Studio Ghibli’s Official X Account Is Shut Down

Summary:

• Studio Ghibli announced the termination of its official Twitter account.
• Fans think it’s connected to Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. taking over the studio.
• There might also be a political reason.

Studio Ghibli's official X (formerly Twitter) account posted a surprising message to the fans on November 2, 2023. It said that the account would be terminated as of 12:00 AM on November 3rd, so it’s already gone by the time you’re reading this article.

The last post

The message thanks fans for supporting the account, which started three years prior in preparation for the release of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka). The account being shut down raised a lot of questions among the fans, and there are some speculations.

Creating the account for The Boy and the Heron’s release was quite peculiar, since the company intentionally chose not to release any trailers, images or other details of the movie in advance of its Japanese premiere. One poster and the Twitter account were all the fans got.

Nippon taking over Ghibli might be the reason

Studio Ghibli became a subsidiary of Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. in October 2023, and its leadership was transferred to Hiroyuki Fukuda, a senior executive at Nippon TV. Hayao Miyazaki will transition to the role of the Honorary Chairman. The takeover is effective October 6th, 2023. Fans suggest that this major change has become the reason for the shutdown, and that another account might be established instead of the old one. But we can’t know that for sure, this is just a hopeful rumor.

Some are still unsure about what this takeover has to do with deleting a Twitter account, since they could’ve just renamed it or kept it locked. Fans wish the account would have stayed just as a memory, even if no new posts were ever coming.

Twitter has become a very controversial platform since the moment Elon Musk acquired and renamed it, so some fans think that this move is actually a good one. Another big company leaving the platform might be a hint at the fact that something is not right, and people of left-wing views that often disagree with Musk’s politics are even kind of happy that the studio has left Twitter.

A number of fans still believe that a new account under a new name will emerge somewhere in the future, and they will be happy to follow it and keep up to date with the studio’s news and upcoming projects.