Giselle Aparicio Contemporary Japan
Research Paper Prof. Metzler
Hayao Miyuzaki is not a name that people can forget. Miyuzaki is one of the most famous director and animation producer in all of Japan’s history. Almost all of his films are well known around the world for its’ raw drawings, beautiful story lines, strong independent female characters, and his love and revealed truth about the human impact on nature. One of the places his movies have flourished with success is in America. Films such as, “Spirited Away”, “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Princess Mononoke”, and many more have been translated and dubbed for the American audiences. Miyuzaki’s targeted audiences are children. His films are to teach children the true reality of this world in the way they learn which is by animation through movies. Of course these movies can be, and are seen by older viewers, but Miyazaki targets children because they are the next generation and since his movies carries a message; he wants them to learn that message and grow up living by it to help the society and the planet that they live on. With prosperity there is also feedback to hurt your success. Certain critiques Miyuzaki has been faced with is with having very similar concepts in his movies as in some Disney movies.
Miyazaki worked at Studio Ghibli. At the studio they use Cel animation for their works. Cel Animation is a series of images transferred or copied onto celluloid and then colored in. these images are photographed in sequence and the film projected fast enough to give the illusion of movement () "We take [handmade] cell animation and digitize it in order to enrich the visual look, but everything starts with the human hand drawing. And the color standard is dictated by the background. We don't make up a color on the computer. Without creating those rigid standards we'll just be caught up in the whirlpool of computerization… We have a word for that in Japanese. It's called ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally. [claps his hands] The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness. but if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb. "The people who make the movies are scared of silence, so they want to paper and plaster it over," he said. "They're worried that the audience will get bored. They might go up and get some popcorn. But just because it's 80 percent intense all the time doesn't mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions--that you never let go of those. What my friends and I have been trying to do since the 1970's is to try and quiet things down a little bit; don't just bombard them with noise and distraction. And to follow the path of children's emotions and feelings as we make a film. If you stay true to joy and astonishment and empathy you don't have to have violence and you don't have to have action. They'll follow you. This is our principle." (Miyazaki Interview). Their works most often feature common motifs, themes, and imagery. These commonalities include strong independent young female leads, (talking) cats, sweet old ladies, things related to aviation, trains, boutiques, birdlike creatures, misunderstood male characters, secret or hidden places, and in many cases a lack of a clearly defined antagonist. Take Spirited Away for example: its setting is in a secret place, we’ve got a young female lead, a sweet old lady, birdlike creatures, characters with multiple forms and identities, and a misunderstood male character. Another fact is that Studio Ghibli has adopted a strict “no cuts” policy. This policy was introduced after the unfortunate butchering of the American release of Nausicaä. The policy was brought up again after the release of Princess Mononoke in 1997 because Miramax wanted