When Hayao Miyazaki retired last year at the age of 73, animation lost one of its most accomplished and dedicated practitioners. His work, comprising 11 features and numerous shorts, needs little introduction: films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle have long since etched themselves on the minds of audiences all over the world.

Miyazaki’s final film, The Wind Rises, was a bravely individual parting shot. A drama about the designer of the legendary Japanese fighter plane, the Mitsubishi Zero, it felt like a final, heartfelt statement from a truly great artist – and a fitting capstone to a remarkable career. But with Miyazaki having set aside the painstaking work he put into animating his films over the course of some 48 years, the inevitable question arises: what will become of Studio Ghibli, the company he co-founded with fellow animator Isao Takahata in 1985? Can it survive the absence of its most famous and prolific animator?

Worryingly, perhaps, Takahata has also made his final film. The Tale Of Princess Kaguya, based on a well-known folk tale, came out in Japan last year and was screened at Cannes in March. Warmly received by critics, Princess Kaguya serves as the swansong for the 79-year-old animator of Grave Of The Fireflies and Pom Poko.

So what does Studio Ghibli’s future hold? It’s important to note that, unlike Disney Animation Studios, which has several hundred artists working on its feature films at any one time, Studio Ghibli is a relatively small operation – as few as 30 animators are said to have worked with Miyazaki, for example, on The Wind Rises. When Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin visited Studio Ghibli earlier this year, he spoke of a “strange atmosphere,” and floated the sad possibility that “Miyazaki’s retirement might be the first step to a broader winding down.”