Miyazaki was right. 

Miyazaki secretly really wants to practice parkour

"I want to make movies that show kids it's good to be alive." - Hayao Miyazaki

Some of the best writing advice I ever heard was from Ross Scott of the RU-vid channel Accursed Farms. "I can get into the most fantastical story you can throw at me, but if the people in it don't act like actual PEOPLE, then that kills it for me." Miyazaki's work is one of the greatest examples of hitting that nail directly on the head. Almost all his movies are set in crazy, outlandish fantasy worlds, but you can suspend your disbelief that much more easily because all the characters feel so authentic.

imagine a world where we don't disappoint miyazaki

Orson Welles said something to the effect of, "Young filmmakers today are soaked in films," stating he was sick of the waves of homage that consistently swept the industry; similar to Miyazaki, he thought said filmmakers ended up distracted from what should be the real mission of a serious artist -- that being taking note of real people and channeling your specific experiences into creative, original expression. I think this line of thought needs more encouragement in today's generation of artists.

I think the takeaway is that there's not enough anime out there that masterfully intertwines the boundaries between fantasy or escapism and the realism of people or humanity like Miyazaki films. Too many characters feel like tropes instead of real people in your average one cour episodic anime. Though, I believe that's okay, it just shouldn't be the only thing available. More anime that try different techniques or settings or styles or themes are always a pleasure to behold; variety is the spice of life.

That's exactly how it feels. It's so rare and refreshing to see a human acting like a human character in anime especially recently.

the beauty in the mundane is something we can all learn to appreciate. The joy of humanity and understanding others as real people too is something that is more needed in this world. Nothing is black and white and its nice to remember that once in a while

"Anime is produced by humans who can't stand looking at other humans" yeah you can see why he gets on so well with Hideaki Anno, that particular human failing is one of the core themes of Evangelion.

I have a very similar feeling about writing for books. Old classic writers had an interesting life before writing: fought wars, did journalism, praticed radical sports, traveled the world, talked to strangers in seedy bars, lawyers, medical doctors, policemen, even drug dealers and thieves. Now they go to a university to learn how to be a writer, then write professionally, ghostwriting and copywriting until they get a hit. They learn how to write before they have anything interesting to write about.

Escapism is fine, even Miyazaki's films are escapist in their elevation of the mundane to something magical, but the difference is a lot of anime refuses to come back down to Earth at any point. It's all escapism and lack of realism, all the time, until it becomes an experience that isn't meant to be relatable, like daydreaming instead of working towards an ambition. You will never actually experience most of the things that happen in an anime, but Miyazaki films are inherently grounded in what real people might go through.

I think the best kind of escapism art rather than make the world look dull in comparison makes one see mundane with a sense of wonder.

I cried for an hour after watching the Boy and the Heron, I literally had to hide out in the bathroom of the movie theater just to keep it together to get to the car. The magic is, I couldn't even rationalize it for a long time, the tears just kept coming. The first movie I saw in the movie theater with my dad was Castle of Cagliostro in the late 80's. The day after my grandmother died I watched Princess Mononoke in the movie theater... then watched it 3 more times that week. When I first lived on my own, in a new city, just me and my fiancé having met no friends yet, I saw Spirited Away with her and both of our mothers. His movies have been the touchstones of my life and I know that story is the same for millions around the globe. His films are so delicately layered with real life and speak to the human soul in ways few artists eve capture. Miyazaki films are felt, not always understood. Thank you for your beautiful video

what makes a story good is the externalization of some human struggle. in being able to see some issue that we may relate to from the view of an impartial observer, we may gain greater understanding of ourselves, and the world in which we live

Indeed. Escapism isn't always good for people and societies. Miyazakis films makes me love the world while a lot of modern fiction makes me want to escape or ignore it in a time when it's not needed. We live in the most peaceful age in human history. The only way we can preserve it is if we live it.

I think that's why so many people like Miyazaki films. They breathe life and appreciation into everyday motions. They give us reason to love where we are

Miyazaki is old and has lived a life where he was able to carve out a niche for him to follow his passion. He sees the world he lived in and wanted more. Animators and Mangaka today are often young-ish men who are faced with the growing issues of their generation, a growing estrangement from the world, and the prospects of a life that they know will not hold the wonders they dream of. Animation today rejects the world that rejected them. "I'm going to build my own theme park with blackjack and hookers"

One of the best detail in some Miyazaki films, is that there's no real evil villian in most of his films. Most antagonist are very human and are victims of fate, such as war or the very nature of their life, like in howls moving castle and spirited away. Anime nowadays paint villians as clearly idoitic, selfish and wrong. But movies such as Princess Monoke and Nausicaa do not make it clear whos right or wrong. Sometimes its just hard to achieve peace and properity between sides of people. Even in Ponyo, it seems that humans deserve to be punished by the ocean since they take the ocean for granted and cause horrible water pollution. But there are still hope in humanity since there are still a lot of good people who care about the ocean and nature. Although Miyazaki films are fantasy films, characters think and behave like actual real people, unlike mordern anime where people admire characters that are silly, reckless and naive. Despite that, there's a beauty in mordern anime because it inspires people to improve themselves to be cool strong charismatic people like in anime. While Miyazaki films inspire people to achieve enlightenment, understanding of mother nature and human nature

Am I the only one who thinks that this applies to with Hollywood as well but with a different setting?

