The artistic legacy of Hayao Miyazaki, the reclusive and bearded Academy Award-winning director and animator sometimes called Japan's Walt Disney, has never been more certain.
Yet at the same time, the commercial future for Studio Ghibli, the privately held Tokyo studio he left behind in retirement, has never been more in doubt.
Under Miyazaki, Ghibli became famous for intricate, hand-drawn animation and imaginative coming-of-age story lines that made films like 1988's "My Neighbor Totoro" into an international hit. A dozen years later, he masterminded what remains today as Japan's highest grossing film, the Academy Award-winning "Spirited Away."