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Abstract
There are good directors and there are great directors. The auteur director achieves authorship of
a film whether he or she wrote the script or not because he or she has complete control over the
film-making process, thus his or her personal, individual production style and creative flare gives
his or her films a signature, or distinct style and feel. Miyazaki is regarded as "the auteur of
anime" because of the classic themes that hold personal meaning to him such as adolescents,
flight and protecting the environment. The author maintains the idea that Miyazaki is “the auteur
of anime” through evidence in scholarly works, popular culture and films My Neighbor Totoro,
Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises.
Keywords: auteur, director, Miyazaki, anime, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, The Wind
Rises
Table of Contents
I.
Introduction
II.
The Auteur Director
III.
Miyazaki as Auteur
IV.
Miyazaki Film Examination
V.
Conclusion
1
Introduction
Director, producer, animator and storyteller Hayao Miyazaki is a giant in the film
industry and has been famously coined “the auteur of anime.” In a 2011 article titled
“Miyazaki on Miyazaki: The Animation Genius on His Movies” by Dan Jolin in Empire
magazine, he states “Hayao Miyazaki is arguably the greatest living animation director,”
and “the respect that animators the world over have for Hayao Miyazaki is hard to
overstate. Pixar chief John Lasseter claims he’s ‘one of the greatest filmmakers of our
time (Jolin, 2011).’” Miyazaki has a knack for appealing to audiences of all ages because
of the complexity, depth and layered levels of ways of understanding his films as
described by animation scholar Helen McCarthy in a 2016 BBC News article, “They [the
films] are many-layered so that children can enjoy them, but people at later stages of life
can also find meaning in them…the films are highly individual works of art."
Because of these reasons and more, he has become profitable. Miyazaki’s new
worth is around $50 million; if people like something enough, they will literally and
figuratively buy it. Merchandise can see be seen in Hot Topic, Barnes and Noble and
many other retailers. It is also used for art inspiration on social media—not just for the
aesthetic, but because of the actual stories that further this aesthetic through the sentiment
in the film that can only be captured through hours of mastery and a vision that must be
fulfilled.
The author will examine Miyazaki’s filmmaking background, definitions of the
auteur director and provide evidence that maintains the idea that Miyazaki is “the auteur
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of anime” through scholarly works, popular culture and films My Neighbor Totoro,
Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises.
Background
Miyazaki was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 5, 1941. The Miyazaki family
owned a company, Miyazaki Airplanes, that manufactured parts, including rudders, for
the Mitsubishi A6M Zero for the Japanese military during World War II—this would
have a profound effect on Miyazaki’s life as drawing planes he saw in real life began as a
hobby and ended as the Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli legacy. In 1958, Miyazaki was
inspired by Japan’s first color feature-length production by Toei Animation, Hakujaden
to be a comic book artist. In 1963, Miyazaki graduated from Gakushuin University with
degrees in political science and economics and immediately perused his love of the arts,
at the same company that created the film that inspired him all of those years ago.
Miyazaki started at the proverbial bottom as an animator at Toei animation and
eventually created an empire. Miyazaki’s experience extends to other studios ranging
from A Pro, and Zuiyo Pictures. In 1984, with the help of Tokma production, Miyazaki
released Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind. The film was profitable at the box office and as a
result, Miyazaki and fellow animators Isao Takahata, Toshio Suzuki and Yasuyoshi
Tokuma formed Studio Ghibli, home of Miyazaki’s distinct films.
The Auteur Director
The auteur director is instantly recognizable because of the style, themes, tones
and moods of the film that are an extension of the director’s personal vision and
character. The audience is able to capture the complex spirit of the film through the
familiarity of the director. For example, when one thinks of Quinton Tarantino films,
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violence might come to mind; whenever one thinks of Alfred Hitchcock films, a strong
female lead might come to mind; whenever one thinks of Spike Lee films, the idea of
social justice might come to mind. It is these associations one can make that separates the
auteur director because the auteur director has so much control in the filmmaking process
that these films are particular to him or her; there are sometimes many workers who have
dedicated hours of labor into the creation of the film, but only the director is credited in a
major way through news articles, academic journals and popular culture. The auteur
director has a specialization about him or her. The films seen are literally, only something
they can do because of the hours spent mastering particular skills in particular ways. For
example, Miyazaki hand-draws animation, Kathryn Bigelow provides incredible
perspectives through specialized cameras, and Hitchcock dedicated restaurants in his
films to ones that actually existed.
Jim Greene in the Salem Press Encyclopedia states that:
“In filmmaking, auteur theory is an idea that explores the notion of authorship as it
relates to motion pictures. By its very nature, filmmaking necessitates collaboration
among many different creative talents, including the director, screenwriter, actors,
cinematographer, and art director, among others, who are organized in a hierarchical
structure under the producer. Given this amalgamation of personnel, attempts to ascribe
the artistic results of a given film to the efforts of any single member of the collaborative
team were long viewed as problematic. Auteur theory solves this problem by forwarding
the idea that it is the director, above all, who is primarily responsible for the final
product generated by the filmmaking process.”
The Chicago School of Media Theory, as cited in The Oxford English Dictionary
claims that auteur is defined as:
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“A film director whose personal influence and artistic control over his or her films are
so great that he or she may be regarded as their author, and whose films may be
regarded collectively as a body of work sharing common themes or techniques and
expressing an individual style or vision (The Chicago School of Media Theory, 2019).”
Miyazaki as Auteur
Whenever one thinks of Miyazaki films, the hand-drawn animation, themes of
flight, childhood and appreciation of melodramatic Asian culture, as well as realistic
tones and whimsical moods might come to mind. In a 2016 BBC News article “lush
detailed landscapes and its thoughtfulness in tackling serious themes such as war, man
versus nature, and identity,” were described as the hallmarks of Miyazaki films.