"if you can walk thru the cables.. if you can run thru the roofs" damn miyazaki mentioned everyones child imagination whenever theyre stuck behind the car, sittin watching thru the window

It's beautiful to watch his movies with my daughters and see girls portrayed as real people, not just tropes. He captures childhood and emotions so well. I'm not saying that all anime portrays women poorly, but that is the case a lot of the time, and it's refreshing to see them as the people that are based off of real people. Not some what someone wants them to be.

Miyazaki outwardly rejects the general tropes the anime industry uses to define women such as (but not limited to) "Moe" characters, characters used only as fanservice, infatillized or whose purpose relies on the male characters. He sees women as human beings and ground their personalities in the real world rather than making them cardboard cut-outd to the male fantasy. He tries to capture this in his films, a notion that doesn't reflect the vast majority of anime produced. This was what he was referring to in this quote, I believe.

To be fair, I don’t even think this is just a shonen anime problem, but a problem for many films and shows in general now. Many films have some idealized fantasy of who people are, and who they want to be, instead of who they actually are and how people actually are in reality. And (unfortunately) I think many people have heard more conversations on tv than in real life, and so a lot of people’s perceptions on what is normal conversation is skewed. I hope people realize this as they go about their lives, and they decide to turn off the tv and go talk with actual people.

Anime wasn't a mistake, weeboo culture was.

Beautifully put. I think it is not just the anime Industry but the entertainment Industry at large. Thank you for this video.

I've seen a panel interview with Miyazaki, and he kind of categorized/ redefined anime as manga translated into T.V. shows. That the difference in his work is based on craft. He explained that in anime they would need to take short cuts because of budget and schedule. But that he and his studio tries to translate stories to film, focusing intently also on background, side characters, micro character movements and environment.

The industry has a significant lack of artists, but a surplus of manufacturers.

I actually get where Miyazaki is coming from these days. Without getting overly complicated, contemporary life is mostly just driving from one box to another for work, then another box for shopping and then driving home to another box for recovery. The way urban planning and work life is structured is designed to be alienating, which is why people date less, socialize less and so on. I mean, that's not a new problem, exactly. That's been a problem for decades, it just never hit the same critical mass, at least not on the States-side. In Japan that results in a grind and hustle culture with less of a dating life. Not only is society structured to be atomized, life is just becoming harder to afford. And that's really just embodied in the stressful grind culture and decreased dating life of Japanese people -- though that's really just happening to Americans, just on a slightly different timescale. Not only are you just driving between the same few boxes all the time, you might not even be able to afford the box you can sleep in. Physically, our cities are large, but socially, we only interact shallowly with a few people. Older generations have the skills and resources to retreat into a bubble and be fine. But younger people don't have the income, housing, friends, social network, social skills or coping mechanism to deal with it. It's becoming increasingly evident that a lot of young people are spiraling into this vicious cycle where alienation and social skills feed into self-loathing, which just feed back into just avoiding having to deal with the former problems. Legitimately, I've met zoomers who have to _ask_ how they can join a game of _Dungeons and Dragons._ So while I've dealt with loneliness and social alienation for much of my adult life -- knowing how to do that was never _that_ bad for me. And it never occurs to them that even that much social interaction can do wonders for their mental health and dating prospects. They have no concept of that. That world I grew up in, while it had it its problems, was never quite _that_ bad. I at least could see the trajectory. That's what's different about Miyazaki's internal life from a NEET's. Yes, he's a nerd about airplanes and how his community might look from the sky. He also lived in a world where he gets to see girls put on shoes and where chefs pull eels out of a tank in a restaurant. He has _interests_ and a social life. That's the point. He has an internal life to draw upon that's enriched by his participation in the world around him, however flawed and painful it may be. The problem with otaku is that they have tropes that exist in an abstract vacuum. You have the "tsundere" and the "waifu" and impossibly stylized and beautiful cartoon people that don't actually exist or behave like normal humans. And if all you do is repost those same memes, then _how the hell do you know what your taste in women would actually be?_ You have characters who have fashion sense, but you don't have any art depicting what it means to _care_ about fashion or how women self-actualize themselves as a human interest nerd piece. Therein lies the problem. Anime as an industry is a stagnant pond of empty tropes. It's so bad that whenever Miyazaki does stuff, the industry steals his visual motifs and tries to imitate it without understanding its substance. They copy the form because they have none of their own internal life to draw on. And that's a shame. My life has been immensely been enriched by going out and actually doing shit I care about and interacting with people, even as an extreme introvert. I'm lonely, the difference is that I know _why._ I don't follow up on social opportunities that I'm given or follow up on leads because I'm lazy and because I like being alone. But it's different knowing that I have a choice and being a slob about it and being a slob and not understanding why you're suffering. This is what the MGTOW, incel and what will soon become femcels will never accept nor understand. Touching grass works. It sounds like insultingly simple advice. But putting it into actual practice is work and requires your participation, _especially_ because the system is stacked against you.

