only anime studio left that didn't pander to horny geeks. And people claim that anime isn't dying. *tsk tsk* I know I should be more shocked, but I'm oddly calm about this. Maybe because Miyazaki already left, or maybe because I knew they couldn't keep existing as they were in the rotten state the industry is in.

 

[Xerosch]

Oh boy...

I love Ghibli's work as a whole, even though they weren't able to top 'Princess Mononoke' and 'Chihiro' (which is totally my personal opinion as I like them the most).

What astonishes me, though, is the amount of hate and spitefulness in this thread. It seems people who have never heared of Studio Ghibli or don't care about Anime simply visited this thread to throw a 'Ha, Ha!' in the faces of people who love these movies.
I mean, there's plenty of stuff I don't like or care about, which is discussed on this site, but why not let people enjoy what they like and shut up about it? Oh, yeah... this is the Internet thing I've heared about, right?

 

[DaViller]

It's funny to me how many people yell that Ghibli is the pinnacle of anime. And others say similar things (such as "it's the only real anime!"), and yet, clearly they aren't the best around or they wouldn't be shutting down.

I'm not glad to see a studio close, but they are certainly the most over-hyped anime studio around. I'll be glad to no longer have to hear people drone on and on about them.

"studio ghibli is the most overhyped anime studio around" said the one with the attack on titan profile pick... self awareness is for noobs I guess.

Yep. Your ad-hominem attack sure proved me wrong. Oh wait, no it didn't.

What is there to disprove? There are a lot of people who like, or even love, a lot of ghiblis movies and series. They might not be the "pinnacle" of anime but they are pretty much the most popular anime studio on the planet and for good reason. If you ask me Miazaki ranks among the top anime directors and I know of only two others capable of comparing to him, that being satoshi kon and mamoru oshii (makoto shinkai is on a good way but I think not quite getting there yet). You can call that "overhyped" as much as you want, but there are damn good reasons for the popularity they enjoy across the globe.
If you wanna talk "overhyped" AoT is pretty much a posterchild for that, it's certainly a good show but a lot of it's popularity seemed to stem from an overall lack in quality shows during it's release period. People where dryed up and AoT came in pretty much at the right time for people to praise it as animes second coming of christ. To me it's more like deathnote, a very entertaining series but not what I would consider a classic.

I apologize for the personal attack but understand, you calling ghibli overhyped while being an AoT fan is kind of the equivalent to a guy going "oh god half live 1 and 2 are so overhyped people gotta stop jizzing theyr pants about it" while wearing a watch_dogs t-shirt.

 

[Oly J]

...I have no words....words have failed me, upon seeing this article I felt a jolt of despair far greater than even I thought I would, there's anime, and then there's Studio Ghibli, I am a fan of anime but Ghibli is in a class by itself, end of an era? no, end of a fucking art form.

that is if this is true, all this talk of mistranslations has me cautiously optomistic

 

[Ishigami]

Okay listen Ghibli I know what you need to do to secure your survival in today?s anime market: Hentai and Ecchi.
There fixed it.
The last glimpse of a silver linen is dead and every responsible adult can close the chapter of Anime while the people stuck in adolescence get some quality porn on top of their shitty porn.
Everybody wins.

 

[Someone Depressing]

...What? Seriously? I never watched many of their movies, but I thought their work was absoloutely gorgeous.

Even so, I imagine the biggest splash will be in the general anime fandom. It will not be pretty.

 

[Barciad]

Now would be a good time for Disney to swoop...

Anyway, this is quite sad, but for a single production company Ghibli has had an astounding run. Miyazaki and some of the senior people in the company have been working since the sixties, they had to get old sooner or later.

I don't think there's anyone in Japan (or the world for that matter) that can replace them, this might be the end of the last major 2-d animated movie makers, which is extremely sad.

I think it was a case that Miyazaki was essentially Ghibli, and nothing they do without him really is as good as when he's there. I feel them dying now right before the likely fall from grace they'd have is less painful then it would be. What was that Batman quote that is so awesome to use "Die a hero or live long enough to become the villain"?

I fear that you are right. My suggestion would have been for Miyazaki to have groomed a successor. Initially, I believe that was what he was planning. I read somewhere that he had hoped to set up Yoshifumi Kond&#333; ('Whisper of the Heart' director) in that position. Tragically, this never came to pass, owing to Kondo's death in 1998. As for promising young directors. Yasuhiro Yoshiura remains unproven, whilst Makoto Shinkai (after an excellent start) has descended very swiftly into Ghibli parody act.

 

[omega 616]

Ni No Kuni... indie? I don't think you understand what Indie means. Level 5 developed this in conjunction with Ghibli and it was published by Namco Bandai. This is the opposite of indie.

Also, maybe you should give Ghibli a try. FMA isn't Ghibli, heck most anime isn't Ghibli. Fair enough if you don't like the stuff, but don't completely dismiss something before you try it.

Try "Princess Mononoke"

Ok, I goofed ... it just has that indie vibe to it.

I've seen Princess Mononoke, it's total crap. It was just bizzare crap, like somebody had just gotten sky high on illegal drugs, knocked out the frame work for a story, come down off the high and then wrote in the detail. Admittedly, I did miss a lot of the start but I did see a fight near a lake and a giant, talking white warthog that dies in a disgusting way ... I can only remember little fragments but it was bizzare!