The official website for Hayao Miyazaki's new film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Is Rising) confirmed on Tuesday that the film will open in Japan on July 20. Last month, Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki had written, "I can't say this out loud, but the release date is July 20," on a theatrical poster. Ghibli and its distributor TOHO officially announced Kaze Tachinu in December, and stated the movie would be in theaters in the summer of 2013. This will be the first film from Miyazaki since Ponyo about five years ago.

In February 2009, Miyazaki launched a two-part manga mini-series called "Kaze Tachinu" that focuses on Jirō Horikoshi, the designer of Japan's famed Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane of World War II. Author Tatsuo Hori also wrote a novel called Kaze Tachinu , and the film's tagline on the poster references both real-life figures and paraphrases Hori's book: "Show respect for Jiro Horikoshi and Tatsuo Hori. We must try to live." (Hori himself was reportedly quoting Paul Valéry's "Le cimetière marin" or "The Graveyard By The Sea" poem, which read, "Le vent se lève! . . . il faut tenter de vivre!" or "The wind is rising! . . . We must try to live!")

Toho had planned to release another anime film from Ghibli, Isao Takahata's Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), on the same day as Kaze Tachinu. However, Toho announced last month that it delayed Takahata's film until this fall.

Thanks to Liam for the news tip.

Source: Saishin Anime Jōhō