The Boy and the Heron is one of the movies where Hayao did almost everything he wanted in his own way. He didn't spend the budget on advertising, so he didn't have to comply with anything for sponsors.

it's very rare that i rewatch a movie, anime or not. but miyazaki is one of those creators that I know with make me have an experience that I'll remember. just seeing a few scenes from howl's moving castle makes me want to rewatch the movie. even though I already know the end. the journeys he takes people on and the emotions he makes you feel is something that pushes me to create myself. even if I'll never get to his level I want to share just a bit of the emotions that he gave me while watching his stories. thanks for the video dude. keep up the good work.

I’ve accepted Miyazaki as my grandpa. He’s taught me so much through his films since I was 4. He practically raised me. At age 26 (now) I’ve gone through a lot of changes and rapidly started to mature all of a sudden. I realized recently that it was his movies that impacted my way of thinking and im fascinated by stories with plenty of fantasy but with highly complex, morally gray people and societies… I like stories that make me think and feel. I feel like I’m just as much a part of that world as the characters are when I’m watching or reading said stories. The real world may not have magic, but these stories have taught me to keep living and to appreciate life as it is, however mundane or sad it might seem at times. I’ve struggled a lot with mental illness. I had a very complex childhood. I have severe C-PTSD and depression. I genuinely it’s these stories and my faith in god but also LIFE itself that has kept me going.

Anno realized how it affected people who watched it. Miyazaki who was there from the beginning and seeing what it has become since the beginning. From his perspective it makes a lot of sense. Animes before use to take inspiration from other sources and art forms. That's why they were so interesting, but now they are only getting inspirations from other animes, and this is what brings the stagnation or 'lack of originality' you mention. Ghibli movies have the vibe of an interesting book you pick up that teaches you life lesson in the process, Akira is like a really good sci fi novel. Evangelion is like if a Kaiju movie and a psychological drama had a baby, etc. Most animes nowadays self reference the medium so much, they stay in the box, and it makes sense, because it's assured sucess, not everybody wants to try crazy stuff like that. But it would be better if they tried, at least for us who watch it.

When the greatest speaks, you don't call him old and grumpy, you listen.

Escapism being the main focus of anime, consuming media, people's lives, etc. was LITERALLY what Hideaki Anno was warning us about with Evangelion. He was on point edit: i'm gonna stop responding to people in replies i don't feel like having pointless debates

It doesn’t matter how fantastical and crazy a story is if the core is down to Earth and relatable.

He truly is incredible at his work... he yearns to bring something to life that could never live in our world, and he does it so beautifully and respectfully. I truly treasure every single one of his works, and have ever since I was a child.

The best inspiration for stories comes from going out and interacting with people. As much as I enjoy anime & manga, this has always been my biggest complaint about most of the productions. I wonder if this is partly due to the work ethic in the industry. When you hardly have time for anything outside of work, how do you get inspiration for your work?

Like the days of old, stories hold good lessons that we can take and apply to our lives. We have strayed away from that and it’s sad, using anime to escape reality instead of taking a lesson to implement into your life and improve your own life. For example any anime I cried to is because I’ve taken something from it even after it finished, like Ranking of Kings for example a beautiful anime which I recommend for anyone to watch! If you took the time to read this then God bless, and thank you for your time.

3:20 I like the Pirate crew from Castle in the Sky a lot in this comparison. They are Pirates, they rob and kill people, Its what Pirates do. But they are also fiercly Loyal to people they choose as part of their "family", they have needs and wishes like any normal human. If we look from a purely moral standpoint, they are evil, but I like them.

"A unique reflection of life" the best description to miyazaki's masterpieces

NAUSICAA was the first Miyazaki film I ever saw (1980s); it drove me to become an animator. This video was quietly moving, concise, and excellent. Automatic sub.

You may just be hitting the cultural barrier. I still watch anime now and then, usually movies, but my big anime era was in the 90s. The first few anime you watch seem incredibly fresh and new because you're exploring a different approach to story telling and character design. After a while, you start to see the stock characters, the story beats and the twists coming from a mile away. You start to understand that every culture has tried and true formulas and genres that have always been there but you haven't been exposed to before. The novelty wears off and you start to appreciate anime for what it is rather than what you expect it to be.

This is my exact problem with anime. I grew up loving it so much, but at some point I realized that I wanted more. I wanted to see characters be developed and reveal humanizing experiences. So much of popular anime fails to do this, it creates an escape, it doesn't really deal with trauma or the reality of pain in our world. But growing up, I always held Miyazaki's movies close because they did.

