The biography of Hayao Miyazaki is known to most fans of world cinema. This is the most famous Japanese animator, screenwriter, director. Almost every of his work becomes a real event, critics note humanism and the depth of his tapes. In 2014, he became the owner of an out-of-competition honorary Oscar.
early years
We will begin to tell the biography of Hayao Miyazaki in 1941, when he was born in Tokyo. His childhood was in difficult times for the country, he grew up in the midst of World War II, which Japan also lost. A difficult childhood left a certain imprint on his personality and fate, making him a convinced pacifist and an opponent of fascism.
The early childhood of the hero of our article took place in the small town of Akebono-te. There he first admired the aircraft, which then regularly appeared in most of his tapes. Hayao's father worked in a factory manufacturing parts for aircraft.
The Hayao Miyazaki family was large, he was the second of four sons. Together with his father and brothers, he traveled to almost all of Japan, so often they had to move because of his mother's illness, which suffered from tuberculosis. They moved from place to place for about ten years, in 1956, a woman unexpectedly for everyone finally recovered.
Constant moving did not prevent Miyazaki from getting a quality education. He graduated from high school in 1958.
Choice of profession
It is noteworthy that Miyazaki decided on the choice of profession relatively early. Animation fascinated him when he was still in school. He was conquered by the cartoon "The Legend of the White Snake". The impressions were so strong that Hayao decided to try his hand at this art.
He started with his own manga, but immediately ran into serious difficulties. It turned out that he did not know how to draw people, previously he was only occupied with sketches of aircraft models. In addition, comparing his drawings with the anime frames that inspired him so much, he realized that he was copying the style he saw in details and details, without trying to come up with something of his own. As a result, no one saw his first work, Miyazaki destroyed his creation.
Education
In 1963, the hero of our article entered the University of Gakusyuin, where he began to study economics and politics. These subjects were far from art, but at the university he became a member of the book club. Under the close attention of its participants was children's literature, including works by European authors.
At age 22, important changes took place in the biography of Hayao Miyazaki. He graduated from the university and entered the service of one of the largest Japanese animation studios - Toei Animation. Starting with the basics, he quickly moved up the career ladder.
At first, Hayao drew the intermediate stages of the movement of characters, after two years, his talents drew the attention of leaders. In 1965, his contribution to the creation of the black-and-white animated film "Gulliver's Space Adventures" was appreciated, he was even allowed to change the ending to his discretion.
In the late 60s and early 70s, he simultaneously worked on several projects at once. This is a film adaptation of the manga “Ghost Ship”, the trilogy “Puss in Boots” and the cartoon “Animal Treasure Island”. Now he is engaged in rendering key animation and storyboard. In parallel, he draws manga, publishes a graphic short story "Desert People". She came out under the pseudonym Saburo Akitsu.
Work in this company brought him valuable experience and necessary acquaintances. He improved his technique under the supervision of the famous animator Yasuji Mori, where he met his future partner and close friend Isao Takahata.
Change
Despite some success and career advancement, Miyazaki was dissatisfied with the difficult working conditions that existed in the company. Together with other animators, they created a union, which began to protect the interests of employees of animation studios.
This behavior was perceived by the leadership as a riot. The cartoon "Prince of the North", on the creation of which the hero of our article worked a lot, was withdrawn from rental. Friends finally decided to say goodbye to this studio in 1971. They quit.
Almost immediately, Miyazaki together with friends establishes his own project A-Pro. But its start has to be postponed, the next two years the hero of our article and Takahata work for TMS Entertainment, completing the continuation of the series "Lupine".
This was followed by a collaboration with Nippon Animation. It was in this company in 1978 that Miyazaki made his debut as a director. His debut is the serial anime "Conan is a boy from the future", which was made on the basis of the incredible tide manga.
After another year, friends return to TMS. By that time, Hayao Miyazaki’s biography has many successful projects, so he is entrusted with directing. His first full-scale project is the cartoon Lupine: Cagliostro Castle. Hayao Miyazaki receives well-deserved praise, this picture is still one of the most beloved among the Japanese.
Nausicaa
Miyazaki himself in an interview repeatedly noted that he left the manga, as he was not satisfied with the final results. True, this opinion was not for everyone.
In 1982, Animage started publishing his manga about a princess who lives in a post-apocalyptic world, while fighting for the purity of nature. A work entitled "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds" is rapidly gaining popularity. Soon the manga is offered to be filmed, to which Miyazaki immediately agrees.
He attracts Takahata to the project, who takes on the responsibilities of the producer. Animators work tirelessly, already in 1984 a full-length film was released.
Critics and the audience favorably accepted the first independent full-length work of the master.
