Starting Point: 1979-1996

isn’t it strange to forget that and think that the problems of this world consist only of those between people? It is with this kind of awareness of the issues that I made Nausicaä and Totoro, but after that things took a strange turn. This refers to both the creative process and our psychological state. From our sense of crisis that unless we prot

—You have always said that what you want to make is “films” and not “anime.” But what is popular abroad seems to be anime. What do you see as the problem with anime? MIYAZAKI: The major source for Japanese animation is manga, whose greatest characteristic is its method of expression centered on emotions. In order to express emotions, space and time

I often hear from children these days that, “It’s a film, after all,” no matter what kind of film I make. Their feeling of mistrust has encroached on many areas. Young people no longer read fiction. Sales of illustrated children’s books have fallen drastically. At the root of these phenomena is this sense of mistrust. This is what leads to “crimes,

UMEHARA: Art becomes no good when theory is obviously displayed on its surface.

AM: You call it a healthy ambition? MIYAZAKI: You can’t get anywhere without ambition. You have to want to expand your influence and your powers of expression. There are increasingly too many people who think it is enough to do a good job with what they have been assigned. Having ambition means wanting to become, for example, an editor-in-chief so