In a 2009 book titled “The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation” by
Thomas Lamarre, the author states:
“Miyazaki Hayao is an auteur in the sense that he puts his stamp on every aspect of
production (writing, directing, animating); he is notorious for retouching or redoing
images that do not meet his standard. As a result, there really is a Miyazaki style, a
Miyazaki look and feel and treatment, and the audience recognizes his films as Miyazaki
films. The films are seen in his vision.”
In a 2005 article titled “The Animated Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki” by Lucy
Wright and Jerry Clode in Metro magazine, the authors state:
“Japanese adore the animated feature films of Hayao Miyazaki. Children often know the
dialogues by heart, and grandparents, salarymen and teenagers enjoy them just as
enthusiastically. Toys and merchandise of his animated creations occupy an important
space in Japan’s ‘character culture.”
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These statements describe how recognizable Miyazaki’s works are, indicating his
signature, as well as how he takes control of the filmmaking process, which further
emphasize the marks of an auteur director. Furthermore, throughout the article, only
Miyazaki’s artistry is described, again demonstrating Miyazaki’s total control filmmaking
process. For example, the authors state “As an artist, Miyazaki works within a continuous
local tradition of cultural and aesthetic appropriation, which animation theorist Paul
Wells identifies as a fundamental attribute of Japanese artistic expression.” A second
example of this is whenever the authors describe how westernized Miyazaki’s characters
are, “While most of Miyazaki’s characters have distinctly Western features— large eyes,
pale skin, red hair—they have, however, also curiously been (reverse) assimilated and
‘Japan-ized’ for consumption by a local audience (Wright and Clode, 2005).”
In a 2018 article titled “The Hayao Miyazaki succession: what’s the big deal, asks
Mamoru Hosoda, acclaimed animation director behind new film Mirai” by Edmund Lee
in the South China Morning Post, the author states that Miyazaki’s control over the 2004
film Howl’s Moving Castle was so prominent that “Mamoru Hosoda was commissioned
by the influential Studio Ghibli to the film, and then dropped over creative differences in
favor of Hayao Miyazaki (Lee, 2018).” This tension between the director and the other
creative contributors in the filmmaking process is one of the hallmarks of the auteur
director because other people contributing to the film are not given the opportunity for
self-expression as the auteur director must be purely himself in his own expression.
In a 2015 article in the Mechademia titled “Animated Nature: Aesthetics, Ethics,
and Empathy in Miyazaki Hayao’s Ecophilosophy,” by Pamela Gossin, she highlights all
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of the hallmarks of the auteur director. She states his control in the filmmaking process
as well as his signature and technical competence in the same sentence:
“Throughout his long career, Miyazaki has drawn—both literally and figuratively—
intricate imagined worlds, at once beautiful and fragile in their complexity. The natural
settings of his animation and manga are so effectively realized that a significant portion
of his audience, ironically, has had a difficult time seeing the forest for the trees
(p.209).”
The article continues with the same sentiment, particularly reflecting personal
meaning, “Miyazaki’s views about the environment reflect a deep synthesis of his artistic
and aesthetic philosophy along with his ethical, social, and political values.”
Auteur theory originated in France in 1954 when film critic Francois Truffaut
wrote Cahiers du cinema, or “On a Certain Tendency of the French Cinema” that argued
that “the work of an author (auteur) could be seen in many Hollywood films.” This
“author” was the film’s director, “whose ‘signature’ could be discerned by the sensitive
critic… (Truffaut, 1954).” Andrew Sarris, born in Queens, N.Y. in 1928, was a strong
advocate of French auteur theory in U.S. and wrote The American Cinema: Directors and
Directions. Sarris argues that there are three premises of the auteur theory: technical
competence of director, the signature or distinguishable personality of the director and
interior meaning (Sarris, 1985).
Technical competence of director is the first criterion of artistic value. Auteur
theory argues that Hollywood directors on par with great novelists and composers. If a
director does not have an “elementary flair,” or natural talent for the cinema, he or she
cannot be an auteur. One cannot guarantee, however, that “good” directors (auteurs) will
always make good films (Sarris, 1985). In a 2013 dissertation titled “Hayao Miyazaki as
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Auteur: Techniques, Technology and Aesthetics in Animation” for the University of
London by Bin Yee Ang, Miyazaki’s technical competence is described in detail. The
author states:
“In the animation industry today, there are not many who still practicing traditional
animation technique, the hand drawn cel animation. However, Hayao Miyazaki and
Studio Ghibli animation is the prominent example that traditional animation has
redeemed its place in the digital era which obtained successful result and very much
welcome in animation cinema. Technology development is inevitable for the studio and
Miyazaki has implied digital methods along with the traditional animation technique. In
spite of that, digital implications have not overtaken the attention of the 2D visual
presentation in which traditional technique is dominant. It is what makes Miyazaki and
Studio Ghibli animation unique (p. 2).”
In a 2015 The Artifice article written by Adnan Bey, the author details “the art of
repetition” in relation to Miyazaki films:
“They have a formula they follow, ideas they repeat, and it works: Beautiful scenery, old
women, powerful women, female protagonists, animal companions, and even romance
both explicit and implicit. People watch them and they will continue to watch them. It
never fails, especially with director and animator Hayao Miyazaki at the reigns and
Disney distributing them all in English to the United States and the wider world to
increase Miyazaki’s market and audience.”
Although computer-generated imagery (CGI) is far easier to use, Miyazaki only
uses it less than 10% of the time because he has disciplined himself to go the more
difficult, but more fruitful route of spending hours on a single slide of the film. One
particular Miyazaki effect is the look of water-color paintings.
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The distinguishable personality of the director is second criterion of artistic value.
The director’s “signature” is the recurrent characteristics of style in their films, indicating
the way they think and feel. Directors are forced to express their personalities visually
rather than through literary content and this allows them to develop a more abstract and
interesting visual style (Sarris, 1985). One’s interior meanings develop from personality
and thus both are inevitably shown in the film. The auteur theory is psychological in
nature as it suggests a film can be analyzed by its author in the same way a novel can.
