1) One of the things that we talked about is Miyazaki's iconoclastic nature; how he appropriates themes for his own purposes and seems to have created his own genre of "Miyazaki" movies rather than "anime." Do you think he achieves this? Yes or no, and why? (Kind of like Armand, Joe, and Maurice's presentation)
2) Miyazaki seems relevant to both the past, seeing as he was born in a time of extreme conflict which has repercussions even until now, and in the present, as he attempts to address the ills of a nation; a world.
a) what's one thing that you think Miyazaki is addressing
b) how does he do it
c) does it work?
d) how would you phrase this to your own children?
3) If you were one of Miyazaki's top advisors, what would you suggest for him to change?
16 comments:
With Spirited Away, I think Miyazaki is addressing parenting and how children are affected in 'modern' times. I think that Matt got it right in his presentation yesterday. Chihiro's parents don't really pay much attention to her opinion and kind of disregard her. They don't exactly nurture her and don't have a close relationship with her as Kiki and her parents in Kiki's Delivery Service. Because of Chihiro's parent's lack of regard for their daughter, she has become a sullen child, clinging on to her parents because her parents haven't really given her a chance to show her own strength. Her parents decide things for her and she just tags along. I think that Miyazaki wants to point out a problem with today's youth and wants to kind of zoom in on the parents. Even though the parents don't have much of a role in the movie, they contrast greatly with the parents in his other movies. Making decisions for the children and providing financially can't replace actually spending time and paying attention to what the children think and have to say. I think his method of portraying this is pretty good. We clearly see how Chihiro's parents ignore her concerns and how she has kind of turned out as a person. As for how I would phrase this with my own children...I'm not sure what you're asking here, but if I ever have kids, I'd like to raise them more like Kiki's parents rather than Chihiro's. I think it's important to actually listen to what kids have to say, let them make decisions and have them learn from them. Of course, I'm not saying that kids should do whatever they want. They need guidance (just like everyone!).
1) I feel like Miyazaki can definitely be considered his own "genre," as his films are so distinct from any other type of anime, in particular the types that preceded him (as one group of presenters mentioned, Miyazaki has had a huge influence on other artists and directors, including the people behind "Mushi-Shi"--an excellent series, by the way).
2) One theme that runs through all of Miyazaki's movies is his strong passion for nature and environmentalism. This is most evident in Princess Mononoke, where the humans are destroying the forest and attempting to kill the forest gods. The theme also occurs in Nausicaa, Spirited Away (the spirit that was turned into a "stink spirit" due to pollution, the way Haku lost his name because his river was built over), and My Neighbor Totoro (where it appears more as a general appreciation for nature than as a dire warning about environmental devastation), as well as many other films. Miyazaki's "message" is very effective because rather than simply "preaching" about how we must save the environment, he brings the message into his stories in a very integral and very human way. In fact, he does it so well that, if I were trying to explain the importance of saving the environment to my own children, I would probably show them some Miyazaki movies. :)
3) Not a thing. Except that he should stop trying to "retire"--because he always comes back, and will probably be making movies for the rest of his life. And the world will thank him for it.
1)
I think Miyazaki definetly acheived his own style of movie. Well, I cannot know or explain it(Miyazaki's own style) in explicit way, but I think many people or fan of Miyazaki would think like that too. I think Miyazaki's movie is kind of distict and unique from the other animes in many ways.
Among those, I think Music in his movies is very noticable. The scene and the background music is really detaily matching. Actually, for example, one of my friends just guessed it would be Miyazaki's movie's music after she listened the peaceful, beautiful piano play. Of course it would be the result of the music director, Hisaishi Joe(is this right spelling?), but I think his music in Miyazaki's movie is quite popular to many people now.
And also I think Miyazaki does not try to emphasize some side as good or bad. I read this from someone's postings from Princess Mononoke, and could agree with it. He/she(sorry) said that in Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki does not make some ideal or perfect character in that movie. I think that kind of ambiguous theme also can be one of "Miyazaki" movies' characteristic.
