Turning Point: 1997-2008

Recently, Miyazaki-san finished drawing Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Reading it, I was moved to tears. This makes me want to ask Miyazaki-san about his views on the environment. People find it very difficult to understand environmental problems from discussions about the ways in which the environment is being destroyed or the fact that the e

... See more

In reality, in 1979, even as I write this, the boom in overexpressionism has peaked and the phenomenon has lost the mind share it once had. What survives has taken refuge in direct-to-video anime works, but despite a great deal of advertising of video as part of the “new media,” we see very little actual growth in this market. Instead, what we see

... See more

Every day children are born and every day children grow up around us, whether or not we animation creators come up with a motive for our characters. And the challenges they confront haven’t decreased in the slightest. They may no longer identify with and be encouraged by champions of justice as in the past, but they still want to be encouraged, sti

... See more

It may sound trite when I say that I make animation to entertain children, but it is not trite at all. I certainly do not make animated films just so they will be popular with children. I try to create what I wanted to see when I was a child, or what I believe my own children want to see. We have all heard folktales. You can tell when you read them

... See more

In that context, I do worry about today’s young people. When watching animation, it’s not enough to fall in love with a particular explosion or combat scene; you also need to consider what the overall work is trying express, and whether what has been expressed succeeds. I know that some animated works are pure entertainment and don’t even have a pa

... See more

My personal dilemma over this has become increasingly pointed. I’ve turned my back on the flood of visual material being produced, but I’m struggling desperately in the hope of creating something a little better. In order to do so, I’ve even had to rationalize the art of navigating this world. I tell people I hate professionals, but I know that in

... See more

As I developed into a youth and young adult, I came to realize that I shouldn’t be just a good kid, that I should look at things with my own eyes and have independent ideas. This led me to attempt to turn my back on even my fundamental purity as a child and, combined with the dark time of studying for entrance exams, I came to draw nihilistic gekig

... See more