When I was 15 I was lucky to have a friend who introduced me to Miyazaki via Princess Mononoke. Now, all these years later I am a proud uncle to kids who love and are inspired by his movies. Good kids watch/read good stories. It is no coincidence, I believe. In fact, Miyazaki's works still move me deeply, so much so that I watch this short video - not even a Miyazaki movie - and get a lump in my throat. He is special - dedicated, a perfectionist, principled, a visionary, even a cultural bridge with his adaptations of Howl's, for example - and he should be revered and studied so that he might continue to inspire budding artists coming through in an age where the economics and technological conveniences are fast diluting the animation industry. We must consider that it is inevitable in any market for the saturation of said market to entail less originality. A gentrification of an industry, you could say - original ideas are grassroots, fans create a cult following, the noise increases, investors take note of a growing interest and invest, productions increase, audiences diversify, fan service becomes more common, profits are made and the ideas making good money are copied and pasted to create, the cycle repeats. It is for us fans of what we believe is original art to make videos like this and bring the beauty of our favourite art, along with the values and principles that bore such sweet fruits, to people and hope that others continue to feed the roots that create such fruits. It is a cultural phenomenon. Also, I like to say you can enjoy the tacky stuff - I, myself, have and do sometimes enjoy a brainless show or piece of music, for example - but we must know our power as consumers and invest proportionately to that which we love most and expose and spread that which we love most of all. I love this man and I love all the people who love this man. I thank you greatly for this video and hope you might be energised to continue to share the good stuff. Much respect and gratitude

Most modern media is used as an escape from the world, Miyazaki’s work makes you fall in love with the world.

A big part of the problem is that other people get a large part of their experience of the world filtered through others via formal education, media, and fiction. They don't meet real ship engineers. They watch fictional starship engineers on Star Trek. They don't visit a rural countryside and explore or just play in the mud but watch movies and TV shows where that happens to characters in a story. They don't fight in or experience wars but watch movies about them. And I get the impression that a lot of anime characters don't reflect real people that the author knows, observed, or studied but they are instead lifted from characters that they liked in other anime and want to emulate or copy, and because of that they don't always fit the story the author has put them in or have much depth to them. I'm old enough to have had a "go out and play" childhood, largely before cable television, VCRs, or the Internet and stayed at my grandparents house in the summer without air conditioning, where we played with handmade models of the submarines in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in pools of water we created by digging a hole, putting a plastic bag in it as a liner, and filling it with water from a hose. I could spend all day with friends in a gully at home exploring and building things or capturing toads and fireflies at night, so I get what Miyazaki is trying to capture in stories like Totoro and what Stranger Things is trying to capture with the kids on bicycles. I experienced stuff like that myself. But a next generation that uses Totoro or Stranger Things as their model for an idyllic childhood without ever having experienced it is going to be creating a copy of a copy, and details, meaning, and depth will be lost because they don't have the real thing to work with, only the limited copy that they're using as their source. Does that mean you can't be an author without living a life of adventure? Of course not. Research, which can include reading history books and biographies, watching interviews and documentaries, reading news archives, and just talking to older or different people will create a much richer understanding of the world than watching movies, TV shows, and reading social media or blogs, which basically mean that aspiring authors shouldn't be lazy and assume that just consuming a lot of media and fiction along with whatever they picked up in school is enough to understand the people and the world around them with any real depth.

Witch Hat Atelier. Original and inspiring. Hopefully coming to life sometime soon.

I don't think its necessarily bad to have escapism. sometimes after a long and grueling day at work you just want sit down and watch something fun and not so demanding on your brain that's been deep-fried at that point of the day. But, I do agree that it can be a bit much at times. Isekai is a pretty good example of the off kilter balance of the anime industry. you'll get shows like Re:Zero and Mushoku Tensei that are really good, but then you get like 3 "(insert gimmick) in another world" and while you can have some fun with those it gets stale rather fast. idk for sure, at the end of the day it comes down to a persons individual perspective.

man I have so much respect for him. He has such amazing and wonderful ideas. the best stories are usually grounded in reality in my opinion

dunning kruger comment section

I think Miyazaki's quote about people not working from observing real life comes more from an actual drawing perspective. In the past, the traditional method to learn to draw was to draw from reality, still life drawings, understanding anatomy and how people look, how light hits objects, shading, etc... Though I think those traditional methods of learning are kinda becoming less prevalent, like I know quite a few artists who learned to draw people based on using anime or other drawings as reference material, rather than training their eye to see the true shape of objects and I can see how that could cause proportions and styles to become warped from an artist not truly understanding how a human body looks and moves. Maybe I'm putting words in his mouth but at least from an artistic point of view its what I thought of.

Also, I think of the new anime out right now, Sousou no Frieren manages to combine these traits. In a lot of ways it honestly feels like a Ghibli story.

i don’t know if you’ve watched the video talking about the slave conditions of animators in the anime industry (there are probably plenty lol) but his words in the contexts of how f*cked it is makes sense, they produce to make as much profit, but also produce episodes weekly, not enough time to actually put time in developing good well thought out characters without the formula that makes the most money, but also these animators are burnt out shiet before we want more from anime the working conditions of animators need to be dealt with 🤦🏻‍♀️

crazy that the most replayed part is the girls dancing💀

i miss the old school manga.

