Hayao Miyazaki And His Masterful Stories

Hayao

Miyazaki And His Masterful Stories

Designed by Luke Kinney

Hayao Miyazaki Biography

H

ayao Miyazaki (born January 5, 1941, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist whose imaginative and incredible works have won critical and popular acclaim. Many of Miyazaki’s work can see inspiration from his family’s business, Miyazaki Airplane, a manufacturer of parts for Zero fighter planes, his father was its director. Through the business birthed a love for flying that is very present in many of his beloved films.

Early Influence Miyazaki was born the second of four sons. His father, Katsuji Miyazaki, was the director of Miyazaki Airplane, Katsuji’s brother’s company. The company clearly inspired Miyazaki, the most notable example of which can be seen in one of his earliest full-length feature films Porco Rosso (1992). The story is about an Italian World War I fighter ace.

Miyazaki was also influenced by several manga artists, as he aspired to become one at a very young age. Some of these influences are Tetsuji Fukushima, Soji Yamakawa, and Osamu Tezuka. His interest in animation was lit by Panda and the Magic Serpent (1989), Japan’s first feature-length animated film in color. After graduating, he would attend Gakushūin University in the department of political economy, majoring in Japanese Industrial Theory.

Hayao Miyazaki working on “The Wind Rises” in the documentary “The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness”

Studio Ghibli Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 with his lifelong partner and friend Isao Takahata as well as Toshio Suzuki, after working together previously in their film careers. The studio would go on to become one of the most influential studios in the animation industry. Through Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki would become recognized worldwide as one of the most influential and innovative filmmakers around the globe.

Some of his most notable films include Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), The Wind

Rises (2013), as well as the newly released The Boy and the Heron (2023). Miyazaki’s work features many recurring themes such as humanity’s relationship with nature as well as technology. Protagonists of his films are often strong or young women, and several of films present morally ambiguous antagonists that have redeeming qualities. There is a very wholesome appeal to many of his films that has become very symbolic of Studio Ghibli and its general “aesthetic”.

miyazak i

3

Before Ghibli Early Work

M

iyazaki’s animation career wouldn’t begin until 1963, when he would complete his studies at Gakushūin University, Tokyo, graduating with degrees in political science and economics. The same year, Miyazaki got a position as an entry-level animator at Tōei Animation, a division of Tōei studio, which is Asia’s largest animation production company.

Miyazaki became a leader in a labor dispute at Tōei, and became chief secretary of Tōei’s labor union in 1964.That same year, Miyazaki would work with Isao Takahata, who was the director of the film The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of isao takahata

the Sun (1968). Miyazaki worked as a chief animator, scene designer, and concept artist on the film. This collaboration and partnership would spark a lifelong friendship.

Miyazaki’s Mentor During production of The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun, he worked closely with his mentor, Yasuo Ōtsuka, whose vision and approach to animation would great influence Miyazaki’s work in a very profound way. Miyazaki would work on projects such as the television series Wolf Boy Ken as well as the film The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun. Miyazaki also provided key animation for The Wonderful World of Puss ‘n Boots (1969), as well as writing and illustrating the manga People of the Desert, which published in 26 weekly installments Starting in September 1969.

After Tōei Together, Miyazaki and Takahata would leave Tōei Animation in 1971. In the 1970s, the two would work for various studios on many productions, including Miyazaki’s first full-length film, Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (1979), a story about the adventure of a gentleman thief Lupin and his companions. This, alongside a monthly manga he would write for Animage magazine would help develop his signature style. The 4

miyaza k i

manga, titled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, followed the story of Naushika, a princess and reluctant warrior through her journey in a severely ecologically damaged world. The first chapter of the manga was published in February 1982, and would end up becoming very

successful, and even inspired a film of the same name to be created in 1984. The film is critically acclaimed and earned praise for its excellent development in story, themes, character design, and animation.

Miyazaki continued publishing the manga until its final book in January 1995

nausicaä of the valley o f t h e w i n d © 1984 studio ghibli

miyazak i

5

Studio Ghibli The Start of Something Great

P

iggybacking off the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, led Miyazaki and Takahata to create a permanent partnership and collaboration agreement, which led to them forming and launching Studio Ghibli in 1985.

