|
"In order to grow your audience, you must betray their expectations."
—Hayao Miyazaki
|
And that's why he won the Oscar.
—Adult Swims answer to the above quote.
|
The co-founder of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki is the single most successful and renowned animator in Japan since Osamu Tezuka, and by far the most famous Japanese animator worldwide.
Miyazaki's father and uncle owned a large airplane factory, and airplanes were the first things he drew when he began to learn how; the influences of growing up around flying machines have resonated throughout his work since.
He began his career in the eary-'60s at Toei, but came to prominence writing and directing anime for television in the '70s; not only did he direct several episodes of the original Lupin III TV series, his first feature film was an action-adventure caper flick starring the Lupin characters: The Castleof Cagliostro (which is now an acknowledged classic, despite some wholesome liberties). In addition to his early writing and directing work, he also lent his artistic talents to numerous anime series during this time, providing - among other things - storyboards, scene design, organisation, and occasional key animation for the early entries into the World Masterpiece Theater series.
In 1984, Miyazaki and producer Isao Takahata scraped together a staff and enough financial support to make a feature film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, based on a manga Miyazaki was writing at the time. It was so successful that Takahata and Miyazaki were able to set up their own studio — Ghibli — which has been their base of operations since.
It may be some indicator of the stature and craftmanship of Miyazaki to know that Disney has paid exorbitant amounts of money to be the exclusive distributor of his works in English on his terms, Nausicaa having previously suffered both a Macekre (Warriors of the Wind) and video game derivatives that completely missed the point. Legend has it that when he heard that Princess Mononoke was going to be altered for American audiences, he sent Miramax (the American-language version's producers) a katana with a two-word note attached: "No cuts". He has gained notoriety for being bitingly vocal in his own beliefs, making him a unique case of an executive who goes by his word; he explained that he was not present to accept the Academy Award in 2003 because America was at war with Iraq. He is also a feminist, which should make it no big surprise that nearly all of his films feature female main characters. He doesn't keep in touch in high-tech gadgets and consumer products, with only his most popular titles having CG elements in them... later shutting down his CG department entirely. In fact, he's quite critical to the high-tech materialistic society as he compared the iPad to "masturbation", as well as Moe and otaku culture, which he perceives as being overtly sexist, despite his being considered part of the Superflat art movement.
Currently, he stands as the only anime director to be recognized with Hollywood's highest honor: the Academy Award. His 2001 film Spirited Away won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film in 2003, improbably defeating both Ice Age and Lilo & Stitch; the film's unprecedented and unexpected Oscar win caused Disney to widen the film's theatrical release for a few weeks prior to the film's DVD release, and the film itself was widely applauded by film critics, anime fans, and animation enthusiasts alike. (Miyazaki would be nominated for, and lose, the same award three years later with Howls Moving Castle.)
He enjoys Green Aesops and Scenery Porn, has an unexplained love for pigs, and he's also responsible for a fair amount of Nightmare Fuel. His films all have flying scenes with the exception of Princess Mononoke and Ponyo On A Cliff By The Sea. He also has his own fan-made Religion.
Notable television:
- Hustle Punch, Toei Animation, 1965, key animation
- The King Kong Show, Toei/Rankin Bass, 1966, key animation
- Sally the Witch (60's version), Toei, 1966, key animation
- The Mouse On The Mayflower, Toei/Rankin Bass, 1968, key animation
- The Smokey Bear Show, Toei/Rankin Bass, 1969, key animation, Miyazaki's last production at Toei
- Lupin III series 1, Monkey Punch/T Ms stationed at A-Productions, 1971, Key animation
- Panda Go Panda, TMS, 1972, Screenplay and key animation
- Vicky The Viking, Zuiyo Eizo (now knowed as Nippon Animation), 1974, key animation
- Alot of the World Masterpiece Theater (pre 1977), Zuiyo Eizo/Nippon Animation, key animation
- Lupin III series 2, Monkey Punch/TMS, 1977 (however, Miyazaki's episodes did not show up until 1980) stationed at Telecom Animation Film, director of the episodes #145 and #155
- Future Boy Conan, Nippon Animation, 1978, writer and director
- Ulysses 31 (pilot), TMS/Di C stationed at Telecom, 1980, key animation
- Tetsujin 28, TMS, 1980, key animation
- The New Adventures of Zorro, TMS/Filmation stationed at Telecom, 1981, Episode animation director
- Inspector Gadget (pilot), TMS/Dic stationed at Telecom, made in 1982 but did not aired until 1983, key animation
- The Littles, TMS/Dic stationed at Telecom, 1983, chief Telecom director during season 1 (Nobuo Tomizawa was the chief Telecom director during season 2) and episode animation director
- Sherlock Hound, TMS/RAI, 1982 (aired in 1984), director, 5 episodes (people tend to say 6 episodes, however, one of said episodes (The Sovereign Gold Coins) is really directed by Nobuo Tomizawa)
Notable films:
- Lupin III: The Castleof Cagliostro, 1979
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, 1984
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky, 1986
- My Neighbor Totoro, 1988
- Little Nemo In Slumberland 1989: He worked on the pre-production of the film, but considered it one of the worst experiences he ever had in his professional career.
- Kiki's Delivery Service, 1989
- Porco Rosso, 1992
- Princess Mononoke, 1997
- Spirited Away, 2001
- Howls Moving Castle, 2005
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (aka Ponyo), 2008
- The Borrower Arrietty, 2010: In this case he wrote the script but didn't direct it.
- From Up on Poppy Hill, 2011: As with the above, Miyazaki only served as scriptwriter.
- The Wind Rises, 2012: A movie about the (fictionalized) life of Japanese aircraft engineer Jiro Horikoshi. The main character was voiced by his good friend and fanboy of sorts Hideaki Anno. Yes, THAT Hideaki Anno.
- The Boy and the Heron, 2023.
Notable other:
- On Your Mark (Animated Music Video), 1995
Examples[]
- Author Appeal: Greenery, nature, young yet emotionally complex female protagonists, airplanes, Food Porn.
- Author Tract: Miyazaki HATES the Moe trope, and avoids it whenever he can, instead having kind yet also Plucky Girl-like female leads in his films.
- Ironically may be somewhat responsible for it, since the character of Clarise in The Castleof Cagliostro is considered to be the first popular Moe character.
- Beam Me Up, Scotty. No, he never said "anime is trash". It was actually a Gag Sub of one of his interviews.
- He also never based the scene from Totoro where Mei goes missing and is briefly believed to have died on the infamous Sayama incident. And Totoro is not meant to be The Grim Reaper either.
- The scene in Spirited Away where Chihiro rejects LOTS of money was NOT based on prostitution or anything similar, either. The bath house in the movie was seemingly based on one that he frequented as a kid.
- Grey and Gray Morality: Miyazaki tends to give good points to both sides of the conflict, as seen clearly in Princess Mononoke - yes, humans have done damage to the environment, but people like Ashitaka and Lady Eboshi and her followers are shown to be very sympathetic. At his darkest, things will go the Black and Gray Morality - horribly dark antagonist (who may or may not have a dark past), heroes that are good but not perfect at all.
- Ten-Minute Retirement: He's started taking these ever since Princess Mononoke. To the point that wondering which will be his actual last movie has become a meme.