As you will know by now, I am rather fond of a mini-series or two, therefore Caught*Red-handed is being press-ganged (I mean, proudly presents) yet another..有名！ Yuumei is an ongoing series that will touch on both obvious and unobvious personalities from Japan, and those that have been influenced by this magnificent country. It will document, in the signature C*R-h way, an in-depth analysis of people, and bring this to you all wrapped up in a beautiful, little box. And if that wasn’t enough, once RedBox is launched..well, that’d be telling, wouldn’t it?

So who better to start off the proceedings than the one, the only: Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki-sama is truly a genius, and one that has transcended cultures to give not just Japanese people the time of their lives, through his glorious animations, but has penetrated the imaginations of Westerners alike. But what about Miyazaki-sama himself? Is it all just drawings..?

Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tokyo, towards the backend of World War II. He was the second of eventually four brothers, the son of Katsuji Miyazaki. His father worked for the family aeroplane business, Miyazaki Aeroplanes, which throughout the war, assisted in the manufacture of warplanes. Miyazaki has often said since that he felt saddened to confess that his family profited from something so treacherous as the war, however if Japan were anything like Britain during that war, it would seem that his father, and the family business, would have had no choice but to tow the party line.

As the bombings by the USA intensified in Japan, it began obvious to Katsuji that living in the capital was not a clever idea. Coinciding with a move to be nearer to the business, the family uprooted to Utsonomiya, where they lived for two years.

Although fascinated by aviation, Miyazaki’s dislike for militarism was apparent from a young age. This theme would pervade his early work later in his life. Who can forget the moment in Nausicaa when the planes begin to descend on the beautiful windmill village, only to desecrate the landscape, and pillage the town of its natural beauty? Or the huge plane in Kiki’s Delivery Service towards the end of the flick? Or again, the breathtaking scenes from Porco Rosso? Or Castle in the Sky?

Miyazaki’s early life was not easy, both due to the war, and the fact that his mother, unfortunately, was suffering from spinal tuberculosis. This awful disease meant that she had to spend three whole years in hospital, which one can only begin to imagine was something devastating for the family unit. Again, Miyazaki incorporated this terrible event into his later work, undoubtedly being a precursor for My Neighbour Totoro.

At this time, animation was a new concept, something that had never been seen before, and indeed, in Japan, the birth of such a medium was in its infancy. In 1958, Miyazaki saw the first Japanese animated film, Hakujaden. A far cry from what Miyazaki would eventually produce himself, this was a miraculous piece of work, painstakingly put together by a team of artists. Without the aid of computers, this early subjection to the medium would propel Miyazaki to take up this non-technological path in the future, however at this point in his life, being an animator was not the ultimate goal: rather he had settled on the notion of being a comic book artist.

At Gakushuin University, Miyazaki majored in economics and political science, two subjects that would further engender his work in later life, and topics that allowed him to express himself much more deeply than would normally be the case within the confines of a children’s flick. Just think for one minute about the plotline of Howl’s Moving Castle, or indeed Nausicaa, and it is immediately obvious that Disney this is not. Of course, his love for the arts suffused his life, and it was through extra-curricula activities, such as being a member of the university children’s literature club, that he was able to express his artistic desires.

In 1963, he took an intern job for Toei Animation, the producers, no less, of Hakujaden. Starting at the lowest point in the food chain, Miyazaki was able to build up a repertoire of animation knowledge. Filling out cels to be used in the animations would to me, be mind-numbing, however to Miyazaki, whose upbringing had taught him that hard work never failed, was enthralled and entertained by this work, and it was immediately evident that this young man would excel. Soon, his ideas were being incorporated into storylines, and finally his imagination was being permitted to run away with itself. A year later he met Akemi Ota, a fellow animator, who would eventually become his wife.

1968, as well as the year of his marriage, was also the year that everything changed for Miyazaki. Up until this, point, although his successes had been mounting, and his input had been ever increasing, input was all it had been. Prince of the Sun, a collaboration with the chief animator at Toei, Yasuo Otsuka, was the first film on which Miyazaki had a major creative role. Now, it seemed, the cat was most definitely out of the proverbial bag, about Miyazaki.

Of course, I sit here smiling, thinking of the legendary man that is Hayao Miyazaki. His character, his resolve, and his passion for his work, were evident, however it was not a constant bed of roses for this young, slightly eccentric animator. In fact, in 1971, a botched attempt at an animated version of Pippi Longstockings meant that Miyazaki began to rethink his options, and two years later he had jumped ship to Zuiyo Pictures where he designed the scenes for Heidi: Girl of the Apes. His expertise at backings was becoming the thing of legend, not just for motion pictures, but also for television animations, and it was around this time that Miyazaki began to work on manga; it seemed his childhood obsession with comic books was finally coming home to roost.

