Nippon Television holds exclusive rights to shows Ghibli content in Japan (which could go for a much higher value and viewership elsewhere), but the important thing is the relationship between Nippon's manager (Okuda) for their Ghibli relationship. For years, he would visit the studio day after day, just to hang out with the team and Miyazaki.
Okuda's family and Miyazaki's family went to a retreat together (as they did every summer) and that experience became the basis for Spirited Away. That is why Ghibli stuck with Nippon through the years and likely resulted in this buyout.
From the Kingdom of Dreams and Madness Documentary:
"When producer Suzuki meets a group of new Nippon TV employees, he tells them that they shared a long professional and private relationship with Seiji Okuda from NTV. It was after a trip to the mountains with Okuda and his daughter, that gave inspiration to the movie Spirited Away."
This is basically Steve Jobs selling Pixar to Disney... this relationship is about more than money, it's about trust and stewardship.
thanks for sharing the human aspect to this story! I had to fact check it. For others wondering, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away some mentioning in second paragraph.
Nippon Television holds exclusive rights to shows Ghibli content in Japan (which could go for a much higher value and viewership elsewhere), but the important thing is the relationship between Nippon's manager (Okuda) for their Ghibli relationship. For years, he would visit the studio day after day, just to hang out with the team and Miyazaki.
Okuda's family and Miyazaki's family went to a retreat together (as they did every summer) and that experience became the basis for Spirited Away. That is why Ghibli stuck with Nippon through the years and likely resulted in this buyout.
From the Kingdom of Dreams and Madness Documentary:
"When producer Suzuki meets a group of new Nippon TV employees, he tells them that they shared a long professional and private relationship with Seiji Okuda from NTV. It was after a trip to the mountains with Okuda and his daughter, that gave inspiration to the movie Spirited Away."
This is basically Steve Jobs selling Pixar to Disney... this relationship is about more than money, it's about trust and stewardship.