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Hayao Miyazaki Themes

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Saved by Anna Bernard
on September 15, 2010 at 8:19:46 pm
 

                                                               

                                              "However, even in the middle of hatred and killings, there are things worth living for... a beautiful thing can exist."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    - Hayao Miyazaki

 

 

          Hayao Miyazaki, born in Tokyo, Japan in 1941, is well known for his work as an animator and director. Internationally recognized, he was won several awards, including an Oscar for his film, Spirited Away, in 2002. In the last decade, his work with Studio Ghibli (which he co-founded) has become more well known through it's connection with John Lasseter from Disney's Pixar Animation Studios. What makes Miyazaki stand out from all of the rest of Japan's anime artists is not only his unique style, but also how he incorporates certain themes and develops characters within his movies that an audience can identify with. Most of Miyazaki's work is aimed towards a younger audience, but his work has received a positive response from both children and adults.

 

Female Leads

 

An interesting theme that occurs in many of Miyazaki's films is the use of a female lead. Not all of these female leads have the same characteristics or personalities, but they may look similar in form. Some of these young ladies are fierce and courageous, whereas others are more timid.  Miyazaki once mentioned the sensation felt between viewing a man with a gun and viewing a woman with a gun: it's a powerful thing. 

 

One of his first leads was a young princess named Nausicaa. In Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, she works as a peacemaker to protect the "insects" within the toxic jungle that spreads across the land. But, as humans do, she makes mistakes. After her father is murdered, she becomes enraged and kills several men. After this scene, Nausicaa works against the hatred of communities to kill off the insects.

 

   

Another well known female character is Chihiro from Miyazaki's Spririted Away. In this film, Chihiro (along with her parents) gets caught in the spirit world. When we first meet Chihiro, she is an ordinary, whiny ten-year-old. But when her parents get turned into pigs for eating the food for the spirits, she must work to find a way to change them back. Taking on the name Sen, she works in a bathhouse for spirits, facing many challenges that you wouldn't expect a ten-year-old to face... ultimately becoming a new Chihiro.

 

One of the most violent of the female leads, San, from Princess Mononoke, lives with a pack of wolves in the land of the Forest Spirit. Throughout the film, she fights against humans and makes her hatred for them very clear. She fights with animal gods that dwell in the forest to defend the Forest Spirit (and themselves) from the humans. It isn't until she meets Ashitaka, a human who has the same respect for the forest and its creatures, that she begins to feel love for a human again.

 

Animism and Nature vs. Man

 

In many of his films, Miyazaki creates a voice for nature through different characters that appear as spirits and gods and demons.  Most of these characters do interact with humans, but in different ways.  This theme of animism shows the influence that Miyazaki gets from nature itself, big and small; it shows sadmiration and respect for all things nature.  Miyazaki also makes the argument clear about how, with the disrespect that humans have for nature, nature has the power to fight back... and it does.

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