Hayao Miyazaki's final film, How Do You Live? (Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka), has been given an official English title: The Boy and the Heron.
The English name for Studio Ghibli's latest anime film was revealed by Variety, who reported that Gkids acquired the rights to distribute the movie in North America. While How Do You Live? has been the English name throughout the movie's production, Gkids says The Boy and the Heron is now its international title.
"Miyazaki is a living legend in filmmaking, as evidenced by his Academy Award win for Spirited Away and his two Oscar nominations for Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises," said Gkids president David Jesteadt. "It’s been ten years since the world has seen a new film from Miyazaki-san, and Gkids is so proud and honored to unveil his latest, highly anticipated masterpiece in North America."
The Boy and the Heron was released in theaters in Japan on Friday without any prior promotional material, save for a poster depicting a sketch of a bird Studio Ghibli shared last December. Last month, producer and Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki told Japanese magazine Bungei Shunji (independently translated by IGN Japan) that the studio's lack of marketing for the movie is so that people can see it in theaters without already being spoiled by the trailers, as most film studios tend to do with their movies nowadays.
"Everyone is drowning in information nowadays," Suzuki said at the time. "Sometimes people go see a movie just to check the information they already know [from what was revealed during the movie's promotion]. That is giving too much to customers, and it's like they're being deprived of what really makes it fun."
The Boy and the Heron is loosely based on the Japanese 1937 YA novel by Genzaburo Yoshino, telling the story of 15-year-old Junichi Honda who is sent to live with his uncle after his father's death. While there, he goes embarks on a journey of discovery, spiritual growth, poverty, and the meaning of life, heeding the advice communicated to him in his uncle's journal.
Gkids said The Boy and the Heron will be released in North America "later this year." It will adopt Studio Ghibli's marketing approach and not advertise the movie at all.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