In a 2014 article titled “From Worst to Best: Ranking The Films Of Hayao
Miyazaki” by the staff of IndieWire magazine, the authors also describe Miyazaki as an
auteur director. The authors also specifically state Miyazaki’s trademark when discussing
The Castle of Cagliostro, stating:
“And while the production values are notably lesser than the Ghibli pictures, the
trademark attention to detail of a Miyazaki film is very much present in the fantastical
European setting, a gloriously romantic depiction of a world that never existed, that nods
to classic French graphic novels, Bond and Tintin, among others.”
Another example of Miyazaki’s signature comes from the authors’ description of
The Wind Rises “The movie is mostly about the limitless power of imagination and the
way that designs can transcend their purpose, which, frankly, has been a recurring theme
of Miyazaki’s for decades,” and “The director has spent his entire career communicating
his feeling for flight as a tantalizing, romanticized experience full of wonder and awe.”
The authors continue to discuss Miyazaki’s control in his works by only crediting him as
opposed to the others involved in the filmmaking process, stating that Ponyo is “One of
the filmmaker’s more deliberately trippy exercises, full of giant underwater fish and
spirits that control the wind and waves.”
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Also in 2005, Stan Lee, one of the world’s most recognized comic book writers,
demonstrated in Time magazine’s “Time 100: Artists & Entertainers” section that
Miyazaki has complete control of the filmmaking process, and mentions signature
Miyazaki elements. Lee stated that Miyazaki’s films are often without made without a
pre-written script and that “Miyazaki proved his originality in 1984 with Nausicaa of the
Valley of Wind, abandoning the popular metallic look and substituting a drama of natural
elements: fungus-filled forests, poisonous seas, dangerous mountaintops.”
The interior meaning, or ‘the ultimate glory of the cinema as an art’ is the final
criterion of artistic value. This phenomena is close to mise en scène, or ‘placing on stage’
in plays and is part of the director’s vision of the world and attitude towards life. The
interior meaning ultimately stems from the ‘tension between a director’s personality and
his material’ and is only recognizable through ‘specific beauties of meaning on the screen
(Sarris, 1985).’” Interior meaning cannot be described or quantified. The old adage, “you
know it when you see it,” is applicable here. Interior meaning can only be found in the
proverbial “heart and soul” of a person—the audience viewing the film have the entire
Miyazaki experience—a lush visual adventure and a wholesome childhood memory
through resolved conflict.
In a 2018 article in Arts titled “Anime Landscapes as a Tool for Analyzing the
Human–Environment Relationship: Hayao Miyazaki Films,” by Sema Mumcu and Serap
Yilmaz, Miyazaki’s personal meaning and overall control of the work is again
emphasized as the authors state:
“In Miyazaki’s films, we see environments having their own spirit based on the Shinto
belief,” and continue with “Contrary to the ideas that see meanings apart from the
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nature of things, for Miyazaki meanings and their value are intrinsic; landscapes are not
valuable only when humans appraise them as being so.”
In a 2019 article titled “Hayao Miyazaki's Path to Studio Ghibli” by Ryan Lamble
in DenofGeek magazine, the author directly indicates that Miyazaki is an auteur director
because he describes the creative control in creating his signature style Miyazaki had in
the creation of The Castle of Cagliostro, stating “He wrote the story treatment, designed
its action sequences and drew up its storyboards, and managed to get the film completed
in just seven months.” Lamble further insinuates that Miyazaki is an auteur director
because the same sentiment lies in the description of Nausicaa of the Valley of The Wind.
This film emphasizes the personal meaning Miyazaki has in the creative process. He
states that:
“In 1982, Miyazaki began work on the manga Nausicaa of the Valley of The Wind, a
sprawling ecological fable he would write and illustrate, off and on, for the next 12
years… Miyazaki later wrote that he struggled with the process of adapting his own
manga for the screen, but the overwhelming impression left by the resulting movie,
released in 1984, is the sheer scale and tangibility of his future world.”
Miyazaki Film Examination
Miyazaki’s filmography is as follows: The Wind Rises (20-Jul-2013), Ponyo (19Jul-2008), Howl's Moving Castle (5-Sep-2004), Spirited Away (27-Jul-2001), Princess
Mononoke (12-Jul-1997), Porco Rosso (18-Jul-1992), Kiki's Delivery Service (29-Jul1989), My Neighbor Totoro (16-Apr-1988), Castle in the Sky (2-Aug-1986), Nausicaa of
the Valley of the Wind (11-Mar-1984) and The Castle of Cagliostro (15-Dec-1979). My
Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises are examined more closely.
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Miyazaki said himself that his third film, My Neighbor Totoro is autobiographical
in nature. The storyline in the film harbors personal meaning because it is a parallel to
Miyazaki’s mother falling ill from tuberculosis in the 1940s. In Margaret Talbot’s 2005
article, “The Auteur of Anime,” in The New Yorker, the author outlines how the film
captures signature Miyazaki elements including strong female leads and childhood, “The
film is focused on dignifying the girls’ imaginations, honoring their ability to partake in a
fantasy that is both comforting and fortifying.”
My Neighbor Totoro is based on experience, situation and exploration⸻ not on
conflict and threat (Ebert 2001). Ebert (2001) emphasizes the detail Miyazaki puts into
his work, such as a bottle someone threw in the stream whenever the children look at a
little waterfall near their home. It is the elements such as these that give a sense of
unforced realism within Miyazaki’s work. Ebert goes on to describe Miyazaki’s style as,
“visually enchanting, using a watercolor look for the backgrounds and working within the
distinctive Japanese anime tradition of characters with big round eyes and mouths that
can be as small as a dot or as big as a cavern.” Miyazaki’s visual detail allows the
audience to experience a realistic world in an animated film.