Despite the video being short, this was well spoken and I enjoyed this thoroughly. I agree with everything in this video to a T and it really does make you think about the art of anime and the story telling but also as well what people churn out just to make profit and those seeking out those anime just to escape real life. Things need to change in the anime industry but where would the change even begin if it ever does?

I think this sentiment also profoundly resonates within the finale of Hideaki Anno's Eva series. Sometimes, you just need to go outside and touch grass.

The problem with modern anime isn’t the oversaturated genres or the way how human characters are portrayed in my opinion. As stated in the video, anime is inherently different and separate from real life. But without real life, there is no anime. I believe that creating art, whether it be through writing a book, composing music, or creating animation, what you are doing is appreciating life. You are taking the experience you have had with life up until the point you make a given work and filter it through the medium you use. When it comes to animation specifically, regardless of which style of animation you use or what the inspirations are, animation is inherently the art of appreciating motion. It is the art of telling story not with words but with visual action. If you want to create good animation that defies realism and the norm, you have to have an intimate understanding of the nuances of reality. Reality and fantasy are two sides of the same coin. One is the physical world, and the other is our human imagination. They both feed off of and give to each other. The problem with Japanese animation is that the country’s working culture *actively prevents* young talent from realizing the full potential of their artistry. Rushed schedules, unpaid overtime, forcing worked to stay at the company for multiple days and nights at a time, young talent are actively squeezed dry of any and all love they have for animation just to sell a product. Very few modern anime from official studios have anything meaningful to tell if the director or original author aren’t putting in their best effort to make the potential of a given work shine. So many anime cut corners in animation just to make ends meet. Characters standing still for prolonged periods of time, stiff movements that convey the bare minimum amount of movement needed to portray a specific action. Even anime that have good direction and stellar animated sequences only look that way with specific scenes. The level of animation quality you see in big important scenes isn’t the same level as you see in the mundane scenes, and I don’t want to hear the argument of “why do mundane scenes need to have the same level of detail put into them as the high-budget sakuga scenes?” IT’S BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO IN ANIMATION. Look at every single one of Miyazaki’s movies. Every single one. They look nothing like modern TV anime for a reason. Every single scene is animated with the same amount of care and intention as some of the more iconic and crazier scenes. The way that characters shift the weight of their bodies whenever they sit down or walk around, the way how they make different subtle poses with their body in order to put emphasis on the words they say, this is the kind of attention to detail that is missing in a lot of TV anime, and it’s not because “anime movies have a higher budget”. In this modern day and age? Studios should be getting more than enough money to fund the necessary tools needed. Technology has nothing to do with it. The amount of “frames” in an animation has nothing to do with it. I swear so many people think “more frames = better animation” no it fucking doesn’t. What matter is what the artistic intention is. Sometimes I feel like otaku culture actively ruin the potential of anime. These days it’s treated like a fucking novelty product. Animation is art. Animation has the power to be the culmination of human potential, determination, wisdom, and emotion. I don’t know where I heard this quote from, but it went something like “In anime, the animation isn’t what matters, it’s the story”. To an extent that’s true, but this mentality forgets that animation *is* storytelling. Nuanced animation that gives a shit about attention to detail is the most important catalyst for effective storytelling. The potential for amazing anime is always bogged down by the people who don’t give a shit about the medium, either squeezing it for profit or holding arrogant stubborn opinions like “animation is for children” and thinking that being an artist is an inferior job compared to being a doctor or some other kind of civil worker. Tell me. When you get home from work, what do you do to relax. What do you do to take the edge off. What do you do to keep yourself from going insane from all of the effort you put in to feed yourself and keep a roof over your head? You play a game. You watch a movie. You read a book. You consume art. Art is one of the most important aspects of humanity. Art has been a part of all human cultures ever since the earliest records of civilization. If it isn’t for stories, if it isn’t for fictional characters we see ourselves in, or characters that intrigue us because of how different they are from us, if we didn’t share stories to each other to teach each other about things that we couldn’t be taught otherwise, humanity would have died out a long time ago. Food. Water. Art. We need all three to survive. That is a hill I will die on. Anime is not a mistake. It never was a mistake. But the current state of the medium today is, frankly speaking, pathetic. Nobody understands good art. Nobody thinks of the current state of the Japanese working culture as a evil that needs to be fought against. Japan is probably one of if not the most important country on Earth when it comes to the art they make and share with the world. A lot of intellectual properties and icons that are synonymous with pop culture around the world have come from Japan. Even if we ignore anime, think about video games, live action movies, paintings, recognizable iconography, many important things that we appreciate come from this small, beautiful island nation. While I think it is ridiculous to think that Japan is a “dying country”, the state of the country is worrying. Japan doesn’t deserve to be suffering the way that it is right now. Sorry, I don’t have a big thesis statement to say at the end, I think I’ve already said my piece.

