Hayao Miyazaki

A-Pro and Nippon Animation

Miyazaki left Toei Animation in August 1971, having become dissatisfied by the lack of creative prospects and autonomy, and by confrontations with management regarding The Great Adventure of Horus. He followed Takahata and Yōichi Kotabe to A-Pro, where he directed, or co-directed with Takahata, 17 of the 23 episodes of Lupin the Third Part I, originally intended as a movie project. This was Miyazaki's directorial debut. He and Takahata were engaged to emphasize the series' humor over its violence. The two also began pre-production on a series based on Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking books, designing extensive storyboards; Miyazaki and Tokyo Movie Shinsha president Yutaka Fujioka traveled to Sweden to secure the rights—Miyazaki's first trip outside Japan and possibly the first overseas trip for any Japanese animator for a production—but the series was canceled after they were unable to meet Lindgren, and permission was refused to complete the project. Foreign travel left an impression on Miyazaki; using concepts, scripts, design, and animation from the project, he wrote, designed and animated two Panda! Go, Panda! shorts in 1972 and 1973, with Takahata as director and Ōtsuka as animation director. Their choice of pandas was inspired by the panda craze in Japan at the time.

Miyazaki drew storyboards for the first episode of The Gutsy Frog in 1971 (though they went unused), provided key animation and storyboards for two episodes of Akado Suzunosuke in 1972, and delivered key animation for one episode each of Kōya no Shōnen Isamu (directed by Takahata) and Samurai Giants in 1973. In 1972, he directed a five-minute pilot film for the television series Yuki's Sun; the series was never produced, and the pilot fell into obscurity before resurfacing as part of a Blu-ray release of Miyazaki's works in 2014. In June 1973, Miyazaki and Takahata moved from A-Pro to Zuiyō Eizō, where they worked on World Masterpiece Theater, which featured their animation series Heidi, Girl of the Alps, an adaptation of Johanna Spyri's Heidi. The production team wanted the series to set new heights for television animation, and Miyazaki traveled to Switzerland to research and sketch in preparation. Zuiyō Eizō split into two companies in July 1975; Miyazaki and Takahata's branch became Nippon Animation. They briefly worked on Dog of Flanders in 1975 before moving on to the larger-scale 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1976), directed by Takahata, for which Miyazaki traveled to Argentina and Italy as research.

Directorial debut

In 1977, Miyazaki was chosen to direct his first animated television series, Future Boy Conan; he directed 24 of the 26 episodes, which were broadcast in 1978. Only eight episodes were completed when the series began airing; each episode was completed within ten to fourteen days. An adaptation of Alexander Key's The Incredible Tide, the series features several elements that later reappeared in Miyazaki's work, such as warplanes, airplanes, and environmentalism. Also working on the series was Takahata, Ōtsuka, and Yoshifumi Kondō, whom Miyazaki and Takahata had met at A-Pro. Visually, Miyazaki was inspired by Paul Grimault's The Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird. Miyazaki did key animation for thirty episodes of the World Masterpiece Theater series Rascal the Raccoon (1977) and provided scene design and organization on the first fifteen episodes of Takahata's Anne of Green Gables before leaving Nippon Animation in 1979.

Miyazaki moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha to direct his first feature anime film, The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), an installment of the Lupin III franchise. Ōtsuka had approached him to direct the film following the release of Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978), and Miyazaki wrote the story with Haruya Yamazaki. Wishing to insert his own creativity into the franchise, Miyazaki inserted several elements and references, inspired by several of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin novels, on which Lupin III is based, as well as The Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird. Visually, he was inspired by Kagoshima Publishing's Italian Mountain Cities and the Tiber Estuary, reflecting his love for Europe. Production ran for four months and the film was released on December 15, 1979; Miyazaki wished he could have had another month of production. It was well received; Animage readers voted it the best animation of all time—it remained in the top ten for more than fifteen years—and Clarisse the best heroine. In 2005, former princess Sayako Kuroda's wedding dress was reportedly inspired by Clarisse's, having been a fan of Miyazaki and his work. Several Japanese and American filmmakers were inspired by the film, prompting homages in other works.

Miyazaki became a chief animation instructor for new employees at Telecom Animation Film, a subsidiary of Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and subsequently directed two episodes of Lupin the Third Part II under the pseudonym Teruki Tsutomu (照樹 務), which can read as "employee of Telecom". In his role at Telecom, Miyazaki helped train the second wave of employees. Miyazaki provided key animation for one episode of The New Adventures of Gigantor (1980–1981), and directed six episodes of Sherlock Hound in 1981, until legal issues with Arthur Conan Doyle's estate led to a suspension in production; Miyazaki was busy with other projects by the time the issues were resolved, and the remaining episodes were directed by Kyôsuke Mikuriya and broadcast from November 1984 to May 1985. It was Miyazaki's final television work. In 1982, Miyazaki, Takahata, and Kondō started work on a film adaptation of Little Nemo, but Miyazaki and Takahata left after a few months due to creative clashes with Fujioka (Kondō remained until 1985); the film was completed six years later as Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989). Miyazaki spent some time in the United States during the film's production.

