Youngest Director at Studio Ghibli Hiromasa Yonebayashi Quits

Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Hiromasa Yonebayashi, at the age of 41years old, has directed The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) and Marnie Was There (2014) (not yet released in EU), confirmed on 11th March that he had already left Studio Ghibli.

He joined a talk show event for the release of the DVD/Blu-ray of Marnie held in Tokyo on March 12th. He mentioned he in fact left Studio Ghibli at the end of 2014 and was no longer a member of the company. He said, "I talked with producer (Yoshiaki) Nishimura about what to do. I still want to make films, though it isn't clear what they will be like," and added, "For example, I want to try an action-oriented or fantasy film, which are totally opposite from Marnie."

The Secret World of Arrietty's

His last film at Studio Ghibi, When Marnie Was There opened in Japan on July 19, 2014 only earned 379 million yen which was only 42% of his first feature film The Secret World of Arrietty's 900 million yen in July 2010.

In early February, Studio Ghibli, fans were shocked to hear of Hayao Miyazaki's retirement from feature films, from co-founder/producer Toshio Suzuki, the studio is still running but is doing very few films at all.

When Marnie Was There