1) I think Miyazaki definitely creates his own genre that isn’t lumped into the category as anime. I think a lot has to do with his choice of themes as well as his desire to set himself apart from the other animes in terms of style, setting, characters, and everything else. Many of his movies have recurring themes that tie into one another and really give a great definition of what a Miyazaki movie is supposed to be. To go hand-in-hand with that, his settings are often the unique mix of European and Japanese culture and background to show one example.
2) a) I think Miyazaki often addresses post-war Japan and how their goal, their values, and their culture changed so quickly. People get caught up in the change and many values are often lost.
b) Many movies are set during war where you see radical change from the beginning to the end of movie.
c) I think it works well, despite my lack of knowledge about post-war Japan. I do often see his mix of Westernized culture and traditional Japanese culture, which was a common problem of post-war Japan
d) I would say that Miyazaki is a storyteller that spans all ages with movies that can entertain at any age, any point in time, and at the same time, provide insight on the periods that he lived through.
3) As much as I love Miyazaki films, I would suggest less randomness in the movie and more sensibility. While Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle were very creative movies, a lot of things seemed random for the sake of being creatively random. I’m sure they had meaning but it was probably too obscure for most viewers and probably would’ve worked better on paper.
3) First of all, I would recommend him to make Nausicaa in manga into movie or Video stories. This one would make the audience notice what Miyazaki really wants to express through Nausicaa. Each characters have own justice and Miyazaki hasn't answer what is right or not, but it gives you oppotunities to think the influences and effects of our existance to others in this world. If it would be maken into film, I'm pretty sure that will be better than the Nausicaa in movie...well at least for me.
To say that Miyazaki work is in its own genre is to do him a disservice. The “genre” is something that can be accessed by any artist, good or bad, for the expression of his vision or style. Miyazaki’s body of work is something that cannot be replicated by anyone else; his style is singular and fully his own. At the same time, films can be made, that while not being a “Miyazaki film” can be appropriately call “Miyazaki-esque.” His artistic vision and style is both distinct and in class of its own to the point that any emulation of his work would be readily identifiable. Artists often imitate other artists and have influences, but very few works outside of scholarship can be readily recognized as an imitation of some other artist’s corpus of work. While any good artist is “distinct,” very few are distinct enough for someone to accuse an artist of tapping into the said artist’s style. For instance, Stephen King is a writer with a distinct style, but his style is not so unique that one cannot find similarities in style with other horror writers without accusing them of being Stephen King like. Many horror writers share overlapping characteristics in style without being in artistic debt to one writer in particular.
The point is, it is not easy to lump Miyazaki with other artists. Miyazaki stands apart in his style and vision. Thus, any film that substantially feels like a Miyazaki film can be said to definitely owe much of its artistic vision and power to Miyazaki himself. The artist cannot claim that artistic brilliance is his own or due in part to the conventions of a genre; he is forced to recognize that the brilliance comes from Miyazaki.
On a more personal note, I enjoyed the class. As much insight as I gained into Miyazaki’s films, I must still confess that there is something powerful about Miyazaki’s films which escape easy explanation. It is an artistic magic particular to him alone, that mystic quality of every great artist. What continues to draw me to his films? I cannot rightly say. I could point out how wonderful his depictions of childhood are, how he imbues life with this sense of unparalleled wonder and adventure and so forth; but the sum of the parts would not equal the whole. The greatness of Miyazaki lies in that which cannot be defined except to say that it touches the part of the inner man that transcends language and thought; it is a sort of spiritual resonance, one that leaves you in awe of life, wanting to plumb the depths of its beauty and mystery.
previous comment is mine
Lillian Guo
1.) Although I believe that Miyazaki's film have a distinct 'Miyazaki-ness' to them, I think he's still under the encompassing umbrella of 'anime' due to his animation style and the long tradition he follows in vein of order to tell his stories. Anime itself is a large and varying media form that can't be squashed into a well-defined box, despite the popular trends we're all used to.