Only a year later, the studio would release Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky in Japan. At the same time, Nausicaä was released in the United States as Warriors of the Wind. Despite featuring many of the film’s impressive animated sequences, poor translations to English, as well as confusing edits to the film would cause it to be a very hard watch. Due to the awful interpretation and presentation of his work, Miyazaki wouldn’t release another movie in the West for more than a decade.

Pioneering a New Era Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli continued to produce works for the domestic market.

His My Neighbor Totoro debuted alongside Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies in 1988.

Both films were received extremely well critically, and the studio reached a state of financial success due to sales of Totoro merchandise. Following this new found success, Miyazaki would release Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989, the film tells the story of a young witch’s coming of age. The next film to come from Studio Ghibli wouldn’t be until 1991, directed

by Takahata titled Only Yesterday. This film was a surprise box office success and became the highest grossing Japanese film 6

miyaza k i

of 1991 in the country. The following year saw the return of Miyazaki films with Porco Rosso, the film followed suit and was the number-one film on the Japanese domestic market in 1992.

Blockbuster Hits The success of Studio Ghibli until now was building up and setting the stage beautifully for Miyazaki’s 1997 film Princess Mononoke, a blockbuster that would break Japanese box-office records.

The film would revisit some recurring themes typical to Miyazaki’s films, such as the conflict between human progress and natural order. Following the film’s

immense success, in 1999 it was released in limited theaters in the United States.

This marked Miyazaki’s first Western release since 1985. In 2001, the critically acclaimed Spirited Away would be released.

The film would become Japan’s highestgrossing film for nearly two decades, at the time surpassing Titanic. The film follows Chihiro, an ordinary young girl, who wanders away from her parents and enters a realm of gods and magic.

Following Spirited Away’s success, came Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), the story of a young girl cursed with the body of an old woman and a quest that leads her to an extraordinary flying castle. This film, following previous releases, broke several records inside Japan.

princess mononoke © 1997 studio ghibli

miyazak i

7

Inspirational Nominations and Awards

T

hroughout his career as a filmmaker, director, and manga artist, Miyazaki has won several notable awards, some of which being of the most prestigious within the film industry. Such awards include a Golden Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival, a Golden Life for Lifetime Achievement, at the Venice International Film Festival, Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, as well as an Honorary Award at the Governor’s Awards. These are only some of his most note-worthy and important wins within the industry but is not an exclusive list of all Miyazaki’s accolades.

Nominations As well as winning, he has been nominated two other times at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, in 2006, and 2014, for the films Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises, respectively. His most successful films critically are undeniably Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, with both winning several awards from various film festivals and ceremonies around the world.

Controversy Following his win in 2003 of the Best Animated Feature Oscar, Miyazaki sparked some controversy that seemingly exposed the Academy Awards. In the earliest years of the Oscars’ Best Animated 8

miyaza k i

Feature category was vastly different from what we see today, as the first six awards were won by five different studios.

Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won the secondever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, which brought a hope to see diversity within the category, one that was very short-lived.

In 2003, Miyazaki wasn’t present to accept his award at the seventy-fifth Academy Awards, and instead presenter Cameron Diaz accepted it on his behalf. It was rumored after that Miyazaki was working hard on a new film thus being unable to attend, however this was contradicted by Miyazaki in an interview in 2009.

“

The reason I wasn’t here for the Academy Award was because I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq.

– hayao miyazaki, to la Times, 2009.

Miyazaki’s criticism of America was based on him growing up and experiencing the effects of the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For a man that is so passionate about moving forward as mankind, seeing a similar event caused him to be skeptical that we were possibly moving backwards as a civilization, something he obviously wasn’t pleased seeing. Despite this criticism, Miyazaki would still attend the 2014 Governor’s Awards to accept his very well-deserved Honorary Award.

hayao miyazaki receiving an honorary award during the 2014 governor’s awards

notable awards

Golden Bear

Academy Award

One of Miyazaki’s first international awards came at the fifty-second Berlin International Film Festival in 2002. Miyazaki was awarded a Golden Bear for his film Spirited Away.