You can truly see this statement flourish whenever people attempt to act like their favourite anime characters. They barely look human. Cosplay a Miyazaki character, and you are you, just in different clothes.

I'd like to live in a world where Haruki Murakami and Hayoi Miyazaki pair up to create something extraordinarily beautiful, classy, significant, meditative and imbibed in magical realism.

Wow, this is very well made... I quite enjoyed this short, sweet yet reflective video on art and animation. I don't watch anime much but you made this feel like this video is a bit bigger than that... I look forward to more video from you if you so choose to make them, thank you

His way of talking sounds so nice and relaxing, I just want to fall asleep while listening to his speech

My Hero Academia definitely feels like it failed. Like during the vigilante arc, you have the main character Deku burying himself in his work of being a super hero, of his outfit becoming dirty and in tatters from all his work, of him running himself ragged. Yet the creator doesn't explore more deeply a person who behaves like that except by side commentary his friends make that also haven't spoken to him. And then the arc just ends after he goes to take a hot spring with friends. To use a studio ghibli film as comparison, Kiki's Delivery Service. Where she turned her magic into a job, and in turn eventually lost that magic as it wasn't something she necessairly enjoyed and she became depressed. There is lasting consequences in that while she can fly around on her broom again by the end of film, she can't understand her friend Jiji anymore. Which symbolically can be taken in how we start failing in understanding others as deeply as we once did when we develop a different mindset and let things like work consume us.

"They're standing on the shoulders of geniuses"...

u have very tender voice brother. i was practicing typing through the whole video and it gave me the same type of experience when im playing lofi beats while trying to focus on something.

I agree 100 % originality and nuance is lost upon a lot of people and the industry should take this lesson to heart, i don't think everything has to be real or close to real life, but that you can base a lot of behavior and world building character building with these simple principles in mind, and what a legend this man, Miyazaki bringing us such great pieces of art.

The norm has always been the shallow cash grabbers and quality ones had always been the exception. Not only in anime - movies, songs, books, comic books. We have the ilusion that it was different in the past because the quality ones are remembered and the once overwhelming majority of cheap ones gets forgotten.

Eh, while I kinda understand where he's coming from, I disagree. You can't compare his works to the more "by the numbers" shows and films in the anime genre. These are the McDonald's of anime and sometimes, people just want a fucking burger. His work is timeless, but there are tons of anime that are fantastic in their own rights and like mentioned in the video, great stuff comes out every year. However, this qlso kind of runs into the implication that there wasn't McDonald's anime in the past, when from the beginning of anime there's been iterations, near copies, and trends in theme that were produced. This is where we see the categories of anime form, as Shonen at the end of the day all are written and designed to cater to young/teen boys, with shows generally focused on action and adventure. That said, every year there's a new shonen that catches the hearts of young and old, as we see with things like DBZ Super, Demon Slayer, JJK, Chainsaw Man, Dr. Stone, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Frieren, etc etc. Then you get stuff like Berserk, Vinland Saga, 86, Gundam, Attack on Titan, etc etc that they transcend their genres, be they shonen or seinen, and really grab onto their audience and make them think about what's happening in the story and how it reflects our own world/history. Hell, even with the more bombastic shonen like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece you still have moments of the human condition and heavy topics that give pause or shock to the viewers. Basically all of the anime I've listed have nuance in one way or another, and can all be extremely emotionally involved in both good and bad. So, sorry, I just look at this take as too simplistic and broad, when there are so many great shows, films, and manga that one can really be pulled into.

Miyazaki was observing what many filmmakers have trouble overcoming: the pursuit of the blockbuster hit. It's poison to creativity when you only think of the money you'll make when you do this or that. He was an artist with a real passion for storytelling, which made him a rare participant in a field crammed with fakers.

Fate/Stay Night (2006) will forever be my number 1 favorite anime, Emiya was very relatable. Original ideas, a holy grail war battle royale. Blade works took out a lot of the emotion and relationship building and politics out of the anime

Anime isn't a "genre," though. It's a style of animation. There are dramas, comedies, human interest stories, escapist fantasies, etc. all done in that style. Calling all of that simply "anime" as if it's all the same is arguably a form of orientalism, and gives an "othering" effect on it that makes Westerners think of the entire artform as some kind of separate, exotic thing that isn't *quite* the same as "real cinema" where we think of things in terms of genre and story rather than "Japanese people drew it." I think that kind of exoticism fetishizes anime in the eyes of Westerners and turns it into a trendy accessory rather than just another form of cinema. "I watch anime" is something people often say as a fashion statement or personality trait. As if there is something innate within the entire artform that can be diluted down to the equivalent of a single fandom. I think Japanese filmmakers who happen to be animators see this attitude from the West, a huge frontier of financial support for anime, and lean into it heavily. If Westerners want "anime" to be just one type of thing they can easily digest, then they'll just produce works that fall in line with that expectation. And so, braindead works that don't consider the human condition and aim for real cinematic art become more common. And Miyazaki gets a little older and a little more crestfallen.