Pulling all of his experiences, and desires together, Miyazaki started work on a manga series, centred around a character named Nausicaa, a girl living in the future on the edge of the extinction of humanity. Up until this point, his work had been for the design of others, however now, let loose on his own, his creativity would emanate from the page like never before. A genie had most definitely been let out of a bottle, and it is at this point that we see Miyazaki’s signature themes coming to the fore. Indeed, it was apparent that the material that Miyazaki had painstakingly brought together about Nausicaa should be made into a feature, and, with Takahata to produce the film, Nausicaa: The Valley of the Wind was released, in 1984. The flick was by no means the resounding hit that we have come to expect from Miyazaki these days, however that said, the profits from it permitted him to begin his own art house, and Studio Ghibli was born.

Ghibli does not just produce animations by Miyazaki, however you can guarantee that anything from them will include his influence, one way or another. It is patently obvious, as soon as you begin to watch a Ghibli film, that this is indeed what it is, and it is this awareness of self that Miyazaki uses with such skill and attention to draw you in, and hold you, encapsulated in a dream, until the very end of each and every film.

That said, Ghibli very nearly was not the success story that we know and love today. On the release of My Neighbour Totoro, Japanese audiences shied away due to its macabre, desperate, and sometimes dismal plotline. This was not assisted by the fact that it was released alongside Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies, also downcast in its themes. Too much woe was simply, well..too much, and if Miyazaki had not released Totoro characters as furry, stuffed toys for children, which were extremely well received, then Ghibli may never have been.

After this, the hits just kept coming, as did the criticism. Nobody had thought it possible that the story of a grand sweeping epic could be told through the medium of animation, however with the release of Princess Mononoke, the criticisms evaporated. The largest grossing film of its time, even surpassing ET, Princess Mononoke was a resounding hit, and was the first film that resonated with Westerners, as well as the Japanese. If that were not enough, Spirited Away, in 2001, topped this accolade and managed to bag an Academy Award into the bargain. For me, in my humble opinion, this is by far the greatest animated flick the world has ever seen. It is everything that Miyazaki means to me. It has everything that you could ever want, and more. It is a feast, a spectacle, fierce, illuminating and inspired. I could watch it back-to-back, day-to-day, and never be bored, and I can guarantee that if you have not yet seen it, then when you do, you will have the time of your life.

Again, it could have been peanuts for Ghibli, as the parent company, Tokuma, came seriously close to hitting the deck. Fortunately for them, Disney had been on the prowl, and had spotted the resounding success that Kiki’s Delivery Service had had in Japan, and they thought that that would translate to audiences in America. Disney then looked to buy the rights to distribute Ghibli films, however Miyazaki’s chop was needed to seal the deal. Allegedly stating that Tokuma had been there for him in the past, he permitted the deal, and the financial troubles were washed away.

Disney stated at the time that it wanted to bring Miyazaki’s magic to the world, completely unadulterated, however Disney being Disney, this never occurred. Spirited Away has been tampered with more times than you count on both hands, therefore I urge you to get a genuine copy from Japan if you ever get the chance. For Kiki, dialogue appears that bears no relevance to the plot, and was most definitely not part of the original.

Then, in 1998, Miyazaki announced that he would be leaving Ghibli. His eyesight was failing, and he felt that he could not do any further works the justice that they required. The world thought that that was the end of his beautiful creations, however in 1999 he returned to create such masterpieces as The Cat Returns, Whisphers of the Heart and most recently, the incredulous Ponyo.

As you can see, thus far Miyazaki has led a life of almost unlimited success, however it is blatant to see that he, like anybody else, has fears about the future. Even from his so-called ivory tower, it is obvious, through his work, and through interviews that he has conducted in the past, that fear is something that holds him, almost chastising his pencil into rendering scenes that are seemingly desperate, never-ending, dismal, and to a certain extent apocalyptic. It is this quality, this realism, that allows him to create the unreal. His creative adeptness is sublime, and his power to move an audience is breathtaking. I sit and watch a Miyazaki, and know that for an hour or two, nothing in the world can touch me. Graphically, the flicks are amazing, intellectually, they are courageous, and spiritually (though I am atheist through and through), they take you to another world. For, from the apocalypse, out of the Desert of No Hope, springs this tiny shoot, this ever-lasting mark of hope, happiness and salubrity, this almost previously unperceivable glimmer of a future worth clinging to, and it is at that moment you realise that yet again, Miyazaki has held you captive, as is his gift, and is now letting you free.

For me, Miyazaki has blue-printed modern Japan and served it to us all in such a beautiful bento that you cannot help falling for his worlds, and thinking that when you step off the plane in Narita, that they are what the whole of Japan is like.