For the past few years, I have put forth ideas for film projects with the following ethos: “To offer a sense of liberation to present-day young people who, in this suffocating, overprotective, and managed society, find their path to self-reliant independence blocked and have become neurotic.”

Producing an animation series merely to fill time slots in the broadcast schedule is like generating cultural pollution.

As humans, we probably can’t go on living unless we believe that within the finite environment in which we exist we can enjoy a variety of experiences, feel happy, and be emotionally moved. In truth, I think that’s the way most of us live. In the same sense, I am sure that many of you are worried about a huge array of issues, but that the moment

Cel animation is distinguished by the facts that it is particularly suited to a collective form of work and that the images are extremely simple, clear, and appealing. That cel animation images are simple and clear is another way of saying that they also lack much depth and sophistication. To state this using more current lingo, they are pictures

Miyazaki: Yes, I did make a storyboard of the return of the umbrella. But that would make Totoro understand things too much. There is no way he would understand lending and borrowing. And there is no way Totoro would have an aversion to getting wet in the rain. —Because he is an animal. Miyazaki: Right. And rain helps plants grow. Since he lives as

What I mean to say is that I didn’t start out writing and drawing Nausicaä because I specifically wanted to talk about ecosystems or the need to protect the environment. I started out intending to set the story in the desert, but when I drew some illustrations they weren’t very interesting, so then I came up with the idea of setting the story in a

Compared to some of the works from the 1950s that I will always hold as a gold standard, the animation that we are making in the 1980s resembles the food served on jumbo jet airliners. Mass production has changed everything. The emotions and thoughts that should be so moving have given way to showiness, nervousness, and titillation. And work that

Miyazaki: Yes. Children aren’t conscious of wanting to run. They’re only aware of wanting to get somewhere quickly. In order to go quickly they naturally end up running. So, when you send a little child on an errand and tell him, “Don’t run,” as he is replying, “Okay,” he’s already running. [laughs] He thinks of moving quickly and does so without

Sometimes budding animators write to me or visit me at home. They usually bring along some drawings. Uncertain of their own talent but full of hope for their future, they come with a lot of anguish.