I think in Miyazaki's formative years the japanese society was still a place where "life" was. the people, social realities and way of life were such that there was possible to observe and gain valuable insight into human nature. but in subsequent decades, it has transformed into a mechanical hollowed out place, where realities devour individuals. you can follow this transformation through landmark animation such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, which WAS grounded in reality of the time and generation it presented. So, what are you going to observe now? salaryman zombies? hollowed out "families"? brutalist architecture? socially inept youth? YES , and all of these ARE already taken as a basis of modern anime, which does perhaps the best thing it can with them - use them as a starting point to get away from it! Human being have an innate compass in them, and can feel if there is something wrong with society, even if they cannot verbalize it. and i think escapism is one obvious and natural way of dealing with it, because it at least allowed the light of human spirit to shine "somewhere". otaku are already a firm product of this society, wether they focus on light novels, idols or manga or anime, they are already there. So Miyazaki is a cultural dinosaur of a time which is long gone. the current society cannot generate lessons as those it could when miyazaki and his generation grew up.

After reading and watching plenty of uncut interviews with Miyazaki, I don't think he's nearly as grumpy as people make him out to be. He's honest, and likes to contradict himself and joke around. Then his ramblings get taken out of context and inflated.

One of the things I like about Anime is that it often shows little children acting like children. Usually, American TV & many movies show kids acting like adults, just smaller & not driving or drinking. Also, in older Anime, probably made before there was a big export market, you would see or hear references to details of everyday Japanese life that would puzzle me. I would have to look it up to see, for example, what an indirect kiss was or why you have two sets of indoor slippers, etc.

"Originality has diminished." --Mumspaghetti 2023

Bruh, nice job. Moved my soul with that epic, clean narration.

Kiki, spirited away, and howls flying castle are my favorites. Yes his movies are anime but you can watch the whole movie with your family and come away with a true sense of wonder and growth… and yes tears… EVERYTIME you rewatch it. :)

Seems like Miyazaki was referring to the same creative degradation most of our major media suffers from around the world. Things have been creatively watered down and sensationalized in an effort for media to reach a greater demographic and thus greater profits. Things are flashier and more exciting, easier for the masses to digest. But in the process any effort to create a deeper connection with real life or philosophical thought is avoided as this often turns people off by confusing them emotionally. Most peope just want to see bad guys, good guys, and happy endings all clearly labelled and defined so they dont have to think and know exactly how to feel.

I actually think theres a reason for this. You see the past recent generations have grown up watching anime they love and wanting to create anime others will love. Meanwhile before the anime boom, and general media boom. People grew up exploring outside, hanging out with people and making real memories. Shows and movies used to be based off real experiences and finding a romantic fantasy idea to add to it. Now shows and movies are based off shows and movies and finding a way to add a slight enough adjustment to make it seem original

I don't know why exactly but I agree fully with this dude.

Sometime animes grounded in reality bring a breath of fresh air. In that regard the Tatami Galaxy was great. I also liked NHK ni Youkoso

Your cut during Miyazaki’s opening dialogue from Ghibli’s animations back to the rooftops he is pointing out worked so well that I initially saw it AS animation. That was magical, thank you ❤

Miyazaki’s work is inspired and has saved me during some dark times. Many artists have pensive personalities though, so it’s unsurprising Miyazaki would express that opinion.

Wish he's still making masterpieces and didn't get disappointed in anime industry Small channels getting recommended to us is just a blessing!

Miyazaki would be disappointed at the most replayed timestamp.

I have no idea how I got here, yet I'm really glad I did. This video put a smile on my face, I'll definitely share it. :D Keep up the great work, you're really talented! Hope you'll get a lot of subscribers in the (near) future. :)

On Princess Mononoke (which happens to be one of my favorite anime's of all time), none of the people in it are actually villains. The villains are far away, of screen, and have through their greed and insanity caused events to happen as they have. Jiko was tempted into attempting to claim the Spirit of the Forest's head by immense wealth that, being an older man, would have ensured he was cared for into his later years. He's the closest you get to being a villain, but through his interactions early on with Ashitaka you see he's not actually one. Eboshi established the land to protect the less fortunate and outcasts from the Capital...the prostitutes, the lepers. Okkoto and his kin want to protect the forest, and believe the only way to do that is to kill the humans. Moro and her children aren't villains, despite the fact they attack and kill humans. They, like Okkoto, think this is the only way to protect the forest and the Spirit of the Forest. Even the mercenaries and hunters that Jiko brings aren't evil. The amount of money being offered by the Emperor would keep them and any families they have safe for a long time. You could even argue that the Emperor isn't a villain, because he's getting old, is afraid of death, and he believes that the head of the Spirit of the Forest would make him immortal...but that reasoning is even more selfish than simple greed, because he's seeking it to empower himself, and is doing so at the expense of the safety of others. He is cowardly, and rather than being there himself, he sends others to do his bidding.

