Hayao Miyazaki has retired from feature filmmaking. But, before he did, there was a manga he was keen to turn into a movie, but didn’t. That manga was Parasyte.
Kotaku previously reviewed the manga, which is called Kiseiju (寄生獣) in Japanese. It debuted in 1990 and got an English translation in 1999.
In a recent podcast, Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki talked with Genki Kawamura, who produced the live-action Parasyte movies. Suzuki told him, “We were thinking about doing [an anime] of it at Ghibli.”
Somewhat surprised, Kawamura said the manga’s themes did match up with Studio Ghibli’s sensibilities. Hayao Miyazaki, in particular, apparently liked the manga. According to Suzuki, “I also really liked it… The original manga was very interesting.” The two of them moved forward with the project; however, they obviously ended up not doing the anime.
This was a while back, and at this time, the movie rights were held by Hollywood. It wasn’t until the year before last that the rights returned to Japan, which explains the recent glut of Parasyte adaptations, including a not-so-good live-action version.
Kawamura pointed out that elements of Parasyte were reminiscent of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind — something that Suzuki agreed with.
Anime studio Madhouse is currently doing an animated Parasyte TV series. It’s been popular with fans, but damn, who wouldn’t want to see Miyazaki’s take on Parasyte? Instead, we got Ponyo.
Picture: Kodansha
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5 responses to “The Anime Studio Ghibli Wanted To Make ”
Instead we got one of the greatest films ever made
Glad we got Ponyo. Its an absolute treasure.
Sort of agree, but it’s aimed at small children to a much larger extent than pretty much any other Ghibli movie. That is, it’s a good children’s movie, not a good “general audiences” movie (IMO).
Asked to pick a Ghibli movie for kids under ten, I would pick either Totoro or Ponyo. Asked to pick one for somebody over age 20, and Ponyo would be either last or second-last [Earthsea].
Ponyo is one of my least favourite Ghibli films so I’m actually disappointed to read this.
The Parasyte manga is really good but the anime was dull as hell, unfortunately.