Hayao Miyazaki Retires At Age 72
It hasn’t come to much of a surprise that Hayao Miyazaki, auteur Writer/Director of some of the most internationally acclaimed Japanese animation, has once again retired at the age of 72, in an announcement Studio Ghibli president, Koji Hoshino, made soon after the release of his latest film The Wind Rises. I say once again, because he has announced his retirement no fewer than twice before, once after the completion of his epic Princess Mononoke in 1997, and again after Spirited Away in 2000.
I for one cannot blame him, the physical and mental strain of completing any one of his wonderful films, with his very hands-on, meticulous approach to animation would be exhausting for a young man, let alone someone well into his twilight years.
Born in 1941 near Tokyo, he developed a keen interest in comics as a child, inspired by the wealth of comic art and storytelling in wartime and postwar Japan. His father ran a company that made parts for Zero-fighter aircraft as part of the war effort, and young Miyazaki drew aircraft and machinery like a pro. Anyone interested in his films will know his apparent obsession with flying craft.
His interests lie in drawing Manga up until the end of high school, he then attended Gakushuin University where he studied Political science and economics, until finally taking on his first role as Inbetweener at Toei animation in 1963. It was here he met Studio Ghibli co-founder and life-long friend Isao Takahata, Director of ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, ‘Only yesterday’ and ‘Pom Poko’.
Lupin III: The castle of Cagliostro would be Miyazaki’s first foray into feature directing, released in 1979. A few years later, Miyazaki began work on a Manga series called Nausicaa of the valley of the wind published in Japan’s ‘Animage’ magazine. The series, about a young girl fighting for the survival of her kingdom in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, would become Miyazakis first original feature film.
The film not only brought Miya-san into the spotlight, but introduced the strong female characters, themes of flight, ecology and highlighting of environmental issues that would become a staple of Miyazaki’s storytelling.
In 1985, with funding from Japanese Entertainment conglomerate Tokuma Shoten, Miyazaki and Takahata formed Studio Ghibli, and set to work on their first in-house feature, Laputa, Castle in the sky, released one year later. As a testament to efficient Japanese productions, Miyazaki and Takahata produced 3 features over the same number of years, the double-feature Grave of the Fireflies/My Neighbour Totoro (1988) and Kiki’s delivery service (1989). The character of Totoro did for Studio Ghibli what Mickey Mouse did for Walt Disney, becoming a symbol of childhood innocence and imagination.
In 1992, the studio released Miyazakis next film, Porco Rosso, about a WW1 Italian fighter pilot who has been cursed into an anthropomorphic pig. It took a further five years for his next film, Princess Mononoke to be released, a historical fantasy epic which would become the highest grossing film in Japan, until Titanic was released soon after.
His next film Spirited Away, would become his best known feature, especially for Western audiences, winning the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2001 and receiving a wide cinema release of the Disney-produced English dub, with the supervision of none other than John Lasseter.
Very much inspired by western literature, Miyazaki then adapted British author Diana Wynne Jones’ fantasy novel Howl’s Moving Castle. The ‘Moving Castle’ of the title appears in the film as a wonderfully realised CG model, and in my opinion is among the most successful integrations of CG models and animation into a hand-drawn film.
Striving to keep a firm grasp on hand-drawn animation as his medium of choice, Miya-san’s next film Ponyo on the cliff by the sea (or just Ponyo to us westerners), inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’, used digital technology only to clean up and colour the animation.
Since then his efforts at Studio Ghibli have been mainly focussed towards finding Directors to continue the legacy of the studio, providing the scripts and an overseers role for Arrietty and Up on poppy hill, Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and Miya-san’s son Goro respectively.
The Wind Rises was announced as his final feature film, released July 20th of this year and will receive an American release on November 8th.
If this mammoth filmography was not enough, he has also directed no less than 8 short films for the Studio Ghibli museum, music videos and television work alongside his wonderful features. The questions I cannot help but raise are; Will the Directing bug catch him once again? Have we REALLY seen the last of his features?
If the answer is no, hooray! If yes, *draws tear with finger down face*.