Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki has been described as "the best animation filmmaker in history," (Ebert, 2002). His tenure includes the lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which Miyazaki can add to his Oscar for the acclaimed 2001-2002 film Spirited Away. Now in his seventies, Miyazaki has indicated a transition away from feature-length film projects toward lower-key ventures, even while his Tokyo-based company Studio Ghibli remains viable.

However, there has been some indication that even Studio Ghibli may dismantle, raising important questions about the future of Japanese animation and Miyazaki's role in it. The primary reason why Studio Ghibli may be closing its doors is related to the changing nature of animated film in general. Miyazaki remains committed to the hand-drawn anime, but knows that "the era of pencil, paper and film is coming to an end," (cited by White, 2014).

That may be true for Hollywood, but for Miyazaki himself, "he's not even close to done making anime," (Baseel, 2014). Miyazaki has stated, "I'm going to continue making anime until I die," a commitment that encapsulates his career (Baseel, 2014).

Born in Tokyo in 1941, Miyazaki started his career in the 1960s, drawing for films like "Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon." In the early 1970s, Miyazaki worked on a television series for Anne of Green Gables, as well as other Western stories like "Heidi: A Girl of the Alps." He has worked on animated shorts, like "Panda! Go Panda!" Miyazaki's directorial debut was in 1979 with The Castle of Cagliostro, which primarily drew on the gangster and chase theme but also including science fiction and fantasy dimensions like the inclusion of a flying machine.

In 1982, Miyazaki became more serious in his approach, and wrote Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, in 1982. In 1985, Miyazaki and fellow animator Isao Takahata founded Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibili's first production was Castle in the Sky (1986). The 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro is one of Miyazaki's most renowned feature length films and introduces viewers to prevalent themes in the director's work, such as strong female protagonists and the symbolism of flying.

As Twemlow (2014) points out, "his protagonists are young but the themes decidedly adult: mortality, fear, loss, growing up, and the bond between humans and the natural world. My Neighbor Totoro was quickly followed by Kiki's Delivery Service, also featuring a female protagonist. In 1989 Miyazaki shifted gears to a more traditionally masculine motif with Porco Rosso, in which a porcine World War One flying ace turns into a bounty hunter. During the 1990s, Miyazaki's career expanded and the director became more prolific, and more renowned at home and abroad.

First, Miyazaki won the Japan Academy Prize for best picture with 1997's Princess Mononoke, kick starting the filmmaker's trajectory toward international fame. For the next several years, Miyazaki would be working on Spirited Away, the film he is most famous for in the United States and internationally because of its accolades at the Academy Awards in Hollywood. This was the film that would propel Miyazaki to international renown and etch him forever in cinema's history books.

The film was one of the first introductions for many international viewers into anime and its core motif, aesthetic, and themes. Spirited Away helped bridge cultural gaps. The film also illustrated how animated film can convey deep and sweeping issues, and can be simultaneously effective for young viewers and more philosophical adults. However, his career was far from over at that point. In 2004, Ghibli released Howl's Moving Castle, about a young woman named Sophie. Sophie meets a witch, who puts a curse on her, turning Sophie into an old woman.

Sophie now needs to find a way to remove the curse, which brings her to Howl's Castle. Howl's Castle is under a curse of its own, allowing Sophie to be both savior and the one being saved. However, Howl's Moving Castle is not just a fairy tale. Beneath the fairy tale overlay is a deeper and broader story about war. Sophie's home country is engaged in war while she wages her own personal attack to remove her curse.

Howl recognizes Sophie's worth as an ally, and engages her in the war. Thus, Sophie is empowered as her mission moves beyond the personal and becomes political in nature. There are also underlying romantic elements in the film as Sophie and the Witch of the Waste compete over Suliman at first. It is significant that Sophie does not depend on the romantic interest to emerge as the core protagonist. Miyazaki's film therefore has a feminist bent as well as a multilayered and multitextural presentation of meaning and social commentary.

Themes of personal and social transformation are embedded in the film. The career of Hayao Miyazaki is unparalleled. Japanese cinema has boasted a wealth of talent that has yet to make it into the.