Ghibli’s Next Film Has a Release Date

Jason Moses February 18, 2013

Hayao Miyazaki, legendary director of anime film classics like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, and co-founder of groundbreaking animation house Studio Ghibli, is getting old. He’s 72 this year. No spring chicken. And Studio Ghibli has yet to sire a serious candidate to act as successor to one of the most esteemed directors in animation history.

But let’s not think about that. Miyazaki’s still making movies, and his new one has a release date.

His new film, titled Kaze Tachinu (The Wind is Rising) is coming out this summer on July 20. This information was revealed not in a press release, not in a trailer, not on an official news site, but when Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki wrote a short message on the film’s theatrical poster, which was then photographed and sent around twitter: “I can’t exactly shout this from the rooftops, but the release date is July 20.”

The release date comes just a few days after it was announced that The Tale of Princess Kaguya, the first film from Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) in 14 years, would be pushed back a few months. It was initially planned to open on the same day as The Wind is Rising.

The Wind is Rising is based on a short manga series written by Hayao Miyazaki, which is turn loosely based on a novel written by Hori Tatsuo in 1937, and took place in a tuberculosis sanitarium.

Something tells me it’s going to be darker than Ponyo.