My Neighbor Totoro offers as much realism as it does magic as a result of
Miyazaki’s own life. Some parents die whenever their children are young, as Miyazaki’s
did. Some children experience trauma every day. Sometimes, children feel lost as Satsuke
and Mei did. Through the whimsical characters, brilliant dialogue and familiarity that can
only be achieved through total control, Miyazaki has offered an answer to these children
through immersive fantasy that makes traumas and regular childhoods identifiable. My
Neighbor Totoro did not try to lighten real issues, it did not try to overload the audience
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with clichés, instead the film portrayed authentic characters and fantasy with meanings
such as wholesomeness. Signature Miyazaki elements that contribute to the claim that he
is an auteur director are strong, female adolescent protagonists, whimsical details such as
the soot seen in other films of his, a grandmother figure in the film, flight scenes and an
optimistic ending.
Spirited Away is regarded as Miyazaki’s magnum opus. In Frank Olsen’s 2012
blog post, Understanding Auteurs: Hayao Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle) the author
summarizes why the film was so well-done, stating “Spirited Away is Miyazaki at his
best because its dream logic structuring requires only the thinnest thread of plot, allowing
the mesmerizing animation to take over without any unnecessary story elements getting
in the way of the experience.” Miyazaki said that the film was “made for 10-year-old
girls.” Miyazaki is known for basing the characters in his film off of characters he knows
in real life—Chihiro is based off of the daughter of one of his friends. This resemblance
represents Miyazaki’s personal connections between art and life as characters come to
life in his vision and this his experiences alone. Miyazaki has mastered the details—one
film critic discussed how Chihiro falling down the steps was brilliant because a real girl
would have fallen down the steps. Chihiro is not a superhero, she is not a “chosen one,”
she is a regular girl who went through an extraordinary adventure. Signature Miyazaki
elements that contribute to the claim that he is an auteur director are a strong female
protagonist that has a relationship with a male character, themes of protecting the
environment, blurred lines between ideas of “good” and “evil,” and men operating heavy
machinery.
13
Miyazaki’s adoration for flight is explored in a different way than his previous
films in his first and only biopic, The Wind Rises. In a 2014 article in Variety called
“Retiring Auteur Remains Animated,” by Carole Horst, the author not only states that
Miyazaki is an auteur directly, but also explains specifically how through Miyazaki’s
film, The Wind Rises. Horst’s interview with Miyazaki resulted in an explanation of the
personal meaning behind the film. Horst states “Miyazaki said the film depicts the era in
which his parents lived, and added that the people he chose to highlight from that time
were Horikoshi and writer and poet Tatsuo Hori (noted for his work within Japan's
Proletarian Literary Movement).’ One is an engineer, one is an author, so those two
people became one in my film,’ Miyazaki noted.” The Wind Rises explores romanctic
love in a more direct way than in his previous films, but still champions that same childfriendly, whimsical sentiment of an ambitious child with a dream and a destiny.
Signature Miyazaki elements that contribute to the claim that he is an auteur
director are flight scenes, dream-like sequences, autobiographical elements and realism in
animation.
Conclusion
There is an ambiguity about Miyazaki’s films that make relating to the stories he
creates especially easy. Miyazaki has mastered capturing the human spirit—children in
Ghibli films are ambitious and innocent, amazingly proud, yet humble; they all go on
journeys. Sometimes, there is a silver lining in pain, like seen in My Neighbor Totoro;
other times, all it takes to find oneself is belief, like seen in Spirited Away, and
sometimes, the message is “we must let passion consume us,” like one could interpret in
The Wind Rises. What makes a good director a great director? The audience is comforted
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in expecting the unexpected in a way particular to Miyazaki’s films. Miyazaki’s films are
appreciated because of Miyazaki’s technical competence, personality and his dedication
to finding interior meaning in the creation of art. Throughout the entire time-consuming
exhaustive process, Miyazaki maintains control by hand-drawn animation, signature
Miyazaki tropes, and allowing for other children with a sick parent or the need to be
brave the opportunity to identify with characters Miyazaki created. As previously stated,
Miyazaki’s films are repetitive, wholesome, engaging and always satisfying. Film critics
and everyday people unanimously agree Miyazaki has been an inspiration because of the
combination of his efforts and success in each of the areas either directly or indirectly
described by Sarris and Truffaut.
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References
Auteur - The Chicago School of Media Theory. (2019). Retrieved April 7, 2019, from
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/auteur/
Bey, A. (2015, August 10). Hayao Miyazaki: The art of repetition. Retrieved May 1,
2019, from https://the-artifice.com/hayao-miyazaki-art-repetition-studio-ghibli/
Ebert, R. (2001, December 23). Great movie - My Neighbor Totoro. Retrieved April 12,
2019, from www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-my-neighbor-totoro-1993
Ebert, R. (2012, July 11). Great movie - Spirited Away. Retrieved May 1, 2019, from
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002
From worst to best: Ranking the films of Hayao Miyazaki. (2014, February 20). Retrieved
April 7, 2019, from https://www.indiewire.com/2014/02/from-worst-to-bestranking-the-films-of-hayao-miyazaki-88842/
Gossin, P. (2015). Animated nature: Aesthetics, ethics, and empathy in Miyazaki Hayao’s
ecophilosophy. Mechademia, 10, 209–234. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
Greene, J. (2018). Auteur Theory (film criticism). Salem Press Encyclopedia. Retrieved
April 5, 2019
Hayao Miyazaki: Japan's godfather of animation? (2016, December 3). Retrieved May 1,
2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38074088
Horst, C. (2014). Retiring Auteur Remains Animated. Variety, 323(1), 64. Retrieved
April 5, 2019
Jolin, D. (2011, July 28). Miyazaki on Miyazaki: The animation genius on his movies.