What Miyazaki does (clever, clever man) is break away from the stereotypes in style and story-telling of anime. He takes an identifiable visual medium that is, most often than not, hindered by cultural boundaries, shabby narration, and certain style traits, and then one-ups everything because he *cares* about presenting cerebral contexts to the audience. Once he does that, he creates films uniquely identifiable as his--in style, complex storytelling, characterization, etc.--which makes me think Miyazaki is an auteur who uses anime. An anime auteur? Anyways. Many anime productions are not solely attributed to a single person. But since all of his films have a unmistakable visual texture, recurring themes reflecting his personal creative vision that run through all of his films, Miyazaki makes anime films that are, well, undeniably made by him.
He's sort of comparable to Hitchcock, Fellini, and Kurosawa in that each filmmaker created films that could be easily traced back to themselves.
Wow, this hurts my brain. My brain!
I think Miyazaki has created his own type of movies over the years. While I'm not the biggest anime connoisseur, I am aware that in Japan, anime tends to be mass-produced products. A lot of anime reference one another, draw upon cultural stereotypes (about Japan, Americans, etc.) and cliched plot devices, such as post-apocalyptic spaces, middle school love dramas, giant robots and what not. In that sense, I agree with Miyazaki's despair over Japan's creative sphere, in that it now includes a lot of repetition. It's my main reason why I don't watch anime anymore in that there is always this sense of repetition of themes. Only a few films and series have attempted to break these molds and inevitably, they are also the ones most emulated.
Miyazaki is well aware of this creative backwash that exists in Japan, either in anime, regular Japanese movies, or dramas and his films always steer away from those normal plotlines, those stereotypical views of shojo, of girls always chasing after guys, of the manly samurai of Kurosawa lore. I find that the most refreshing in that his films stand in opposition to the mass-produced culture of anime that many otaku (Japanese and otherwise) glut themselves on shamelessly on these products. His characters are realistic in their dilemnas and his landscapes, though fantastic at times, are still grounded in realities we can all understand.
While I agree with earlier posts that Miyazaki isn't his own genre, his films all retain a certain quality that is inevitably his own. His stories end with hopeful but unresolved notes (will the Sea of Decay disappear? will Iron town be a sustainable city? will Haku and Chihiro meet again?). His characters are driven less by abstract dreams and aspirations (they aren't doing things to be loved or for money) but that they all have a sense of wonder about the world, to achieve a sense of balance in between polarized forces and of possibility about what one can do to affect the world. Finally, there's an emotional core to his movies that I don't think many films (animated or not) can emulate, which is partly what draws me to his films time after time.
- Ryan Sadakane
I agree that Miyazaki's movies belong in a genre of their own if only because the movies all seem to follow the same thematic vein. While Miyazaki does address different themes (and his emphasis on each theme varies from movie the movie), his messages are the same across the board: cherish the power of imagination; women empowerment is a good thing; we must live in harmony with nature, etc. Even what he says about moral/social ambiguities is consistent from one movie to the next. And because he addresses multiple issues/questions in each movie, it's hard to say which message or issue is the most important without also talking about all the others. And similarly, it's hard to talk about one Miyazaki movie without also thinking about his other works.
The most obvious theme that stands out throughout his movies is environmentalism. His movies strongly emphasize how human destroys the nature, and how human beings have to suffer because of that from the Nausicaa and the most recent movie, the Ponyo.
Miyazaki addresses the theme to the audiences pretty straightforwardly through the main characters’ experiences. For example, in the Spirited Away, the stink spirit created by humans’ wastes and in Nausicaa, the world they lived was made by wastes, and in Mononoke Hime, the forest was destroyed by human, and so on. Additionally, his recent movie shows this theme through Ponyo’s father.
It works for me. It works in a way that I can realize what he’s trying to say through his adorable and magnificent characters. I can’t say that it also works in our world. What can we do about it? As far as I know, Japan is already working very seriously to preserve the nature. On the other hand, since the States is so huge, it takes longer and it is harder to work compare to Japan. Moreover, our world came too far to go back to good old days when we live with the environment. We are now a technology addicts. The point is that I don’t think everything will work as Miyazaki wants, but it will work somehow because we have to survive. Also, it is very certain that what he tries to make clear comes very clearly to the audiences.
