Studio Ghibli to be sold to Nippon TV

Studio Ghibli has announced that it is to be acquired by Nippon TV in a deal that will secure the future of the award-winning animation studio led by Hayao Miyazaki.

In a joint statement with Nippon TV,  Studio Ghibli stated "We have long struggled with the question: who will be the successor”.

Having failed to convince Miyazaki's son to take the reigns, the studio will welcome Nippon TV as the biggest stakeholder in a deal spearheaded by Toshio Suzuki and Miyazaki himself after Goro Miyazaki claimed he did not want the pressure of running the world famous studio and that it was best left to someone else. 

Though the cost of the acquisition has not been made public, the studio will become a subsidiary of Nippon TV, who will own 42.3%  of the voting rights. Nippon TV has made it clear that it will respect the studios autonomy.

Miyazaki retired in 2013 after The Wind Rises, only to come out of retirement in 2017 to start work on The Boy and The Heron, which was released in Japan in July and has yet to be slated for UK release (it's due to be shown in the US in December).

With the studio's future now secure, it remains to be seen if Miyazaki will stay retired this time.