Some of you may have heard about this already. Studio Ghibli will be releasing Miyazaki’s next and last film this year. And that is exciting news for any fan of the studio or legendary director. But I’m not here to talk about this movie. I’m more interested in the business. That’s not even the right word, let me try to explain.
This upcoming movie is going to be titled How Do You Live? And considering that there is a fairly popular Japanese novel of the same name, it’s safe to assume that it will be an adaptation. That’s what most news outlets are going with. I’m not sure there’s been official confirmation yet but that doesn’t really matter.
How Do You Live the novel is a quiet and introspective coming-of-age story told from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy. It’s definitely the type of story that would be a good match for both Ghibli and Miyazaki and I am interested to see his take on a boy protagonist for a change.
And that’s all we know. I’m not even sure that the title of the anime and the book aren’t a coincidence. It would be surprising but still. And the reason I’m not sure and can’t tell you more is because Miyazaki declared that he would not be promoting this film in any way beyond the announcement of the title.
That’s right! That means no posters, no trailers, no commercials, and no merch. Well at least not ahead of the release. I guess there might be some commemorative t-shorts you can buy at the Ghibli museum at some point. I own so many official Totoro-branded products that it would be laughable to say the studio is against merchandising.
But still, not promoting a feature film in any way seems almost unthinkable these days, and yet… it sort of makes sense, doesn’t it?
The official reason given by Miyazaki is that he was watching a trailer for some movie and it gave away the entire plot and he thought to himself that it’s actually ruining the experience for moviegoers. He said it better and a bit more sarcastically. Miyazaki has quite a bit of bite. And I get it, totally. I understand exactly what he’s saying and this is a 100% Miyazaki move. It’s so in line with his character that when I was talking about it with a friend that hadn’t heard the news yet, she said, Of course, he would do that!
Now., I doubt my personal opinion on this matter much but for the record, I disagree a little. Yes, I do think promotional campaigns are occasionally so overbearing that I get sick of a movie before even seeing it but those are usually movies I wasn’t all that likely to go see anyways. On top of that, I’m one of those people who think that a good plot cannot be spoiled. If the execution and artistry are there, there’s no need for surprise.
(Except maybe for Chainsaw Man. Those twists and reveals are just so powerful…)
But regardless of whether extensive trailers can spoil of a movie or not, one thing is for sure, the mystery is a powerful advertisement. I have not been this excited about a new Miyazaki film in a long time. Now I need to see it even just to see what the character models are going to be like… And I’m not the only one!
Don’t go all conspiracy theorists on me, I’m not trying to insinuate that this was the ultimate goal of the promotional moratorium, and no publicity is the ultimate publicity. I’m just saying that telling people you’re not going to tell them about something is going to make them curious. The simple people like me at least.
And I do know that marketing can in fact ruin a movie-going experience but usually in my experience it’s because of unrealistic expectations rather than spoilers. You know, when a trailer makes a movie seem like a completely different genre than it actually is for instance. Jennifer’s Body was famously kneecapped by its own advertising as the studio failed to understand the messaging and intended audience.
But I don’t think that’s what Miyazaki is trying to get at here. And I haven’t read enough in-depth interviews to do any more than venture a guess. I’m thinking the issues he’s trying to resolve here are two-fold.
Rather than spoilers being the problem, I think it might be one of attention span. It’s no secret that we have gotten more impatient in general. I use to wait minutes for a single image to load on a website and I was excited about it. Now a few-second delay for a whole page to load has me sighing in annoyance. For something to hold my attention for any considerable amount of time, something has to be happening. At least a little.
And with an increasingly crowded entertainment landscape, that means any individual work is likely to get drowned in a sea of dozens of other trailers, viral tik toks, YouTube vids, or even snapchats, what a world we live in! And that kind of sucks.
It’s all well for a studio like Ghibli and a director like Miyazaki to say that they are bowing out of the rat race and simply abstaining from promoting their movie. These names are both renowned and acclaimed throughout the entire anime industry across the world. They literally don’t need any publicity. But what of the tiny little animation studios just starting out and trying to make a name for themselves in such a deeply competitive industry? Can they really take the same route? Will they end up having to hype the fact that they’re not promoting their movies or shows nonstop to make up for it?
It seems like this would be a solution not so much for the betterment of the industry in general but rather for Studio Ghibli in particular.