I won’t make the same points as Miyazaki does in his films to my children simply because they won’t understand it. They will probably have no idea about the settings in the films anyway. It is too “old” for my children to understand it as I couldn’t understand Mei and Satsuki’s life. I know that human destroys the environment, but I also know that we don’t have many choices as human nature chances. However, I will say that it is important to preserve what we have right now whether it’s about saving the environment or not.
I am unsure if I would put Miyazaki in his own genre per se. It goes without saying that his style is unique and instantly recognizable, but to me he still falls within the greater sub-genre. He's more of an outlier then anything to me. A blip in the data. While his work shows amazing vision and execution, he still falls within a certain category of films.
That being said, after skimming many more volumes of manga and watching more and more anime while comparing female characters in the back of my mind, I can honestly say I can't blame Miyazaki for what he does with his female characters. While his characters might feel somewhat like they were cut from a template, I see so many more that are practically rubber stamped from the same factory. At the very least Miyazaki handcrafts his cutouts while the majority of the industry seems to reach into the same recycled grab bag. After dealing with the nth iteration of the popular tsundere character type, Miyazaki really is like a fresh breeze in a room that hasn't been opened in years.
Not to say I never noticed the Japanese Manga/Anime industry doesn't love certain stereotypes. It's now more that I see just how ingrained it is into the entire culture.
#2 a)
I believe Miyazaki is trying to address to a ever-changing world that we aren't as difference from the past as we like to believe. History repeats itself, and Miyazaki, in my opinion, knows that for a definite fact, and thus addresses that in his films. War, materialism, and all of their consequences are prevalent in most of Miyazaki's movies, and I think that is because wants us to realize that the past can easily become the future and the present. He presents this repetition to warns us against losing sight of ourselves and others in our constant material needs, needs we need much, much less than the people sounding us.
(hannah)
I definitely feel that Miyazaki has achieved his own genre of animation because he focuses on deep feelings and emotions that come up when a character grows and develops. The themes that run through his films are all themes that relate to anyone, no matter the age or sex of his audience.
Often, he focuses on childhood. Even if the character is a grown woman, or bordering on adulthood (ie: Mononoke or Nausicaa), he inserts parts of their childhood. For Nausicaa, there is that scene where she is trying to hide the baby Ohmu--which is similar to many children's love for small creatures or animals. (there's always that story of the kid that comes home with, "I found this puppy" or "it just followed me home" ... "can we keep it?" type deal that all kids know and understand). As a child, to have the Ohmu taken from her, strong feelings of compassion often come up in an audience.
Or, for Mononoke, the audience hears from Moro how she came to have San because her human parents abandoned her. This humanizes and also raises sympathy for San in a different way because the audience can begin to understand why she has developed into this war driven wolf princess.
Jumping off what Jang said-- Miyazaki's music is extremely distinct. The entire orchestra sound creates heartfelt atmosphere, and allows feelings to surface in a different way than other anime or movie genres.
I think that Miyazaki does achieve his own genre of movies because there are very few anime that I've seen that have similar themes or touch on the same topics as Miyazaki does. Also, his movies are never referred to as anime. They are often referred to as Miyazaki movies which suggest that they are a genre of their own. Mushishi I think is the only anime I've ever seen that comes close to Miyazaki's themes.
One theme that I think Miyazaki touches on in many of his movies has to do with children and how they are raised compared to how they should be raised. Kiki, for example, is very independent type which is what Miyazaki prefers. Chihiro on the other hand is clingy and can't make a decision without her parents. I think Miyazaki wants children to be raised in a sense that they can make decisions on their own and yet at the same time be prepared for failure or the hardships of life. Parents sometimes overparent or underparent which sets their child up for disaster in the future. Miyazaki's ideal parent nutures his/her child but gives him/her space to explore and make decisions. Satsuki and Mei's father is an example of an ideal parent.
I don't think I would advise him to change anything.
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