TV Show Apologizes After Calling Out Hayao Miyazaki On Retirement Claims

Anime fans often poke fun at the fact that Hayao Miyazaki has “retired” many times in the past couple of years. With the most recent supposed retirement announcement coming back in 2013, which of course was reversed again this year with the announcement of his return for his next feature film, which has proposed release date of 2019. Recently a popular Japanese television show made fun of Miyazaki for his fickle retirement announcements, with quotes from the director from every supposed retirement. But apparently the quotes were not ones of the infamous 76-year-old director, and the program had to issue a public apologize explaining the situation. last week

Popular Fuji TV program Wide na Show, had a segment this past week that listed all of Miyazakis “retirements” with fake quotes from the director in which he expressed conviction in his intention yet inability to retire. The live audience laughed at Miyazaki’s fickleness and inability to move away from the film world. But the alleged quotes were not real, and a fan who made up the joke quotes, tweeted about it the day after.

Twitter user Arekkusa, tweeted most of the quotes used on the show back in 2013. After seeing the show the user tweeted about the use of the fake quotes, saying “My joke tweet (of course not a quote from Hayao Miyazaki) was used on TV.” The user was not happy about the program using his jokes, asking Fuji TV to pay him, and apparently he issued a complaint to Japan’s Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) watchdog group.

After the episode aired, the program’s official site issued a public apology for the misquotes. The show then went on to acknowledge the fact that the quotes were made up, and apologized to Miyazaki, his reps, and the viewers. According to the program, they aired it without fact checking the quotes before hand.

Hayao Miyazaki is officially back for one more movie, as Studio Ghibli posted a job recruitment notice for the new film. The notice was looking for animators for Hayao Miyazaki’s “final” film. The legendary studio is hiring in-between animators and background artists for a three-year contract that will start October 1. The notice mentions several times that the upcoming film is “director Hayao Miyazaki’s final feature animation film” because of his age. The director is 76 years old, and reportedly in and out of bad health. In the notice, it is stated that the three-year employment contract is subject to change. This is the first official acknowledgment from Studio Ghibli of the new film, and it looks like the studio and Miyazaki plan on hitting it with full force.