Dealing with a range of issues like the changing landscape of post-War Japan, childhood innocence, feminism, and environmentalism, to name a few, his animated works have appealed to audiences beyond Japan, across age groups.
Miyazaki is set to come back to films in 2023 after a decade, with the release of How Do You Live?, which is said to be inspired by Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name. The details of the film have been kept tightly under wraps, fuelling fans’ and anime enthusiasts’ excitement even more. Miyazaki has also announced that this would be his last film as a director; however, it should be noted here that he has made this announcement multiple times in the past as well, most recently with his previous film, The Wind Rises (2013).
Who is Hayao Miyazaki?
Miyazaki was born in 1941 in Tokyo, Japan. His father was the director of a company that manufactured parts for fighter planes during World War II. In his book Starting Point: 1979 to 1996, Miyazaki wrote that some of his earliest memories are of “bombed-out cities” — at the age of four, he had witnessed the bombing of Utsunomiya, Japan, in 1945.
Despite always having an affinity for manga (a popular, distinct style of Japanese comics and graphic novels), Miyazaki initially had trouble drawing people, and would instead spend years drawing planes, battleships and tanks, a preoccupation that found its way into his cinema as well. At university, he studied economics and political science, before eventually beginning his career as an animator in 1963.
His mother Yoshiko inspired various characters in his films, such as the character of Captain Dola in Castle in the Sky (1986). The mother Yasuko in My Neighbor Totoro, like his own mother, looked after their children despite suffering from an illness (his mother had spinal tuberculosis). “My mom had four boys, but none of us dared oppose her,” Nippon TV quoted him as saying. Miyazaki has also said that Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), and Toki from Ponyo (2008) were modelled on Yoshiko.
Before the establishment of Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki’s major projects included the long-running series World Masterpiece Theater; and Future Boy Conan, which was directed by him. In the 1969 film The Wonderful World of Puss ‘n Boots, he worked with other top animators in Japan, with freedom and support to execute their distinct visual sequences.
What is Studio Ghibli?
Miyazaki, along with director Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki, founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 under the publishing company Tokuma Shoten. Most of the films produced here were directed by Miyazaki, with Takahata being the second-biggest contributor. Miyazaki’s first two films with the studio, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro, failed to do well commercially. It was only with Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989 that the studio tasted success.
Their most famous film is perhaps Spirited Away, which was successful both at the box office and with critics. It tells the story of Chihiro, a ten-year-old girl who mysteriously gets trapped in the world of ‘Kami’ (spirits of Japanese folklore) and must figure out a way to free her family and return to the human world.
Spirited Away became the first non-English film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (though Miyazaki had refused to attend the award ceremony, citing his opposition to the Iraq War), and is on multiple ‘Best Of’ lists throughout the world.
Recurring themes in Miyazaki’s work
Miyazaki’s work was heavily steeped in the changing lives of Japanese people post World War II, which is most obvious in his obsession with planes in the movie Porco Rosso (1992).
One of the major themes in his films is pacifism: In his essay ‘A Pig, the State and War: Porco Rosso’ for Animation Studies, author Daisuke Akimoto described Spirited Away as “anti-war propaganda”, saying that the “fundamental political message of the film is not only anti-fascism, but also anti-war pacifism”. In Princess Mononoke, the protagonist goes against tradition and history to try and end conflict between two communities.
Environmentalism also finds a prominent place in Miyazaki’s filmography. In a 2005 issue of The New Yorker, Margaret Talbot said that he perceives modern culture to be “thin and shallow and fake”, and is generally distrustful of technology. In 2008, Miyazaki told The Japan Times that he felt very frustrated growing up because he saw nature being destroyed “in the name of economic progress”.
Ram Prakash Dwivedi, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Delhi, has talked about the presence of values propagated by Mahatma Gandhi in Miyazaki’s filmography in ‘A Discourse on Modern Civilization: The Cinema of Hayao Miyazaki and Gandhi’. “Mahatma Gandhi by his political action and spiritual thought and Hayao Miyazaki, by his film direction, production and modern ideas were trying to throw light on the crisis of our civilization. Philosophy and ideas of Buddha and modern democratic values of liberty, equality, and fraternity are the common guiding forces for both of them,” he wrote.
Role of women in Studio Ghibli films
Miyazaki’s films are characterised by strong-minded female characters. “Miyazaki’s girls display formidable know-how and independence. They take on jobs, organise households, fight battles and rescue boys from near death — all matter-of-factly, without ever trumpeting notions of girl power,” The New York Times wrote in 2021.
He also chose to tell coming-of-age stories about young women, without resorting to either sexualisation or fluff, a phenomenon that is still rare today, especially in stories about women told by men. His heroines have a strong will, a good sense of humour, and an ability to navigate the complexities of the world while still being true to themselves.
Just like his depiction of young women, Miyazaki’s younger characters also have layers and nuances that are typically not seen in portrayals of children. The children in his films display a sense of innocence and wide-eyed wonder, which co-exists with logic and clear-headedness, and also at times, maturity.
This goes hand-in-hand with Miyazaki’s disapproval of the Japanese anime industry as it exists today. He has often said that the animators do not create from real life, and are more obsessed with the images they see of public obsession with manga, anime, video games etc (in Japanese popular culture, such people are known as ‘otaku’ and are believed to lack adequate social and other life skills).
Miyazaki has also been influenced by leftist values and has said that he considers Karl Marx’s communism in line with his own values. This has led to his films being criticised by the conservative section of society in Japan, particularly 2013’s The Wind Rises. However, he criticised the Soviet Union and its socialism.
'Spirited Away' became the first non-English film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (though Miyazaki had refused to attend the award ceremony, citing his opposition to the Iraq War). (Photo via Wikimedia Commons) 
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