With Miyazaki's return, the Japanese animation landscape has changed

Miyazaki's mysterious retirement work "What kind of life do you want to live" was quietly released in Japan.

Even with the rare "zero publicity" strategy, "What Life Do You Want to Live" still won the weekend and set the third highest premiere result of the year; Miyazaki, who announced his retirement after "The Wind Rises", has largely faded from the public eye in the past decade, and young directors such as Makoto Shinkai have gradually occupied the center stage. But "What Life Do You Want to Live" proves that Miyazaki's box office appeal is still unmatched: the king of Japanese animated films, has not yet handed over his scepter.

"Zero publicity" did not hinder the high box office, and Miyazaki returned to the Iron Throne

Since the 14th, "What kind of life do you want to live" was officially released in Japanese theaters, and a big red plate of 465 million yen was opened on the first day, easily winning the championship of the day. According to the statistics of Xinghang News Agency, "What kind of life do you want to live" mobilized 1.003 million people in the first weekend, and the box office figure reached 1.626 billion yen. As the following Monday is the public holiday "Ocean Day", "What kind of life do you want to live" attracted 1.353 million viewers during the four-day holiday, and recorded a cumulative revenue of 2.149 billion yen.

Of all the films this year, "What kind of life do you want to live" achieved in the first three days of ranking third, behind "Detective Conan: The Fish Shadow of Black Iron" (3.146 billion yen) and "Super Mario Bros. Movie" (1.843 billion yen). In fact, as of Monday, "What kind of life do you want to live" has entered the top 15 of the year, considering that the aforementioned two films easily exceeded the 10 billion mark, it is only a matter of time before Miyazaki's new work finally hits the line.

In the sequence of Miyazaki's works, this achievement is also among the best. In 2013, "The Wind Rises" debuted on 454 screens from Saturday, with nearly 750,000 entries in the first two days, topping the list with 960 million yen. In 2008, "Ponyo on the Cliff" mobilized 1.25 million people in the first three days and grossed 1.576 billion yen at the box office. In 2004, Howl's Moving Castle attracted more than 1.1 million viewers in two days of its release, and accumulated a total of 1.484 billion yen. Earlier "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" have not yet been counted.

"The Wind Rises", "Ponyo on the Cliff", "Howl's Moving Castle"

In this way, "What Life Do You Want to Live" has fewer mobilizations than "Ponyo on the Cliff" and "Howl's Moving Castle", while higher average ticket prices have pushed its single-day revenue to the second place. According to Japanese media estimates, "What kind of life do you want to live" is 150% higher than Miyazaki's previous work "The Wind Rises", and the previous four days exceeded the same period of "Spirited Away" in 2001. At present, "What kind of life do you want to live" will become Miyazaki's sixth work to exceed 10 billion, and its box office extreme value is undoubtedly the focus of the industry.

"What kind of life do you want to live" is an original adventure action fantasy work directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki, the title of which is taken from the novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino, who Miyazaki read and was moved by when he was a child, and the protagonist is a teenager in World War II. The BBC described the film as "a story where children must overcome selfishness and learn to live for others". On the movie website Picture .com, "What kind of life do you want to live" received a total of 953 user reviews, with an average score of 3.5 stars (out of 5).

It is worth mentioning that "What kind of life do you want to live" implements a rare "zero publicity" strategy: before the release, except for the main poster visual of the film, Studio Ghibli did not disclose any plot details or cast, let alone common trailers and other distribution materials. It was not until July 14, when the first wave of viewers finished watching "What kind of life do you want to live", that it was learned that the voice actor lineup included big coffees such as Takuya Kimura and Yuki Shibasaki, and the theme song was sung by Genshi Yonezu, who became popular in recent years, and Miyazaki's old partner Jean Hisaishi also participated in the creation.

ACCORDING TO TTV NEWS, SUCH AN UNCONVENTIONAL STRATEGY EVEN MIYAZAKI HESITATED A LITTLE, WORRIED ABOUT WHETHER IT WAS TOO BOLD, BUT GHIBLI TRADER TOSHIO SUZUKI HAD OTHER IDEAS. He believes that "when I was a child, when I was young, I always thought about what kind of movie this movie is today, only the title and simple poster, and the content can only be imagined, which is interesting." This view was also echoed by Miyazaki fans, who said that they knew little about the movie itself before watching the movie and "felt more excited"; There are also fans who were moved to tears when they saw it, and shouted "great", and it was really honorable and happy to be able to enjoy this work.