Retrieved April 7, 2019, from
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/hayao-miyazaki/
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LaMarre, T. (2009). The anime machine: A media theory of animation. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Lamble, R. (2019, January 5). Hayao Miyazaki's path to Studio Ghibli. Retrieved April 7,
2019, from https://www.denofgeek.com/us/culture/hayaomiyazaki/241940/hayao-miyazakis-path-to-studio-ghibli
Lee, A. B. (2013). Hayao Miyazaki as Auteur: Techniques, Technology and Aesthetics in
Animation (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of London. Retrieved
April 7, 2019, from
https://www.academia.edu/24505389/Hayao_Miyazaki_as_Auteur_Techniques_T
echnology_and_Aesthetics_in_Animation
Lee, E. (2018, August 22). The Hayao Miyazaki succession: What’s the big deal, asks
Mamoru Hosoda, acclaimed animation director behind new film Mirai. Retrieved
April 7, 2019, from https://www.scmp.com/culture/filmtv/article/2160873/japanese-animation-after-miyazaki-director-mamoru-hosodasthoughts
Lee, S. (2005). Hayao Miyazaki. Time International (Canada Edition), 165(16), 97.
Retrieved April 7, 2019.
Moist, K. M., & Bartholow, M. (2007). When pigs fly: anime, auteurism, and miyazaki’s
porco rosso. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2(1), 27-42. Retrieved
April 7, 2019.
Mumcu, S. & Yılmaz, S. (2018). Anime landscapes as a tool for analyzing the human–
environment relationship: Hayao Miyazaki films. Arts, 7 (2), 16. Retrieved April
7, 2019.
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Sarris, A. (1985). The American cinema: Directors and directions, 1929-1968. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Truffaut, F. (1954). Une certaine tendance du cinéma français. Cahiers du cinéma, 31(1),
15-28.
Wright, L., & Clode, J. (2005). The animated worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. Metro, (143),
46–51. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
There are good directors and there are great directors. The auteur director achieves authorship of
a film whether he or she wrote the script or not because he or she has complete control over the
film-making process, thus his or her personal, individual production style and creative flare gives
his or her films a signature, or distinct style and feel. Miyazaki is regarded as "the auteur of
anime" because of the classic themes that hold personal meaning to him such as adolescents,
flight and protecting the environment. The author maintains the idea that Miyazaki is “the auteur
of anime” through evidence in scholarly works, popular culture and films My Neighbor Totoro,
Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises.
Keywords: auteur, director, Miyazaki, anime, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, The Wind
Rises
Table of Contents
I.
Introduction
II.
The Auteur Director
III.
Miyazaki as Auteur
IV.
Miyazaki Film Examination
V.
Conclusion
1
Introduction
Director, producer, animator and storyteller Hayao Miyazaki is a giant in the film
industry and has been famously coined “the auteur of anime.” In a 2011 article titled
“Miyazaki on Miyazaki: The Animation Genius on His Movies” by Dan Jolin in Empire
magazine, he states “Hayao Miyazaki is arguably the greatest living animation director,”
and “the respect that animators the world over have for Hayao Miyazaki is hard to
overstate. Pixar chief John Lasseter claims he’s ‘one of the greatest filmmakers of our
time (Jolin, 2011).’” Miyazaki has a knack for appealing to audiences of all ages because
of the complexity, depth and layered levels of ways of understanding his films as
described by animation scholar Helen McCarthy in a 2016 BBC News article, “They [the
films] are many-layered so that children can enjoy them, but people at later stages of life
can also find meaning in them…the films are highly individual works of art."
Because of these reasons and more, he has become profitable. Miyazaki’s new
worth is around $50 million; if people like something enough, they will literally and
figuratively buy it. Merchandise can see be seen in Hot Topic, Barnes and Noble and
many other retailers. It is also used for art inspiration on social media—not just for the
aesthetic, but because of the actual stories that further this aesthetic through the sentiment
in the film that can only be captured through hours of mastery and a vision that must be
fulfilled.
The author will examine Miyazaki’s filmmaking background, definitions of the
auteur director and provide evidence that maintains the idea that Miyazaki is “the auteur
2
of anime” through scholarly works, popular culture and films My Neighbor Totoro,
Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises.
Background
Miyazaki was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 5, 1941. The Miyazaki family
owned a company, Miyazaki Airplanes, that manufactured parts, including rudders, for
the Mitsubishi A6M Zero for the Japanese military during World War II—this would
have a profound effect on Miyazaki’s life as drawing planes he saw in real life began as a
hobby and ended as the Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli legacy. In 1958, Miyazaki was
inspired by Japan’s first color feature-length production by Toei Animation, Hakujaden
to be a comic book artist. In 1963, Miyazaki graduated from Gakushuin University with
degrees in political science and economics and immediately perused his love of the arts,
at the same company that created the film that inspired him all of those years ago.
Miyazaki started at the proverbial bottom as an animator at Toei animation and
eventually created an empire. Miyazaki’s experience extends to other studios ranging
from A Pro, and Zuiyo Pictures. In 1984, with the help of Tokma production, Miyazaki
released Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind. The film was profitable at the box office and as a
result, Miyazaki and fellow animators Isao Takahata, Toshio Suzuki and Yasuyoshi
Tokuma formed Studio Ghibli, home of Miyazaki’s distinct films.
The Auteur Director
The auteur director is instantly recognizable because of the style, themes, tones
and moods of the film that are an extension of the director’s personal vision and
character. The audience is able to capture the complex spirit of the film through the
familiarity of the director. For example, when one thinks of Quinton Tarantino films,
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violence might come to mind; whenever one thinks of Alfred Hitchcock films, a strong
female lead might come to mind; whenever one thinks of Spike Lee films, the idea of
social justice might come to mind. It is these associations one can make that separates the
auteur director because the auteur director has so much control in the filmmaking process
that these films are particular to him or her; there are sometimes many workers who have
dedicated hours of labor into the creation of the film, but only the director is credited in a
major way through news articles, academic journals and popular culture. The auteur
director has a specialization about him or her. The films seen are literally, only something
they can do because of the hours spent mastering particular skills in particular ways. For
example, Miyazaki hand-draws animation, Kathryn Bigelow provides incredible
perspectives through specialized cameras, and Hitchcock dedicated restaurants in his
films to ones that actually existed.