I’m being a little dismissive here. Sure, in an ideal world where everyone would cut back on advertisements and simply recenter the values of the industry that would most likely be a huge improvement. But I’m just not sure how realistic that is.
The second point which touches on what I just said about the values of the industry, is that a huge amount of the budget of any given movie or show goes to advertising. And this isn’t unique to anime. In fact, I would guess that anime is more reasonable than other media in that regard but I haven’t actually researched it. I just know that to promote a second season of a particular show, the production team ended up spending 2x the money they had spent on actually filming the season. And that’s including big star salaries.
The advertising didn’t double the budget it tripled it! And by the way, doubling the budget to account for marketing is the standard now…
Can you imagine what your favourite anime would have been like if it had twice the budget? Heck, imagine what a standard run-of-the-mill anime would be like with twice the budget! I’m not saying money solves everything but it rarely hurts!
I have to admit, I’m both extrapolating and projecting quite a bit here. I’m not sure Miyazaki even thought about advertising budgets when he made this decision. But I did and I have to agree, there’s something exciting about the idea of going back to simple plot synopsis and maybe a poster as your guide for choosing movies. I bet we would pay way more attention and decide more carefully! Maybe I,m wrong but in any case, it’s an exciting idea and of course, it would come from a visionary!
Miyazaki is a big liar. In the past, he would announce this would be his last film but then boom! He would make another one, and another one, and another one…
Some years ago I recall hubby and I were quite disgruntled when we went to see a certain movie and afterwards agreed that basically every single “best” part of the movie was in the trailer. We could have just skipped the movie. Now, this was an action adventure thing, but yeah, I do see where Miyazaki is coming from. And I’ve been sadly disillusioned by not only marketing but reviews back when Star Wars the first movie came out. Mind you, I had been reading scifi since it was speculative fiction in a few devoted magazines, since I was a child. So this super hyped fantastic like nothing else scifi story turns out to be cowboys in space or boy meets princess, yawn. Yes, it was really all about the fantastic effects on a movie screen – but I’ve had fantastic effects in my imagination for decades (LOL). I get it. And now we are so inundated in endless marketing – it’s reached the point of being so overwhelming that by and large I ignore it all for everything except, well, I have a weakness for new games for the Switch. But only someone of Miyazaki’s stature can do this – for all the reasons previously stated. People are waiting and watching and hoping for his next film, just like I have alerts set up for Dean Koontz’ next book. Less popular authors have to hope either the library or Hoopla or someone I know will say, oh if you like Dean Koontz, you should try this. And for that to happen – marketing. So marketing is not by definition a bad thing – it’s brought me to some new authors and new games and new anime – but at this time in the world it is a bit overwhelming at times, too. I did not know that it could be such a large part of the budget and that’s a bit concerning, I think. I’d rather the money go to better animation or to the writer or artists, you know, production people but ….but…it’s such a crowded market and IF the creation goes big, it does eventually trickle back as I see the first “Miyazaki movie” and want more… and then someone like Miyazaki can spend less on marketing and more on production quality. Okay. Talking in circles.
I think this is just Miyazaki hatching a cunning plan and using reverse psychology to advertise this movie by not advertising this movie…
Like I said, that’s very likely but it’s also his style to just be curmudgeonly
True. The NHK documentary about him certainly didn’t paint a flattering personal portrait….
I’d love to read Miyazaki’s comments on that topic. My first impression was: he’s worried about spoilers… with an adaption of a popular novel, of all things? (Well, as you said, maybe it’s not an adaption.) My second thought was that it’s more the overall impression that the preview gives that takes away the novelty of the experience.
Usually, anime trailers give you parts of the scenes, though I’ve seen manga panels with the anime voice actors telling the viewer to look forward to the show (in character) more than once. Still, sometimes you do get cryptic announcements. I think Zombieland Saga had only a huge poster with the words and an ominous rather dark (in terms of lighting) and very short trailer with ominous music, though I might misremember. I think Jasshin-chan Dropkick made the trailer the prologue to the series. I fully expected it to start with this (and I’m not sure if it did or not, but if it did, I get the sense that they started the scene, then fastforwarded through it and told the audience, well, you’ve seen the trailer, right. It’s that sort of show.)
For me, too much exposition to promo material indeed makes me feel I’ve seen enough of the thing, so it can really just dampen my excitement. It’s a bit like a subconscious wrong impression that I’ve already seen the film/series. So I really don’t mind if there’s not too much available before the show. The irony, in this case, is that I feel Miyazaki has pretty much a signature style. So you’d have a pretty good idea what to expect, anyway.
