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Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest directors/animators/manga writers Japan has ever produced. In the US, he is often called "the Walt Disney of Japan", though many fans (and probably he himself) hate this label. He was born in 1941, in Tokyo. After graduating from Gakushuin University with a degree in Economics, he started his career as an animator at Toei Doga (Toei Animation Studio) in 1963. From the beginning, he commanded everyone's attention with his incredible ability to draw, and the seemingly endless stream of ideas he proposed for movies. As an animator, he was involved in many masterpieces of Japanese animation. He moved to A Pro with Takahata in 1971, then to Nippon Animation in 1973. He directed his first TV series, "Mirai Shonen Conan" (Future Boy Conan) in 1978. In 1979, he left Nippon Animation for Tokyo Movie Shinsha to direct his first movie, "Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro". In 1982, he started serializing the manga, "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind" in the anime magazine, "Animage". In 1983, Tokuma approached him about making "Nausicaa" into anime, and the rest is history.

To know more about him:

Biography: http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/file-archive/miyazaki.biography

Interviews: http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/interviews/

Book list: http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/books/

Q: What animes has Miyazaki done?

Filmography: http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/file-archive/miyazaki.filmlist

For the films he has made at Ghibli, see http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/films/

For other films and TV series, see Section IV of the FAQ, "Other anime by Miyazaki and Takahata" for details.

Q: What mangas (comic books) has Miyazaki done?

See the Miyazaki Manga page at http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/manga/

His major work is the epic tale, "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind", about a messiah-like princess and leader in a post-ecological holocaust world. The manga was serialized in the Japanese animation magazine "Animage", from 1982 to 1994. The complete story runs 7 volumes. The movie covers the first two volumes, but comes to a end at that point, while the manga continues with a slightly different story. The English version of the manga has been released in both comic book and compilation form by Viz Communications (see the Shopping Guide Section).

His other works includes "Miyazaki Hayao no Zassou Note", "Hikoutei Jidai", "Shuna no Tabi", and "Sabaku no Tami".

Q: Why do his movies always have flying scenes?

Because he loves flying and airplanes, especially old airplanes. His family owned a company which produced wingtips for Zero fighters, and this probably had an influence on Miyazaki's love for planes. His manga, "Zassou Note" is filled with such "favorites" of his.

Q: Why are his movies always optimistic?

Because that's what he wants to make. He says that he wants to make films that say "I wish that there were such people/things/a world", rather than "this is the way things are". He makes films for children, and he thinks that it is important for children to see the world positively and have hope.

His manga, on the other hand, explores the darker side of human nature: violence, hatred, anger, greed, stupidity, war, and so forth. Still, his manga is optimistic in the sense that it shows his strong belief in human spirit and strong will to live.

Q: Why do many of his movies have girls as leads?

It depends on which type of story he is trying to make. Please read his interview on this issue at http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/file-archive/heroines.interview

Q: Who influenced him?

TEZUKA Osamu - At first, Miyazaki wanted to become a manga writer. Ever since his childhood, he loved Tezuka's manga. But one day, he realized that his manga were just an imitation of Tezuka, and he burned all the manga he had written. He says he struggled to write his own manga, but found that he couldn't. As for Tezuka as a creator of animation, Miyazaki is harder on him. He criticizes Tezuka's work as no good, and blames Tezuka for ruining the Japanese animation industry by dumping.

"Hakujaden (Legend of the White Snake)" - Miyazaki saw this first Japanese animation feature film by Toei Doga when he was a high school senior. He was so moved by it, he says he couldn't stop crying the whole night. He confesses that he fell in love with the heroine, Pai-nyan. This film made him interested in animation. See http://www.nausicaa.net/~miyazaki/file-archive/heroines.interview

"Snow Queen" - A Russian animation film directed by Lev Atamanov, 1957. Miyazaki saw this film when he was unhappy about his job and wondering if he should continue working as an animator. Miyazaki was so moved by it, he "decided to continue working on animation with renewed determination". He says that he learned that characters in animation can act if they are animated well enough, and animation can move people as other media can do. We can see its influence on "Horus", such as the design of the "Forest King" and the two sides of Hilda.

"Le roi et l'oiseau" - The French animation classic by Paul Grimault, 1952. This film showed Miyazaki that animation can be targeted at adults. He incorporated several ideas from this movie in his "Castle of Cagliostro", such as trap doors, a room in a tower with an elevator, the wedding of the tyrant and the heroine, the hero crashing the wedding, etc.

Yuri Norstein - A Russian animation creator, who made "A Tale of Tales". Miyazaki's colleague, Takahata wrote a book about him.