Manga work and adaptation

After the release of The Castle of Cagliostro, Miyazaki began working on his ideas for an animated film adaptation of Richard Corben's comic book Rowlf and pitched the idea to Yutaka Fujioka at Tokyo Movie Shinsha. In November 1980, a proposal was drawn up to acquire the film rights. Around that time, Miyazaki was also approached for a series of magazine articles by Animage's editorial staff. Editors Toshio Suzuki and Osamu Kameyama took some of his ideas to Animage's parent company, Tokuma Shoten, which had been considering funding animated films. Two projects were proposed: Warring States Demon Castle (戦国魔城, Sengoku ma-jō), to be set in the Sengoku period; and the adaptation of Corben's Rowlf. Both were rejected, as the company was unwilling to fund anime not based on existing manga and the rights for Rowlf could not be secured. Elements of Miyazaki's proposal for Rowlf were recycled in his later works. With no films in production, Miyazaki agreed to develop a manga for the magazine, titled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Miyazaki had intended to stop making the manga when he received animation work; while he took some breaks in releases, the manga ultimately ran from February 1982 to March 1994. Miyazaki's busy schedule and perfectionist mindset led to several delays in publications, and on one occasion he withdrew some chapters before publication; he considered its continued publication a burden on his other work. The story, as re-printed in the tankōbon volumes, spans seven volumes for a combined total of 1,060 pages. It sold more than ten million copies in its first two years. Miyazaki drew the episodes primarily in pencil, and it was printed monochrome in sepia-toned ink. The main character, Nausicaä, was partly inspired by the character from Homer's Odyssey (whom Miyazaki had discovered while reading Bernard Evslin's Dictionary of Grecian Myths) and the Japanese folk tale The Lady who Loved Insects, while the world and ecosystem was based on Miyazaki's readings of scientific, historical, and political writings, such as Sasuke Nakao's Origins of Plant Cultivation and Agriculture, Eiichi Fujimori's The World of Jomon, Paul Carell's Hitler Moves East. He was also inspired by the comic series Arzach by Jean Giraud, whom he met while working on the manga.

In 1982, Miyazaki assisted with key animation for an unreleased Zorro series, and for the feature film Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie. He resigned from Telecom Animation Film in November. Around this time, he wrote the graphic novel The Journey of Shuna, inspired by the Tibetan folk tale "Prince who became a dog". The novel was published by Tokuma Shoten in June 1983, dramatized for radio broadcast in 1987, and published in English as Shuna's Journey in 2022. Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes was also irregularly published from November 1984 to October 1994 in Model Graphix; selections of the stories received radio broadcast in 1995. Following the completion of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's first two volumes, Animage editors suggested a 15-minute short film adaptation. Miyazaki, initially reluctant, countered that an hour-long animation would be more suitable, and Tokuma Shoten agreed on a feature-length film.

Production began on May 31, 1983, with animation beginning in August; funding was provided through a joint venture between Tokuma Shoten and the advertising agency Hakuhodo, for whom Miyazaki's youngest brother worked. Animation studio Topcraft was chosen as the production house. Miyazaki found some of Topcraft's staff unreliable, and brought on several of his previous collaborators, including Takahata, who served as producer, though he was reluctant to do so. Pre-production began on May 31, 1983; Miyazaki encountered difficulties in creating the screenplay, with only sixteen chapters of the manga to work with. Takahata enlisted experimental and minimalist musician Joe Hisaishi to compose the film's score; he subsequently worked on all of Miyazaki's feature films.

For the film, Miyazaki's imagination was sparked by the mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay and how nature responded and thrived in a poisoned environment, using it to create the film's polluted world. For the lead role of Nausicaä, Miyazaki cast Sumi Shimamoto, who had impressed him as Clarisse in The Castle of Cagliostro and Maki in Lupin the Third Part II. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was created in ten months, and released on March 11, 1984. It grossed ¥1.48 billion at the box office, and made an additional ¥742 million in distribution income. It is often seen as Miyazaki's pivotal work, cementing his reputation as an animator. It was lauded for its positive portrayal of women, particularly Nausicaä. Several critics have labeled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as possessing anti-war and feminist themes; Miyazaki argues otherwise, stating he only wishes to entertain. He felt Nausicaä's ability to understand her opponent rather than simply defeat them meant she had to be female. The successful cooperation on the creation of the manga and the film laid the foundation for other collaborative projects. In April 1984, Miyazaki and Takahata created a studio to handle copyright of their work, naming it Nibariki (meaning "Two-Horse Power", the nickname for the Citroën 2CV, which Miyazaki drove), for which an office was secured in Suginami Ward, with Miyazaki serving as the senior partner.

