Studio Ghibli Fans Can’t Stand the New Miyazaki Film’s Title Change

Friday, July 14, marks a major date in film history: the release of what Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki claims will be his final film. The long-anticipated film opened in Japan on Friday, stoking the jealousy of international fans who will have to wait to see it. And while Miyazaki claimed he was done with filmmaking 10 years ago, with the release of the Oscar-nominated The Wind Rises, it seems like How Do You Live? really marks the end of an incredible career. Its heavily guarded rollout—Ghibli released just a single poster and no trailer or plot synopsis—suggests that Miyazaki truly wants this to be an event; he’s going out with an ambiguous bang.

Japanese viewers have already taken to social media to share their first reactions, but North American fans now have even more reason to avoid those as much as possible: GKIDS, the stateside distributor of Studio Ghibli’s films on streaming and home video, has acquired How Do You Live? for a theatrical run later this year. (As is usually the case, the less an audience member knows about a Ghibli film going in, the more magical the experience.) The only thing is that it’s now going by the name The Boy and the Heron internationally, and Ghibli lovers hate it.

There are several reasons to be a little peeved by the title change. How Do You Live? is based on a 1937 Japanese novel of the same name, for one. It also matches the mysterious quality of the film itself: How do we live, indeed? It’s an existential question that conjures fantastical answers, much as we expect the film to do.

The Boy and the Heron, on the other hand, seems to be plucked out of thin air. At the same time, it tells us more about the film than even its poster does: This will be about a boy and a heron. Too much information, if you ask me.

While fans don’t know how the title relates to the film itself—plot details are nonexistent—it certainly has significantly less flair than the enigmatic How Do You Live?, which feels like a real downgrade. And as excited as we all are about the fact that we’ll be seeing the last Miyazaki film sooner than expected, many fans have also taken to social media to decry the new, exceptionally boring title.

That said, if you’re gonna make a mountain out of a molehill, at least be funny about it. And some members of self-proclaimed Anime Twitter are indeed making some good jokes about how How Do You Live? has gotten a generic rebrand.

While there’s no release date yet for the film, it’s unlikely that GKIDS will bend to the power of an angry internet mob and switch the title back. A spokesperson for the distributor also noted that this is far from the first time that a Ghibli title has changed in translation.

“GKIDS currently isn’t providing any further updates around the film at this time, in line with our partner's marketing strategy,” a GKIDS spokesperson told The Daily Beast, when asked about the title change. “However, I can note that historically, Studio Ghibli films have very often had different international titles. Last December, when the film was initially announced by Studio Ghibli, How Do You Live? was noted as the film’s tentative title.”

Whatever the thinking behind dubbing this film The Boy and the Heron abroad may be, let’s remember the incredibly good news here: We’ll be watching a new Studio Ghibli movie this year, and that’s something to be hyped for, no matter what it’s called.

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