Hayao Miyazaki is retiring from a recent Studio Ghibli film

It may be hard to believe, but the first time Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from making feature-length animated films was in the late 1990s. A year later, he returned to Studio Ghibli with the idea of ​​what Spirited Away would become, which won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

To shorten the story, Miyazaki has announced his departure several times, most recently in 2013, after directing 11 films in 34 years.

In a rare interview with the New York Times (which was done by an interpreter), Miyazaki has confirmed that he is returning to Studio Ghibli to direct a new film.

“Because I wanted to,” he said.

Aside from being a short film, Miyazaki’s latest feature film was The Wind Rises of 2013, a novel biographical film about Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, who created World War II A6M fighter jet. It only took a year after the announcement of his departure for Miyazaki to find inspiration to make another film.

For the past four years, Miyazaki has been working on the new film, which has not yet been completed, according to the Times.

Little has been announced about the new film, other than that it is based 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino called How do you live? The novel follows a 15-year-old boy in Tokyo, whose father recently died. How do you live? is said to be Miyazaki’s favorite “children’s” book.

Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer Toshio Suzuki described the new film as “large-scale fantasy”.

Miyazaki did not confirm whether the new movie will be called How Do You Live?

When asked about the title, he replied: “I make this movie because I do not have the answer.”