Sublime

At Studio Ghibli, the old main staff is departing, and those in their early thirties will form the new core group. I will also retire from Ghibli and participate from the outside. I’m looking forward to seeing how the staff will react to me as I meddle in their work.

From a senior of mine in the industry, I once heard that when Tezuka was working on the production of the Saiyūki (Alakazam the Great) animation feature, he reportedly advocated inserting an episode showing the hero monkey, Songokū, coming back and finding his girlfriend (also a monkey) dead. But there was never any reason for the girl monkey to be

Hitchcockian protagonist,

I believe in all honesty that something will appear to guide me through the darkest and narrowest tunnel, or across the most desolate plain. That’s what I learned from the strange events I experienced while living in that mountaintop house on the outskirts of Odawara.