Starting Point: 1979-1996

There is also a large, latent audience of older viewers who yearn for a film to enjoy with a more naïve, childlike spirit. The future of animation is threatened by the fact that for most films being planned today the target age is gradually creeping upward. More and more animated films are being made to cater to niche interests, and there is ever m

In learning about Nausicaä, I recalled a certain Japanese heroine. I’m quite sure that she appears in the collection of short stories known as Tsutsumi chū-nagon monogatari (Tales of the Tsutsumi Middle Counselor) from the eleventh century. She was known as a princess who loved insects and apparently ran about in nature even after coming of age, de

If there were clouds, I’m sure that everyone would like to fly through them. But I think that the solemn and inspiring flying scenes you see of light shining between gaps in the clouds only exist at an altitude of around ten thousand meters. I don’t think there are any particularly awesome scenes once you get into outer space. I think that a lot of

And when you’re stuck, something deep in your brain will start thinking for you … That’s the only way to look at it. It’ll be some experience from the past that you don’t recall, some fusion of a variety of things, something that will make sense to you if you do it in a specific way, something that appears to be at the limits of your ability … And

We human beings think that if children are right in front of our eyes, the only way to feed them is to cut down the trees around us to cultivate fields. This is the unstoppable dynamic of human civilization. When we do so, those children have children whom they want to feed, leading to ever-increasing numbers. This is how we will wind up with a pop

Hayao Miyazaki has sometimes been described as “a man with no need for the production process.” Even on the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind animated feature, when I served as producer, he never needed anyone to whip his behind to get him to do any of his work. He participated as a member of our animation staff as if he weren’t worried about the

Mr. Miyazaki, your films create their own world and touch many people. What is at the core of your films? Miyazaki: We don’t take a high-handed attitude about delivering messages or about the role our films play. Rather, my attitude is that I make candy to sell wholesale to the candy store. Of course this candy must taste good; I would run into tro

—The music was also particularly good in this film. Miyazaki: I had absolutely no involvement with the music at all. I even joked at one point that maybe we didn’t need any music in the film [laughs], but we couldn’t get away with that. So I left everything regarding music up to Takahata-san, because he knows much more about it. Jo Hisaishi had als

—What was the difference between what you and your staff were doing and what other studios were doing at that time? Miyazaki: Other studios may also have been pushing their limits. I do think they were all working very hard. But I think we were working the hardest. What I mean is not that we were just working hard, but that we consciously determine