Jim Greene in the Salem Press Encyclopedia states that:
“In filmmaking, auteur theory is an idea that explores the notion of authorship as it
relates to motion pictures. By its very nature, filmmaking necessitates collaboration
among many different creative talents, including the director, screenwriter, actors,
cinematographer, and art director, among others, who are organized in a hierarchical
structure under the producer. Given this amalgamation of personnel, attempts to ascribe
the artistic results of a given film to the efforts of any single member of the collaborative
team were long viewed as problematic. Auteur theory solves this problem by forwarding
the idea that it is the director, above all, who is primarily responsible for the final
product generated by the filmmaking process.”
The Chicago School of Media Theory, as cited in The Oxford English Dictionary
claims that auteur is defined as:
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“A film director whose personal influence and artistic control over his or her films are
so great that he or she may be regarded as their author, and whose films may be
regarded collectively as a body of work sharing common themes or techniques and
expressing an individual style or vision (The Chicago School of Media Theory, 2019).”
Miyazaki as Auteur
Whenever one thinks of Miyazaki films, the hand-drawn animation, themes of
flight, childhood and appreciation of melodramatic Asian culture, as well as realistic
tones and whimsical moods might come to mind. In a 2016 BBC News article “lush
detailed landscapes and its thoughtfulness in tackling serious themes such as war, man
versus nature, and identity,” were described as the hallmarks of Miyazaki films.
In a 2009 book titled “The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation” by
Thomas Lamarre, the author states:
“Miyazaki Hayao is an auteur in the sense that he puts his stamp on every aspect of
production (writing, directing, animating); he is notorious for retouching or redoing
images that do not meet his standard. As a result, there really is a Miyazaki style, a
Miyazaki look and feel and treatment, and the audience recognizes his films as Miyazaki
films. The films are seen in his vision.”
In a 2005 article titled “The Animated Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki” by Lucy
Wright and Jerry Clode in Metro magazine, the authors state:
“Japanese adore the animated feature films of Hayao Miyazaki. Children often know the
dialogues by heart, and grandparents, salarymen and teenagers enjoy them just as
enthusiastically. Toys and merchandise of his animated creations occupy an important
space in Japan’s ‘character culture.”
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These statements describe how recognizable Miyazaki’s works are, indicating his
signature, as well as how he takes control of the filmmaking process, which further
emphasize the marks of an auteur director. Furthermore, throughout the article, only
Miyazaki’s artistry is described, again demonstrating Miyazaki’s total control filmmaking
process. For example, the authors state “As an artist, Miyazaki works within a continuous
local tradition of cultural and aesthetic appropriation, which animation theorist Paul
Wells identifies as a fundamental attribute of Japanese artistic expression.” A second
example of this is whenever the authors describe how westernized Miyazaki’s characters
are, “While most of Miyazaki’s characters have distinctly Western features— large eyes,
pale skin, red hair—they have, however, also curiously been (reverse) assimilated and
‘Japan-ized’ for consumption by a local audience (Wright and Clode, 2005).”
In a 2018 article titled “The Hayao Miyazaki succession: what’s the big deal, asks
Mamoru Hosoda, acclaimed animation director behind new film Mirai” by Edmund Lee
in the South China Morning Post, the author states that Miyazaki’s control over the 2004
film Howl’s Moving Castle was so prominent that “Mamoru Hosoda was commissioned
by the influential Studio Ghibli to the film, and then dropped over creative differences in
favor of Hayao Miyazaki (Lee, 2018).” This tension between the director and the other
creative contributors in the filmmaking process is one of the hallmarks of the auteur
director because other people contributing to the film are not given the opportunity for
self-expression as the auteur director must be purely himself in his own expression.
In a 2015 article in the Mechademia titled “Animated Nature: Aesthetics, Ethics,
and Empathy in Miyazaki Hayao’s Ecophilosophy,” by Pamela Gossin, she highlights all
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of the hallmarks of the auteur director. She states his control in the filmmaking process
as well as his signature and technical competence in the same sentence:
“Throughout his long career, Miyazaki has drawn—both literally and figuratively—
intricate imagined worlds, at once beautiful and fragile in their complexity. The natural
settings of his animation and manga are so effectively realized that a significant portion
of his audience, ironically, has had a difficult time seeing the forest for the trees
(p.209).”
The article continues with the same sentiment, particularly reflecting personal
meaning, “Miyazaki’s views about the environment reflect a deep synthesis of his artistic
and aesthetic philosophy along with his ethical, social, and political values.”
Auteur theory originated in France in 1954 when film critic Francois Truffaut
wrote Cahiers du cinema, or “On a Certain Tendency of the French Cinema” that argued
that “the work of an author (auteur) could be seen in many Hollywood films.” This
“author” was the film’s director, “whose ‘signature’ could be discerned by the sensitive
critic… (Truffaut, 1954).” Andrew Sarris, born in Queens, N.Y. in 1928, was a strong
advocate of French auteur theory in U.S. and wrote The American Cinema: Directors and
Directions. Sarris argues that there are three premises of the auteur theory: technical
competence of director, the signature or distinguishable personality of the director and
interior meaning (Sarris, 1985).
