My daughter and I adore our giant Totoro, our great find during our 2009 DragonCon weekend. He takes up half the bed, but that’s okay – he’s welcome and wanted, and we have the brilliant Hayao Miyazaki to thank for him.
The recently released Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata by Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc is a short and sweet guidebook to Miyazaki’s handiwork, and while it does focus on his movies, the story and art that fill the screen come from Miyazaki’s pen. Miyazaki has been involved in films since 1964, with an Academy Award under his belt for his 2001 masterpiece, Spirited Away, and still had his hands in the daily work of his latest project, this summer’s hand-drawn animation feature, Ponyo. Director, writer, artist – he is truly the entire package. Nearing his seventieth year, he shows no signs of stopping but rather has signed with Studio Ghibli to complete two more films over the next three years.
Miyazaki began his manga career forty years ago with Puss in Boots (Nagakutsu wo Haita Neko), and has continued intermittently with his film career through this past spring with his most recent work, The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu). His most popular and well-known graphic novel series is Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which took twelve years to complete. Like many of his narratives, this one focuses on ecological concerns, and displays his trademark non-manga-ish drawing, which does not include the gigantic eyes, huge mouths, and over-expressiveness expected from the genre. Instead, he carefully details softer, more realistic displays of anger, dismay, frustration, and determination on his characters’ faces, creating a subtle but believable effect to illustrate his stories. Speaking of determination, my daughter is determined to see the sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, Mei and the Kittenbus, which can only be seen at the Studio Ghibli museum outside of Tokyo. I expect to find plane tickets on the kitchen counter once she is old enough to work and save for them; perhaps the thirteen-minute treat will be more accessible for those of us on the other side of the world by then, and she can use her money to buy more DragonCon souvenirs.
The ecological concerns that form the basis of Nausicaa’s tale are only one facet of Miyazaki’s narrative interests. The use of Japanese mythology and culture makes his work of great interest to Westerners who are curious about differences as well as similarities between cultures, while his political views concerning nature and industry have attracted academic and popular culture studies circles. His degrees in political science and economics certainly influence his creative work, but maintain a backseat to his overarching statement, one he has repeated time and time again: “do not underestimate children.” Miyazaki’s child characters wrestle with parental illness, the aftermath of war, demons, abandonment – all growing strong with experience and determination, proving their creator’s assertion that children can indeed have some control over their own lives and those of others, bringing hope in times of despair. His dreamy watercolor images disguise the strength of these youth, and like some of his favorite authors, including Ursula Le Guin, Lewis Carroll, and Diana Wynne Jones, he takes pride in championing the abilities of new generations.
One of the things that has come to amuse me about Miyazaki is how after every film he has made this last decade he says he is retiring, and a couple years later he can’t help himself and makes another movie.
I’m really mad at myself for not buying Totoro on DVD when it was available from BVHE. For some reason it is the only Miyazaki movie to go OOP in the States.