In 2003, during the seventy-fifth Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Golden Lion

Honorary Oscar

During the sixty-second Venice International Film Festival, Miyazaki was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, for those distinguished in the arts of film.

Miyazaki was awarded an Honorary Award at the 2014 Governor’s Awards, which speaks volumes to the legacy he created throughout his lifetime.

miyazak i

9

Present Day Recent Work

T

here has been questioning over the years about whether or not Miyazaki was going to retire from animation or filmmaking, even announcing his retirement several times. Firstly, in 1997, then again in 2001, and finally in 2013, following the release of The Wind Rises.

That would of course not hold true as in 2023 Miyazaki released a new film titled The Boy and the Heron. This time he didn’t announce his retirement at all, and is supposedly already working hard on ideas for another film.

Ghibli Park Miyazaki’s influence is not exclusive to the film or manga worlds however, as in 2017, it was announced by Toshio Suzuki, a producer for several Ghibli films, that there would be a real-world theme park based off several favorites of the Studio Ghibli franchise of films opening. Miyazaki would help by taking part in the planning of the park, alongside Goro Miyazaki, his son, who is the park’s director and lead designer.

The park officially opened on November 1, 2022, featuring three distinct locations, Dondoko Forest, Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse and Hill of Youth, with plans for creating two additional park attractions, Mononoke Village, and Valley of Witches. On the first of November 2023, Mononoke Village was opened, and Valley of Witches is planned to open in March of 2024.

10

miyaza k i

References “2014 Governors Awards.” Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, November 10, 2014. www.oscars.org/governors-awards/ ceremonies/2014-governors-awards.

Baseel, Casey. “Opening Delay for Ghibli Theme Park Has Very Ghibli Reason, but Free No-Ticket Area Is Good News.” SoraNews24, June 1, 2022. www.soranews24.com/2022/06/02/ghibli-parkdelays-opening-of-one-area-adds-attractions-fortwo-more-anime-and-free-access-area/.

Gaur, Ryan. “How ‘spirited Away’S’ Oscar Win Exposed the Academy.” Rolling Stone, March 9, 2023. www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/ tv-movie-features/spirited-away-oscar-bestanimated-feature-hayao-miyazaki-america-firstbias-iraq-war-1234691090/.

“Hayao Miyazaki - Awards.” IMDb. Accessed December 11, 2023. www.imdb.com/name/ nm0594503/awards/.

Hollister, Sean. “Surprise: Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki Has Failed to Retire a Fourth Time.”

The Verge, September 8, 2023. www.theverge. com/2023/9/8/23864856/studio-ghibli-hayaomiyazaki-retirement-postponed-yet-again.

www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/24/11/ attach/1327864.htm.

My Neighbor Totoro. Film. Japan: Studio Ghibli, 1988.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Film. Japan: Toei Company, 1984.

Nishioka, Junichi. “Isao Takahata.” IMDb. Accessed December 14, 2023. www.imdb. com/name/nm0847223/mediaviewer/ rm3442920960/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk.

Princess Mononoke. Film. Japan: Studio Ghibli, 1997.

Ray, Michael. “Miyazaki Hayao.” Encyclopædia Britannica, December 10, 2023. www. britannica.com/biography/Miyazaki-Hayao.

Spirited away. Film. Japan: Studio Ghibli, 2001.

Wong, Maggie Hiufu. “Japan’s Long-Awaited Ghibli Park Is Now Open.” CNN, November 1, 2022. www.cnn.com/travel/article/ghibli-parkjapan-opens/index.html.

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. Amazon Prime Video, 2013. www.amazon.com/gp/ video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.8802d44b-61fe-4ab69c2d-e153cae7e245?autoplay=0&ref_=a tv_cf_strg_wb.

Miyazaki, Hayao. “平成24年度 文化功労者.” 平 成24年度 文化功労者：文部科学省, 2012. web. archive.org/web/20130121114208/https:// miyazak i

11

Luke Kinney