Technical competence of director is the first criterion of artistic value. Auteur
theory argues that Hollywood directors on par with great novelists and composers. If a
director does not have an “elementary flair,” or natural talent for the cinema, he or she
cannot be an auteur. One cannot guarantee, however, that “good” directors (auteurs) will
always make good films (Sarris, 1985). In a 2013 dissertation titled “Hayao Miyazaki as
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Auteur: Techniques, Technology and Aesthetics in Animation” for the University of
London by Bin Yee Ang, Miyazaki’s technical competence is described in detail. The
author states:
“In the animation industry today, there are not many who still practicing traditional
animation technique, the hand drawn cel animation. However, Hayao Miyazaki and
Studio Ghibli animation is the prominent example that traditional animation has
redeemed its place in the digital era which obtained successful result and very much
welcome in animation cinema. Technology development is inevitable for the studio and
Miyazaki has implied digital methods along with the traditional animation technique. In
spite of that, digital implications have not overtaken the attention of the 2D visual
presentation in which traditional technique is dominant. It is what makes Miyazaki and
Studio Ghibli animation unique (p. 2).”
In a 2015 The Artifice article written by Adnan Bey, the author details “the art of
repetition” in relation to Miyazaki films:
“They have a formula they follow, ideas they repeat, and it works: Beautiful scenery, old
women, powerful women, female protagonists, animal companions, and even romance
both explicit and implicit. People watch them and they will continue to watch them. It
never fails, especially with director and animator Hayao Miyazaki at the reigns and
Disney distributing them all in English to the United States and the wider world to
increase Miyazaki’s market and audience.”
Although computer-generated imagery (CGI) is far easier to use, Miyazaki only
uses it less than 10% of the time because he has disciplined himself to go the more
difficult, but more fruitful route of spending hours on a single slide of the film. One
particular Miyazaki effect is the look of water-color paintings.
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The distinguishable personality of the director is second criterion of artistic value.
The director’s “signature” is the recurrent characteristics of style in their films, indicating
the way they think and feel. Directors are forced to express their personalities visually
rather than through literary content and this allows them to develop a more abstract and
interesting visual style (Sarris, 1985). One’s interior meanings develop from personality
and thus both are inevitably shown in the film. The auteur theory is psychological in
nature as it suggests a film can be analyzed by its author in the same way a novel can.
In a 2014 article titled “From Worst to Best: Ranking The Films Of Hayao
Miyazaki” by the staff of IndieWire magazine, the authors also describe Miyazaki as an
auteur director. The authors also specifically state Miyazaki’s trademark when discussing
The Castle of Cagliostro, stating:
“And while the production values are notably lesser than the Ghibli pictures, the
trademark attention to detail of a Miyazaki film is very much present in the fantastical
European setting, a gloriously romantic depiction of a world that never existed, that nods
to classic French graphic novels, Bond and Tintin, among others.”
Another example of Miyazaki’s signature comes from the authors’ description of
The Wind Rises “The movie is mostly about the limitless power of imagination and the
way that designs can transcend their purpose, which, frankly, has been a recurring theme
of Miyazaki’s for decades,” and “The director has spent his entire career communicating
his feeling for flight as a tantalizing, romanticized experience full of wonder and awe.”
The authors continue to discuss Miyazaki’s control in his works by only crediting him as
opposed to the others involved in the filmmaking process, stating that Ponyo is “One of
the filmmaker’s more deliberately trippy exercises, full of giant underwater fish and
spirits that control the wind and waves.”
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Also in 2005, Stan Lee, one of the world’s most recognized comic book writers,
demonstrated in Time magazine’s “Time 100: Artists & Entertainers” section that
Miyazaki has complete control of the filmmaking process, and mentions signature
Miyazaki elements. Lee stated that Miyazaki’s films are often without made without a
pre-written script and that “Miyazaki proved his originality in 1984 with Nausicaa of the
Valley of Wind, abandoning the popular metallic look and substituting a drama of natural
elements: fungus-filled forests, poisonous seas, dangerous mountaintops.”
The interior meaning, or ‘the ultimate glory of the cinema as an art’ is the final
criterion of artistic value. This phenomena is close to mise en scène, or ‘placing on stage’
in plays and is part of the director’s vision of the world and attitude towards life. The
interior meaning ultimately stems from the ‘tension between a director’s personality and
his material’ and is only recognizable through ‘specific beauties of meaning on the screen
(Sarris, 1985).’” Interior meaning cannot be described or quantified. The old adage, “you
know it when you see it,” is applicable here. Interior meaning can only be found in the
proverbial “heart and soul” of a person—the audience viewing the film have the entire
Miyazaki experience—a lush visual adventure and a wholesome childhood memory
through resolved conflict.
In a 2018 article in Arts titled “Anime Landscapes as a Tool for Analyzing the
Human–Environment Relationship: Hayao Miyazaki Films,” by Sema Mumcu and Serap
Yilmaz, Miyazaki’s personal meaning and overall control of the work is again
emphasized as the authors state:
“In Miyazaki’s films, we see environments having their own spirit based on the Shinto
belief,” and continue with “Contrary to the ideas that see meanings apart from the
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nature of things, for Miyazaki meanings and their value are intrinsic; landscapes are not
valuable only when humans appraise them as being so.”
In a 2019 article titled “Hayao Miyazaki's Path to Studio Ghibli” by Ryan Lamble
in DenofGeek magazine, the author directly indicates that Miyazaki is an auteur director
because he describes the creative control in creating his signature style Miyazaki had in
the creation of The Castle of Cagliostro, stating “He wrote the story treatment, designed
its action sequences and drew up its storyboards, and managed to get the film completed
in just seven months.” Lamble further insinuates that Miyazaki is an auteur director
because the same sentiment lies in the description of Nausicaa of the Valley of The Wind.
This film emphasizes the personal meaning Miyazaki has in the creative process. He
states that:
“In 1982, Miyazaki began work on the manga Nausicaa of the Valley of The Wind, a
sprawling ecological fable he would write and illustrate, off and on, for the next 12
years… Miyazaki later wrote that he struggled with the process of adapting his own
manga for the screen, but the overwhelming impression left by the resulting movie,
released in 1984, is the sheer scale and tangibility of his future world.”
