Until I actually watched The Wind Rises, I could not believe Hayao Miyazaki was truly retiring. It isn’t that I refused to believe it. Miyazaki-san may be my favorite filmmaker, and one who I would love to see many more films from, but everything, including great artistic careers, is finite, and that is a fact I can accept. No, what prevented me from truly accepting the notion of Miyazaki’s filmmaking days coming to an end was that he has, simply put, said all this before. His post-Mononoke and post-Spirited Away retirements may not have been as ‘official’ as this one, but his intention to walk away from filmmaking was clear and understandable. In both cases, it was the desire to create that brought him back, the allure of a great idea that led him to make art once more. So while I fully believed Miyazaki was being honest in intending The Wind Rises as his swan song, I also felt equally sure that, if another compelling idea came to him, he would surely come back to see it realized.