‘When CG Came Along, We Couldn’t Escape’

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

viewers are apt to be more forgiving of the animated movements of animals than they are of human movement.

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

I did not try to make “animation” as we usually think of it, but a manga, or a cartoon film.

—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

What’s funny about this is that at the time some theorists tried to rationalize what was going on. Some even claimed that we were in a new age, one of “limited animation,” where too much emphasis on making drawings move only hindered story development. They started saying that use of the tome-e, still images employed for effect, was a “new form of