If you are a lover of anime there is a good chance that you are a fan of or at least heard of the beloved film maker, artist, and creative genius, Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is best known as being one of the co-founders of Studio Ghibli, as well as taking lead on the feature films Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo. Three years ago in September of 2013, Studio Ghibli announced the news that Hayao Miyazaki was retiring from feature length films. Since his retirement Miyazaki has however been working on a CG (Computer generated)  short film for the Ghibli Museum entitled “Kemushi no Boro” (or Boro the Caterpillar). The project was originally intended to be a 10 minute short and would have been unique in as much as it would have been Miyazaki’s first full CG film.

Keeping in character with the resolve and dedication to his craft it would seem Hayao Miazaki may have changed his mind about retiring from feature length films. In an NHK television special aired Sunday November 13th titled Owaranai Hito Miyazaki Hayao (The Man Who Is Not Done: Hayao Miyazaki) Miyazaki reported that he wants to return to making an anime feature film. Miyazaki has concluded that he is no longer content with “Kemushi no Boro” being merely a short and has started pushing to turn it into a feature length film.

Despite not officially receiving a green-light for the feature film, Miyazaki decided to start animation work on the project anyway. He plans on creating storyboards for about 100 cuts of footage. He also noted that if a feature would take him five years to make [and] suggested that the film could be done by 2019.

Hayao Miyazaki has been working on the concept of “Kemushi no Boro” for almost twenty years so it is not hard to see why he would want it presented on a grander scale. Miyazaki has described his story as:

A story of a tiny, hairy caterpillar, so tiny that it may be easily squished between your fingers.

At this point I think it is safe to assume that fans of Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki are definitely not going to be disappointed if Miyazaki gets his way. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter, or which Miyazaki film is currently your favorite. Also for fanime lovers if you’re excited about this check, out some exciting news fro the Ghost in the Shell movie coming up!