I agree, just the fact that it’s Miyazaki tells me a ton. And if it is an adaptation then really there’s not much for a trailer left to reveal
I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing. Way more than I like! But that aside, you’ve brought you some important points.
My 2/100: unknowns have to market harder than knowns. People will seek out Miyazaki’s work. It’s like the difference between a new science fiction writer (like me!) and an established name like Peter F. Hamilton. I actively watch for his next book. He doesn’t need to spend a dime to get me to buy his book. On the other hand, I have to spend many dimes to even make people aware I’m writing — much less buy the material!
Not only do people watch for Miyazaki. He’s in a position where being a marketing contrarian new newsworthy, and therefore a part of an effective marketing campaign. That is, if you think of “marketing campaign” as the broad concept of helping your readers or viewers connect with you. That’s the huge impediment I had to fight. We can all point to marketing efforts that seem sleazy. We can point to campaigns that ruined a movie’s chances before it was even released. But the industry isn’t defined solely by its failures. The best marketing does what the best SEO does — connects people who want your work to your work.
I’ll give Miyazaki credit. He’s at least taking a high road, and that’s if he’s trying to use reverse psychology as a marketing technique. He gets even more points if he’s not trying to do anything but express distaste for marketing excesses. Again, he can do that, because people are on the lookout for his works.
I like your (and Miyazaki’s) idea: go back to the basics. Dump the extraneous techniques that make people ultimately feel burned out or cynical. Go back to competing on a key image and a succinct synopsis. Heck, it’s what Amazon does when you have to come up with a blurb to advertise a book. I got so many characters, and no more. It keeps things focused, and it forces a level playing field. The differentiating factor is artistic skill, and that’s a good thing in this context.
I love Miyazaki as much as anyone, but I think this is his third “last” film so who knows. But he is right about trailers in that they give everything away now so it is intriguing and nice to have the film be the complete first time experience and not the trailer with excessive padding.
He’s becoming a professional retirer
So we have reached the end of an era with the coming retirement of Hayao Miyazaki. It will be sad, but isn’t his son still directing? His first movie (Tales Of The Earthsea) didn’t do that great, but I’m sure he will get better with each movie he does.
Miyazaki has a history of retiring. Maybe we’ll see something new in the future
Maybe so. But he earned his retirement sevenfold in my opinion. In his lifetime he’s done so much. If he’s compelled to return to tell more great stories I welcome it. But if he decides to enjoy his retirement that’s great too. Only the Maestro Miyazaki Hayao San knows for sure if this is it… Or if he will return again. Stay tuned.
Intense marketing is more likely to make me not watch an anime than to watch it. But I’m weird. Marketing usually tries to leverage FOMO. I don’t care if I don’t see something the instant it comes out and seeing dribs and drabs of something doesn’t get me excited.
Still, it must work or they wouldn’t do it. People forget that marketing can only get you to taste the product. If the taste is mediocre after a sweet buildup, it will feel bitter in comparison. I stick with the blogging community for my recommendations.
Remember the Edsel!
I am a lot like you but I also don’t watch much with ads so I rarely see anything unless I seek it out
A good reason to depend on one’s fellow reviewers and not the Crunchyroll email blasts I keep getting.
I’ve been watching Dr. Stone lately and it’s quickly become a favorite of mine. The reason that I didn’t start watching it a couple of years ago is that Crunchyroll’s advertising made it look annoying and idiotic – I only gave it a chance recently because of (ahem) certain bloggers’ reviews.
Japanese storytelling seems to use a much wider range of tones than current Western storytelling and it’s easy to cause someone to get the wrong impression if you’re careless about what you show them.
Ohhh you have a great point about Crunchy s marketing. I also almost skipped Dr Stone which would have been a shame 😋
Miyazaki is un-retired now? I’m not surprised. That is weird with the lack of marketing, but then again, Miyazaki is the same person who says that people haven’t really seen his movies unless they went to a movie theater, so I’m not sure how I feel about that. No disrespect to him as an animator and director of course, but he says some weird stuff sometimes.
He has strong views
That’s true. I certainly remember hearing about that quote and the story of him mailing a a katana to Miramax (back when Harvey Weinstein ran the company, may he suffer in prison) that said in plain English “No cuts” when they tried to censor Princess Mononoke. Oddly enough, I first heard that story when I met Crispin Freeman of all people.