Hayao Miyazaki

Studio Ghibli

Hayao Miyazaki. Creator of one of the most well known animation companies in Japan, Studio Ghibli.

Born in Tokyo Japan in 1941, Miyazaki's father was the director of Miyazaki Airplane. The family business instilled a love of flying that is apparent in virtually all his work. Miyazaki first studied economics before taking an entry-level animator job at Toei Animation in 1963. With in Toei, he meet his friend and lifelong collaborator Isao Takahata.

Together they left Toei in 1971 and worked for other studies on Panda kopanda, and Lupin III: Castle of Cagliosto (1979). Soon, Miyazaki's individual style became more apparent in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, a manga strip he wrote for Animage magazine. This manga's success inspired a film with the same title in 1984 and let way for Miyazaki and Takahata to launch Studio Ghibli in 1985.

Nausicaa was released in the US as Warriors of the Wind but was very poorly edited and overdubbed into English. This dissuaded them from considering another Western release for some time. Miyazaki's films enjoyed great success in the Japanese market. These include: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Porco Rosso (1992), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), The Wind Rises (2013), and other notable films.

The movies I have seen and really love are Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro

(I saw My Neighbour Totoro a long time ago as a child so I should rewatch it)

For me, what I love and inspire from Ghibli is how animation can be both beautiful, fantastic and amazing but can also show other aspects that are just as fantastic, but are in fact ugly like sweat dripping of a fat old lady and how smile implodes and spreads from where its starts. I also love how the stories are told, with a hidden message that captures our hearts and how innocent the story can be, even when dealing with a heavy topic like war. I also notice that Ghibli loves to focus their work on how the characters deal with events and their emotions, it being from the heart or from desires.

I also wish and aim to be able to create such amazing work that can capture the world with both message and story that is told but also with the art and beautiful work that can also be seen while watching. I look forward to when I am able to improving my story telling skills to someday match Ghibli's but with my own style.

References

• https://ww.britannica.com/biography/Miyazaki-Hayao
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/movies/ranking-studio-ghibli-movies.html