Frederic Back - Miyazaki saw "Crac!" by this Canadian animator, when he was visiting the US. He says that he was so blown away by it, that he got depressed by comparing it to what he was doing then. He wrote a liner note for the Japanese LD of "The Man Who Planted Trees", and in it, he said that he was truly impressed by how Back animated plants, something very difficult to do. Miyazaki's colleague, Takahata wrote a book about "The Man...".

Disney - It's a well known fact that he doesn't like Disney. However, he says he likes the early short films by Disney such as "Silly Symphonies". It seems that he has a problem with the storytelling in Disney films.

Fleischer Brothers - Miyazaki paid homage to their cartoons in "Farewell Beloved Lupin" and "Porco Rosso".

Writers and Novelists - Miyazaki loves and has been influenced by the works of SHIBA Ryotaro, HOTAA Yoshie, and NAKAO Sasuke.

Q: Does he have a family?

He has a wife who was also an animator at Toei Doga, and two sons. Miyazaki's second son, Keisuke Miyazaki made the woodcut print, "Craftsman Making a Violin in Prison", which Shizuku saw in the book in "Mimi". Miyazaki's first son is a landscape designer, and he designed the garden on the rooftop of Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki says that having children really changed his work. He said he had always tried to make his anime to please his children while they were growing up.

He has three brothers. He said that being a second son really affected how he thinks and acts.

His mother suffered from spinal TB for a long time. This affected his relationship with his mother, and Miyazaki says that this might have affected the relationship between Nausicaa and her mother in the manga. "Mother away from home because of sickness" was a motif used in "Totoro".

He was born in an affluent family who owned a company which made wingtips for Zero fighters during the war. Miyazaki felt guilty about growing up comfortably under parents who made money from the war, while others suffered from it. This seems to affect his ambivalent feelings towards war and weapons.

Q: Is Miyazaki obsessed with pigs?

Yes. He often draws himself as a pig. In his manga, "Zassou Note", many characters appear as pigs. In the picture below, Miyazaki is a mean-looking big pig, yelling at the poor animators who are working for "Pom Poko" to speed up their work. ^_^

Q: What are his political beliefs?

He was strongly influenced by Marxism. You have to understand that in Japan, the word "communism" isn't as demonized as in the US. Marxism as a theory to analyze the society and history has been taught in universities. The Socialist Party had been the second largest party in Japan for a long time, and the Communist Party still holds seats in the Parliament. During the war, any political or labour movement was banned, and the communists were almost the only ones who vocally opposed the war. After the war, labor unions were allowed to be formed, and many of them were led by communists or communist sympathizers. Many were idealistic young people who believed in the future of "truly democratic Japan". Miyazaki (and Takahata) was one of those young people. (As the Russians say, "If you don't believe in Communism by the time you are 15, then you have no heart".) Miyazaki was the chairman of the animator's union at Toei Doga. The early works Miyazaki was involved in, such as "Horus" or "Conan", show his political beliefs somewhat. He once said he wasn't even sure about making Nausicaa a princess, since that "makes her an elite class". "Pom Poko" was basically the story of how the liberal movements in post-war Japan failed, according to Miyazaki.

At the end of the 80s or the beginning of the 90s, Miyazaki came to the conclusion that Marxism (and Historical Materialism) is wrong, and he totally forsook it. He said it was more to do with writing "Nausicaa" than the collapse of the communist block, that made him realize it. (As Russians continue, "And if you still believe in Communism by the time you are 30, then you have no brain".) You can clearly see how this turnaround affected him in how he ended the manga "Nausicaa".

Q. I heard that Miyazaki is retiring after Mononoke Hime. Is this true?

No. He has announced that he will make another movie. Mr. Tokuma, the president of Tokuma Shoten, told a Japanese newspaper that Miyazaki's next movie will be about the 21st century. According to him, it will deal with such issues as environmental problems and terrorism, and it will have even bigger budget than Mononoke Hime. However, Miyazaki hasn't said anything about exactly what he will make next. He might have a different idea from Mr. Tokuma's.

Miyazaki did say "I think that this (Mononoke Hime) will be my last (feature-length) movie" at the press conference. In an interview, he said that he just can't go on physically, since directing a movie is such exhausting work. He also said that he is leaving Ghibli to make way for young people. However, he also stated that he "may assist in some capacity in the future", such as producing and writing scripts. Sadly, judging from his eulogy for Kondo, it seems that he was planning to write and produce another film for Kondo to direct, as he did in "Whisper of the Heart".

He has formally quit Ghibli on January 14th, 1998 (he still seems to come to Ghibli quite often). He is building a new studio, "Senior Ghibli", near Studio Ghibli as his "retirement place". He said that he has not decided what he would do there yet. He might do some "small" projects, since he said "I have been making movies which had to please 20 people out of 100. It has been very hard. But if I just have to please 2 out of 100, I can do a lot of things."

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