Sublime

This was fated from the time when television, or manga, or video games, or even photo print clubs came to fill in for something children had lost and became more exciting than reality.

—The cat bus has twelve legs; how did you depict its running? Miyazaki: We talked about how its legs should move in sequence, like a centipede’s. I left it up to Katsuya Kondō to create the movement and had him show me his drawings every now and then. There is a bit of a strain; probably it’s best to draw it in one frame. When animals walk, in actu

—About the depiction of the Sea of Decay: in the early scenes, such as the village where Yupa ends up, it’s rather eerie. At the end, the Sea of Decay where Yupa and Asbel are traveling appears very bright. Miyazaki: We see birds that harm humans as harmful and those that are useful to humans as useful. It’s all arbitrary. The impression we have of

At Studio Ghibli, the old main staff is departing, and those in their early thirties will form the new core group. I will also retire from Ghibli and participate from the outside. I’m looking forward to seeing how the staff will react to me as I meddle in their work.

children don’t necessarily like all forty of the anime programs that are broadcast each week, so I feel that we owe it to them to make anime with some meaning. As long as someone shares this feeling, I don’t think it matters if that person is a workaholic. In fact, without workaholics, Japan’s animation could never be sustained.