Miyazaki Film Examination
Miyazaki’s filmography is as follows: The Wind Rises (20-Jul-2013), Ponyo (19Jul-2008), Howl's Moving Castle (5-Sep-2004), Spirited Away (27-Jul-2001), Princess
Mononoke (12-Jul-1997), Porco Rosso (18-Jul-1992), Kiki's Delivery Service (29-Jul1989), My Neighbor Totoro (16-Apr-1988), Castle in the Sky (2-Aug-1986), Nausicaa of
the Valley of the Wind (11-Mar-1984) and The Castle of Cagliostro (15-Dec-1979). My
Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises are examined more closely.
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Miyazaki said himself that his third film, My Neighbor Totoro is autobiographical
in nature. The storyline in the film harbors personal meaning because it is a parallel to
Miyazaki’s mother falling ill from tuberculosis in the 1940s. In Margaret Talbot’s 2005
article, “The Auteur of Anime,” in The New Yorker, the author outlines how the film
captures signature Miyazaki elements including strong female leads and childhood, “The
film is focused on dignifying the girls’ imaginations, honoring their ability to partake in a
fantasy that is both comforting and fortifying.”
My Neighbor Totoro is based on experience, situation and exploration⸻ not on
conflict and threat (Ebert 2001). Ebert (2001) emphasizes the detail Miyazaki puts into
his work, such as a bottle someone threw in the stream whenever the children look at a
little waterfall near their home. It is the elements such as these that give a sense of
unforced realism within Miyazaki’s work. Ebert goes on to describe Miyazaki’s style as,
“visually enchanting, using a watercolor look for the backgrounds and working within the
distinctive Japanese anime tradition of characters with big round eyes and mouths that
can be as small as a dot or as big as a cavern.” Miyazaki’s visual detail allows the
audience to experience a realistic world in an animated film.
My Neighbor Totoro offers as much realism as it does magic as a result of
Miyazaki’s own life. Some parents die whenever their children are young, as Miyazaki’s
did. Some children experience trauma every day. Sometimes, children feel lost as Satsuke
and Mei did. Through the whimsical characters, brilliant dialogue and familiarity that can
only be achieved through total control, Miyazaki has offered an answer to these children
through immersive fantasy that makes traumas and regular childhoods identifiable. My
Neighbor Totoro did not try to lighten real issues, it did not try to overload the audience
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with clichés, instead the film portrayed authentic characters and fantasy with meanings
such as wholesomeness. Signature Miyazaki elements that contribute to the claim that he
is an auteur director are strong, female adolescent protagonists, whimsical details such as
the soot seen in other films of his, a grandmother figure in the film, flight scenes and an
optimistic ending.
Spirited Away is regarded as Miyazaki’s magnum opus. In Frank Olsen’s 2012
blog post, Understanding Auteurs: Hayao Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle) the author
summarizes why the film was so well-done, stating “Spirited Away is Miyazaki at his
best because its dream logic structuring requires only the thinnest thread of plot, allowing
the mesmerizing animation to take over without any unnecessary story elements getting
in the way of the experience.” Miyazaki said that the film was “made for 10-year-old
girls.” Miyazaki is known for basing the characters in his film off of characters he knows
in real life—Chihiro is based off of the daughter of one of his friends. This resemblance
represents Miyazaki’s personal connections between art and life as characters come to
life in his vision and this his experiences alone. Miyazaki has mastered the details—one
film critic discussed how Chihiro falling down the steps was brilliant because a real girl
would have fallen down the steps. Chihiro is not a superhero, she is not a “chosen one,”
she is a regular girl who went through an extraordinary adventure. Signature Miyazaki
elements that contribute to the claim that he is an auteur director are a strong female
protagonist that has a relationship with a male character, themes of protecting the
environment, blurred lines between ideas of “good” and “evil,” and men operating heavy
machinery.
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Miyazaki’s adoration for flight is explored in a different way than his previous
films in his first and only biopic, The Wind Rises. In a 2014 article in Variety called
“Retiring Auteur Remains Animated,” by Carole Horst, the author not only states that
Miyazaki is an auteur directly, but also explains specifically how through Miyazaki’s
film, The Wind Rises. Horst’s interview with Miyazaki resulted in an explanation of the
personal meaning behind the film. Horst states “Miyazaki said the film depicts the era in
which his parents lived, and added that the people he chose to highlight from that time
were Horikoshi and writer and poet Tatsuo Hori (noted for his work within Japan's
Proletarian Literary Movement).’ One is an engineer, one is an author, so those two
people became one in my film,’ Miyazaki noted.” The Wind Rises explores romanctic
love in a more direct way than in his previous films, but still champions that same childfriendly, whimsical sentiment of an ambitious child with a dream and a destiny.
Signature Miyazaki elements that contribute to the claim that he is an auteur
director are flight scenes, dream-like sequences, autobiographical elements and realism in
animation.
Conclusion
There is an ambiguity about Miyazaki’s films that make relating to the stories he
creates especially easy. Miyazaki has mastered capturing the human spirit—children in
Ghibli films are ambitious and innocent, amazingly proud, yet humble; they all go on
journeys. Sometimes, there is a silver lining in pain, like seen in My Neighbor Totoro;
other times, all it takes to find oneself is belief, like seen in Spirited Away, and
sometimes, the message is “we must let passion consume us,” like one could interpret in
The Wind Rises. What makes a good director a great director? The audience is comforted
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in expecting the unexpected in a way particular to Miyazaki’s films. Miyazaki’s films are
appreciated because of Miyazaki’s technical competence, personality and his dedication
to finding interior meaning in the creation of art. Throughout the entire time-consuming
exhaustive process, Miyazaki maintains control by hand-drawn animation, signature
Miyazaki tropes, and allowing for other children with a sick parent or the need to be
brave the opportunity to identify with characters Miyazaki created. As previously stated,
Miyazaki’s films are repetitive, wholesome, engaging and always satisfying. Film critics
and everyday people unanimously agree Miyazaki has been an inspiration because of the
combination of his efforts and success in each of the areas either directly or indirectly
described by Sarris and Truffaut.
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