Studio Ghibli

My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service (1987–1989)

Miyazaki's next film, My Neighbor Totoro, originated in ideas he had as a child; he felt "Totoro is where my consciousness began". An attempt to pitch My Neighbor Totoro to Tokuma Shoten in the early 1980s had been unsuccessful, and Miyazaki faced difficulty in attempting to pitch it again in 1987. Suzuki proposed that Totoro be released as a double bill alongside Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies; as the latter, based on the 1967 short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, had historical value, Suzuki predicted school students would be taken to watch both. Totoro features the theme of the relationship between the environment and humanity, showing that harmony is the result of respecting the environment. The film also references Miyazaki's mother; the child protagonists' mother is bedridden. As with Laputa, Miyazaki wrote lyrics for Totoro's end theme.

Miyazaki struggled with the film's script until he read a Mainichi Graph story about Japan forty years prior, opting to set the film in the country before Tokyo's expansion and the advent of television. Miyazaki has subsequently donated money and artwork to fund preservation of the forested land in Saitama Prefecture, in which the film is set. Production of My Neighbor Totoro began in April 1987 and took exactly a year; it was released on April 16, 1988. While the film received critical acclaim, it was only moderately successful at the box office. Studio Ghibli approved merchandising rights in 1990, which led to major commercial success; merchandise profits alone were able to sustain the studio for years. The film was labeled a cult classic, eventually gaining success in the United States after its release in 1993, where its home video release sold almost 500,000 copies. Akira Kurosawa said the film moved him, naming it among his hundred favorite films—one of few Japanese films to be named. An asteroid discovered by Takao Kobayashi in December 1994 was named after the film: 10160 Totoro.

In 1987, Studio Ghibli acquired the rights to create a film adaptation of Eiko Kadono's novel Kiki's Delivery Service. Miyazaki's work on My Neighbor Totoro prevented him from directing the adaptation; he acted as producer, while Sunao Katabuchi was chosen as director and Nobuyuki Isshiki as script writer. Miyazaki's dissatisfaction of Ashiko's first draft led him to make changes to the project, ultimately taking the role of director. Kadono expressed her dissatisfaction with the differences between the book and screenplay, but Miyazaki and Takahata convinced her to let production continue. The film was originally intended to be a 60-minute special, but expanded into a feature film after Miyazaki completed the storyboards and screenplay. Miyazaki felt the struggles of the protagonist, Kiki, reflected the feelings of young girls in Japan yearning to live independently in cities, while her talents reflected those of real girls, despite her magical powers. In preparation for production, Miyazaki and other senior staff members traveled to Sweden, where they captured eighty rolls of film in Stockholm and Visby, the former being the primary inspiration behind the film's city. Kiki's Delivery Service premiered on July 29, 1989; it was critically successful, winning the Anime Grand Prix. With more than 2.6 million tickets sold, it earned ¥2.15 billion at the box office and was the highest-grossing film in Japan in 1989. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli personally approved the subsequent English translations.

Porco Rosso and co-productions (1989–1995)

From March to May 1989, Miyazaki's manga Hikōtei Jidai was published in the magazine Model Graphix, based on an earlier film idea he had assigned to a younger director in 1988 that fell through due to creative differences. Miyazaki began production on a 45-minute in-flight film for Japan Airlines based on the manga; Suzuki extended it into a feature-length film, titled Porco Rosso, as expectations and budget grew. Miyazaki began work on the film with little assistance, as its production overlapped with Takahata's Only Yesterday (1991), which Miyazaki co-produced. The outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 affected Miyazaki, prompting a more sombre tone for Porco Rosso; the Croatian War of Independence moved the film's setting from Dubrovnik to the Adriatic Sea. Miyazaki later referred to the film as "foolish", as its mature tones were unsuitable for children, noting he had made it for his "own pleasure" due to his love of planes.

Princess Mononoke and global emergence (1995–1997)

Miyazaki's next film, Princess Mononoke, originated in sketches he had made in the late 1970s, based on Japanese folklore and the French fairytale Beauty and the Beast; his original ideas were rejected, and he published his sketches and initial story idea in a book in 1982. He revisited the project after the success of Porco Rosso allowed him more creative freedom. He chose the Muromachi period for the setting as he felt Japanese people stopped worshiping nature and began attempting to control it. Miyazaki began writing the film's treatment in August 1994. While experiencing writer's