Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki wanted to adapt Parasyte manga into an anime according to Toshio Suzuki

Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki wanted to adapt Parasyte manga into an anime according to Toshio Suzuki

Can you imagine if animation studio, Ghibli, best known for their family-friendly movies like My Neighbor, Totoro and Castle in the Sky, were the ones to adapt Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte, a manga known for being bloody and violent, into an anime? Unthinkable, right? However, a recent podcast revealed that Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Oscar-winning anime director himself, really wanted to make a Parasyte anime.

Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki wanted to adapt Parasyte manga into an anime according to Toshio Suzuki

During a TokyoFM podcast to promote the Parasyte movies, retired Studio Ghibli producer, Toshio Suzuki, sat down with the director of the live-action Parasyte movies, Genki Kawamura, where he revealed that Miyazaki was actually a fan of the original SciFi-horror manga and actually wanted to adapt it into an anime movie. However, it did not come into fruition as the adaptation rights for Parasyte at that time was held by the Hollywood company, New Line Cinema, which wanted to make a live-action CGI movie based on Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga, however, just like Miyazaki’s plans, it did not push through.

Kawamura was shocked to hear that Miyazaki actually wanted to make a Parasyte anime, however, he later stated that the series actually has similar themes with another one of Miyazaki’s most critically acclaimed works, Nausicaä. Suzuki agreed and said that he is also a fan of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s work.

Now, the rights to Parasyte have returned to Japan, and Madhouse got the rights and animated the manga with several new characters added.

Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki wanted to adapt Parasyte manga into an anime according to Toshio Suzuki

It looks like this has now become one of the biggest “What could have been?” moments in anime, and really, how awesome would have it been if Ghibli and Miyazaki were the ones to have animated the classic manga?

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