Japan’s booming animation industry is in crisis — with low pay, long hours and a huge shortage of artists — just as its global popularity has never been higher.
With talk of a talent shortage, its greatest star, the legendary Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki, has come out of retirement at 78 to make “How Do You Live?” — which may be released next year — with speculation that he could take on another feature if his health holds. Rising star Keiichi Hara, who showed his new film “The Wonderland” at Annecy after winning the jury prize there four years ago with “Miss Hokusai”, feared for the future.
Even industry heavyweights like Mamoru Hosoda, the genius behind “Wolf Children”, “The Boy and the Beast” and “The Girl who Leapt Through Time”, have to put in punishingly long hours with relatively tiny teams. Its production team unveiled a sneak preview of the supernatural story at Annecy, with a high-school runaway meeting a girl who can change the weather.