“How do you live?”: Hayao Miyazaki’s film that will define anime in 2023

The new, and possibly last, film from the acclaimed Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki, “Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka” (How do you live?), is positioned as the clear star of Japanese animation cinema for this 2023; however, it also recalls the end of a generation of directors.

“Hayao Miyazaki will undoubtedly brighten the Japanese anime industry in 2023 with the release of his latest film, his probable final farewell. A brightness that reminds us that a generation that is already being left behind is fading away,” Álvaro López Martín, author of the blog Generación Ghibli -a reference in Spanish on the study- and of books such as “My neighbor Miyazaki” (2014) explains to EFE.

The Japanese animation expert believes that Miyazaki’s film will be “the reference anime film for 2023” and although he does not believe that it will be the highest grossing in Japan, it will have important significance for the Japanese industry and international projection like most of Studio Ghibli titles in the past.

“I see the Oscar as unlikely, since Disney is not involved as it was with “Spirited Away” (2001). It is still too early to talk about it, although, barring a catastrophe, I think the nomination is almost certain,” says the expert.

López Martín, also author of “Spirited Away” or “Howl’s Moving Castle”, an analysis of Miyazaki’s famous films, considers that although this premiere marks the end of an era, it is still early to talk about a generational change.

“I think there is a lot left to give a real takeover to the big names that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, which exploded in the 1990s and early 2000s. soon,” he says.

To cite some of the leading authors of current Japanese animation, López Martín points to Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai, in full creative maturity, followed by Naoko Yamada (“A Silent Voice”, 2016), Hiroyuki Imaishi (“Promare”, 2019), Hiromasa Yonebayashi (“Arrietty”, 2010), Tatsuyuki Nagai (“Her Blue Sky”, 2019) and others, one step below.

The expert also highlights films such as “Kimi no Iro” (Your Color) by Naoko Yamada for the Science SARU studio; Yuzuru Tachikawa’s “Blue Giant,” about a student who wants to make it big playing the saxophone, and Makoto Honda’s “Make My Day,” a sci-fi film for Netflix, are titles that could hit the big time in 2023.

By the end of the year, “Yaneura no Rudger” (Rudger in the Attic), a film by Yoshiyuki Momose for Studio Ponoc, heir to many former Studio Ghibli employees, has also been confirmed.

The stars at the Japanese box office, he considers, will be continuations of anime series made into movies, such as the new movie “Kimetsu no Yaiba” (Night Watch) after bursting the box office in 2020 or “Spy × Family”.

“I think that, more and more, the Japanese animation industry is going for the safe value. There is going to be very little innovation, we are going to see a lot more anime in 3D CG (computer-generated animation) and, above all, a lot of continuation of series transferred to the cinema”, concludes López Martín.