Let's focus on these two points, and combine Miyazaki Hayao's father's retirement and comeback several times to give you a good interpretation-
In his early years, Miyazaki Hayao had My Neighbor Totoro's creative blessings such as Valley of the Wind, City of the Sky, Red Pig and The Witch's Family Gang, which have long been famous all over the world and can be retired. After all, Gong Lao, who was born in 4 1 and devoted himself to animation creation in the early 1960s, is close to retirement age and does not need to devote himself to animation creation.
However, Gong Lao has been insisting. It was not until 1997 that he created and published an animation called Princess Ghost, which won the first place in the box office in Japan at that time that Gong Lao made the decision to "retire". It is worth mentioning that Ghibli was quite talented at that time, and was supported not only by one of his partners, Gao Tianxun, but also by the younger generation of Ghibli (Yoshifumi Kond), who demonstrated the ability of "successor to Miyazaki Hayao" in many works (represented by Listening).
Therefore, Gong Lao's retirement this time is also reasonable.
Unfortunately, less than two years after Gong Lao retired from the background, Kang Deliang died of overwork. In addition, Gao Tianxun's "Mountain Tian Jun Next Door" was a dismal box office, and Gong Lao had to make a comeback.
At this time, the box office of Japanese movies is no longer the monopoly of Princess Ghost, but Titanic, which was born, won the box office crown by crushing.
However, this advantage only lasted for a few short years. Under the counterattack of Spirited Away brought by Gong Lao's comeback, Ghibli regained the first place. Shortly thereafter, Gong Lao made a retirement plan.
Since then, Ghibli's Gratitude for Cats (directed by Hiroyuki Morita) released after leaving Miyazaki Hayao temporarily suffered another box office failure, forcing Gong Lao to make a comeback plan again, and two years later brought us another classic animation, Hal's Moving Fortress.
Although the achievement of this animation has not reached the height of Spirited Away, it is undeniable that all the features of Miyazaki Hayao's animation have been fully displayed in this creation, including boys and girls, including steampunk, including advocating the unity of man and nature, including the theme of opposing war, etc., and it has also achieved box office results close to Princess Ghost.
Well, that's how Miyazaki Hayao retired several times and then made a comeback. Apart from "saving decadent Ghibli", what can't be ignored is "Miyazaki Hayao's love for animation creation". The above is purely my personal opinion.