Not everything is for everyone. Even the most wholesome food will become dull (or even detrimental to your health) if that's all you eat. Miazaki makes great art, but there's room for other types of expression and all too often the types than are not seen as 'worthy' are unfairly dismissed as worthless-When in fact just as much thought and skill has gone into them as was put into the more family friendly fare of their more widely accepted counterparts. It's just that the person critisizing these more nich productions is ignorant of the effort involved and arrogantly assumes that only their view and their experiences matter or should be seen as worthwhile. Miyazaki may have looked at people a long time ago but he forgot to keep looking-To keep learning, and now he's just as ignorant as those he criticises. The difference being that his view is seen by many as correct. The point: Variety is good. You can't be an expert on everything. Don't dismiss things you don't understand or like as worthless. You're entitled to an opinion, but your opinions (Miyazaki) do not become the truth simply because you have them.

I felt like him when i learned about the genre known as "isekai"

For the entire video, my eyes have been very sweaty 😂. Your brief video hits and it's refreshing you honesty. So many of today's anime, though good lack so much. They ," rinse & repeat" so many of the same stories. And like " fireworks" , depends on solely on the flash & bang effect, rather than true original story telling. You young man, have wisdom that is so uncommon for young people today. Be proud,be strong and keep doing what you do.. I'll be cheering for you.🙏🧐 Be well Sensei

for me anime is just another medium of storytelling and the only mistake of anime is the treatment of animators, they deserve much more better

nuance is so difficult to find nowdays. Great video on the industry mate, hats off to you

I think the main issue with the anime industry is that they are very conservative in terms of deciding what to adapt. They also dont give any project a chance that doesnt have a fanbase already. Instead of going for a new big hit they are going for the relatively safe profit. Also there are a lot of people that are responsible for the execution of an anime adaption but very little genuinely talented people that are producing the source material, especially if you compare it to live action screenwriters and directors. One reason may be that the manga/LN authors are working so much that they can barely get outside and meet other people, so they may not get a whole lot of social interactions.

I always wondered why I couldn't get into a lot of modern anime. This video made me realise why, thank you.

I think many people don't realise that anime isn't a whole separate, original genre. Vast majority of anime is not original. It's an adaptation of source material. Mostly manga, which itself is mostly an adaptation of a light novel lately. There are very few "manga original" anime adaptations nowadays. It's all about "media mix" as we call it here in Japan. You write an isekai novel on one of the dedicated sites, it grows in popularity, publisher approaches you, you get the novels out, you start getting manga out if those novels do good, and then you get anime adaptation if that manga does well. Boom, yet another quirky isekai anime is born. Light isekai novels are written as an escape from reality for people who don't want to constantly face reality. The quality isn't good from a storytelling perspective. Majority is atrocious. But, it sells.

Some pushback I would offer here is that Miyazaki's films are basically all the same and the main stand out feature is production value which is just a self-fulfilling prophecy as he's afforded more budget due to previous success which makes future success more likely. The style emerges from the budget. He can afford to have someone spend a month painting a background so the audience can contemplate it in a long slow pan, if you can't afford that painting, you can't have that shot. Imagine a scene where a precocious young girl has struck out on her own, maybe fallen in with the wrong crowd, but she works hard at her job and especially daily life activities like cooking and cleaning. Am I talking about Spirited Away? Kiki's Delivery Service? From Up on Poppy Hill? Whisper of the Heart? Castle In the Sky? Howl's Moving Castle? I can't even keep them all straight in my head because this trope reappears so many times. And this character isn't based on a real person - it's based on Miyazaki's fantasy daughter-wife. Even your example of Lady Eboshi, she's basically the same character as Kushana from Nausicaa. And are we going to pretend that Miyazaki spend his youth schmoozing with badass lady generals or admit that this is another fantasy. The guy is an otaku. He's just old. These characters are the big booba transfer students of the past.

really damn good art is when it offers an escape but you can't stop thinking about how this piece of art parallels real life problems

Every anime is chasing the teenage demographic, it's why so many anime is "obligatory female/male in a high school setting" with the same old same old stories. It sells, and these companies making these anime only care about money, not making a good product. Old anime did sorta the same thing, but was creative AF about the stories they portrayed, ESPECIALLY in their worlds and characters.

I think you touch on a really interesting point towards the end there & that's what is it we as viewers want from any given media. I personally want to escape reality & not be forced or even encouraged to dwell on reality. On the other hand that can make for some very throw away meaningless films, books or whatever. I think miyazaki is somewhat unique in that his films often combine both. However i think it's worth remembering that is why he is one of the masters of the genre & we shouldn't expect such complexity from every amine we watch. Thanks for a great vid dude.

Nothing is a mistake. Everything happens for a reason. Or one could say things take place as a chain reaction. One thing leads to another. No one can stop the flow.