Having completed his nearly 50-year mission of harvesting the happiness of children, all to power his giant machine that eats small villages, animator Hayao Miyazaki is retiring, reports Variety. The announcement came from Koji Hashono, head of the Studio Ghibli production company where Miyazaki made classic films like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, and was revealed just as Miyazaki’s latest, The Wind Rises, made its debut at the Venice Film Festival. A more detailed comment from Miyazaki—who’s tried retiring a couple times before, only to come back stronger than ever, so who knows—is expected sometime later in the week, when the 72-year-old animator will hold a news conference in Tokyo. But if the report is true, it means one of the most distinguished and imaginative careers in animation has come to an end, and that all the spirits in the forest should look out for Miyazaki’s delight-powered death device.
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