Ten years of newcomers have emerged, and the animation market is particularly competitive

It has been a decade since Miyazaki last retired, and the Japanese film market has undergone a remarkable transformation.

The first is the strong rise of theatrical animation. If you push back to 2013, the highest-grossing "Pokemon Theatrical Version: Mewtwo Counterattack" received 7.24 billion yen in the summer of 1998, far less than the original animation represented by Hayao Miyazaki, and was also thrown off by live-action theatrical versions such as "Jump Search Line 2: Blockade of the Rainbow Bridge".

"Pokemon Theatrical Version: Mewtwo's Counterattack" "Jump Search Line 2: Blockade the Rainbow Bridge"

However, this situation has changed dramatically in recent years: starting with "Demon Slayer Theatrical Edition Infinite Train", which swept more than 40 billion yen in 2020, including "One Piece: Red", "Slam Dunk", "Spell Return 0 Theatrical Version" and "Shin Evangelion Theatrical Version: The End", etc. have successively exceeded the 10 billion mark, and this year's local champion "Detective Conan: Black Iron's Fish Shadow" has also earned 13.4 billion yen and continues to climb.

In the past, the theatrical version of animation, which was used as a supplementary force, has transformed into the strongest film in Japanese theaters, which has undoubtedly increased the intensity of competition in the animation market.

Secondly, after Miyazaki announced the death of Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata, the supreme throne of original animated films became the focus of competition for the new generation of directors, and the most powerful challenger was Makoto Shinkai.

At the time of the release of "The Wind Rises", Makoto Shinkai's fifth non-short film "The Garden of Words" had just been released, and the local box office was only 150 million yen. At that time, the industry's new stars were still Miyazaki Goro who made "Battle of the Earth and Sea" and Hiroshi Mibayashi of "Alietti the Borrower of Things", which received 7.84 billion and 9.26 billion yen respectively.

"The Garden of Words", "The Battle of the Earth and the Sea", "Alietti, the Villain Who Borrowed Things"

But since 2016, Shinkai Makoto turned into the field of commercial films and immediately ushered in a big outbreak, "Your Name. earned more than 25.1 billion yen, becoming the second-grossing Japanese animated film in film history at the time, second only to "Spirited Away". Next, Makoto Shinkai continued his impressive box office record, "Weather Child" and "Journey to the Lingya" both exceeded 10 billion yen, and the number of works in his directorial career exceeded 10 billion, second only to Hayao Miyazaki.

Finally, Hollywood animated films also grabbed a huge market share during this decade.

Back in 2013, Pixar's "Finding Nemo" and "Toy Story 3" were the only Hollywood animated feature films to exceed 10 billion in Japan. By 2014, "Frozen" swept 25.5 billion yen with a thunderous momentum, second only to "Titanic" among imported films, and "Frozen 2" and "Toy Story 4" in 2019 also rushed through the 10 billion line.

"Finding Nemo", "Toy Story 3", "Frozen"

After a short period of downturn, this year's "Super Mario Bros. Movie" led Hollywood animation to make a strong comeback, and is chasing "Detective Conan: The Fish Shadow of Black Iron" with 13.1 billion yen. At the beginning of next month, Pixar's "god work" "Crazy Element City" will land in Japanese theaters, which is expected to set off a new wave of box office frenzy.

All of these changes can be seen in one indicator. In 2013, Miyazaki occupied four of the top ten of Japan's all-time list, and "The Wind Rises" also ranked 16th. In this year's latest box office rankings, Miyazaki has three more works in the top ten grossing places, and "The Wind Rises" has been squeezed out of the 30th.

"Spirited Away", which was once regarded as untouchable, also transferred the crown of film history to "Ghost Slayer Blade Theatrical Version Infinite Train". Ten years of circulation, can be a succession. Miyazaki, who has long established his historical position, no longer seems to be standing above the tide of the times. Until he came out again with "What kind of life do you want to live", Miyazaki returned to the center of the stage as a king.

"Spirited Away" "Ghost Slayer Blade Theatrical Version Infinite Train"

Jianghu is no longer that jianghu, but Miyazaki is still Miyazaki.