Own studio
Inspired by success, friends decide not to stop there. He founded his own studio, Hayao Miyazaki, along with Takahata and the editor of Animage. She gets the name "Gilby." It is here that the main masterpieces of Japanese animation of recent decades come out.
Already in 1985, the anime director Hayao Miyazaki presented to the public a full-length film "Sky Castle of Laputa".
In 1988, a new film called "My Neighbor Totoro" appeared on the screens. Spectators find themselves in provincial Japan in the middle of the 20th century. Two sisters meet with the sweet and strange spirits of the forest. These mythological characters were immediately loved in the director’s homeland and far beyond.
After the film "My Neighbor Totoro" was released, a striking feature of Hayao Miyazaki’s work was revealed. Its main characters almost always become little girls. Resourceful and courageous girls are the main heroines of the Witch Delivery Service, the same situation persists in most of his other works.
"Princess Mononoke"
It is believed that it was Hayao Miyazaki's cartoon "Princess Mononoke" that brought his studios worldwide fame. A particular success with the picture was in the USA. In 1996, a contract was even signed with Walt Disney Studios.
As the Americans recall this agreement, Miyazaki was adamant at his signing, demanding that the cartoon be reproduced exactly as it was in the original. As an argument, he even sent a samurai sword stained with red paint, urging him not to cut his work.
After "Princess Mononoke," he wanted to go into non-profit animation, but these plans were prevented by the death of one of his key colleagues, Esifumi Kondo.
Spirited Away
His next project was the tape "Spirited Away", which was released in 2001. Perhaps this is the most famous cartoon of Hayao Miyazaki. For this work he received a large number of awards, the picture was successfully passed at the global box office. Among them, the Hayao Miyazaki Prize of the Japanese Film Academy, the Golden Bear of the Berlin Film Festival.
The main character of the picture is again a little girl, whose name is Chihiro. Her parents find themselves in a magical land in which they are turned into pigs. To save them, Chihiro takes a job at the owner of the area, the sorceress Yubaba. While traveling in this fabulous country, the girl meets a boy and a dragon Haku, a girl Rin, a Faceless God, an elderly Kamaji.
In 2003, Hayao Miyazaki received an Oscar for this work in the category of Best Animated Feature Film. That year, competitors included Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, Spirit: The Soul of the Prairies.
Success and failure
In 2004, another successful work of the director came out - a full-length animated picture "The Walking Castle", based on the eponymous fairy-tale novel by the English writer Diana Jones. In the center of the story is the castle of Haul, the prototype of which, according to the director himself, was a hut on chicken legs from Russian folk tales.
True, a triumph followed by failure. In 2006, "Tales of the Earthsea" came out, which became an adaptation of the works of Ursula Le Guin. Miyazaki himself sought her consent, but his son Goro began work on the tape. In the process of filming, the relationship between them was extremely strained, which affected the film. Neither the American writer nor the majority of the audience liked the picture.
But already with his next project, Miyazaki proves that that failure was only an accident. In 2009, he released the film "Ponyo Fish on a Cliff." The picture receives two awards of the Venice Festival, many awards in Japan itself.
This is a story about the friendship of two 5 year old children. A boy named Soosuke and daughter of a sea goddess and sorcerer, Ponyo fish. Soosuke's father is the captain of a fishing vessel, and he himself lives with his mother in a house on a cliff.
Pogno lives with his sisters in the dwelling of the sea sorcerer at the bottom of the ocean. Once she swims away to look at people, she accidentally gets into a jar and finds herself thrown ashore, where the hero picks her up. Pogno falls in love with him, dreaming of becoming a man now.
After the release of this work, Miyazaki takes a break of six years.
"The wind is getting stronger"
The director returned to animation in 2014 with a picture of the famous Japanese aircraft designer Jiro Hirokoshi. Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Wind is Getting Stronger” is a biography of a real person who worked on the creation of air cars.
The picture was presented at the Venice Film Festival, after which the director officially announced the end of his professional career. In the animated film The Wind Gains Strength, Hayao Miyazaki talks about the creator of the Japanese fighter Mitsubishi A5M and Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
The main character appears before us as a boy who dreams of piloting a plane in the future, but cannot do this because of his shortsightedness. Then he decides to become an aircraft manufacturer.
Personal life
Miyazaki is married to Akemi Ota, an employee of his animation studio. The wedding was played in 1965. In marriage, they had two sons - Goro and Keisuke. If the elder became an animator, continuing the work of his father, the younger is engaged in woodcarving. Miyazaki himself admitted that after the birth of children he sought to make films that his children would first of all like.
Return to profession
Fans of Miyazaki enthusiastically accepted the news that the director had changed his mind completely to leave the profession. He announced his return in 2016. It is known that he is working on a full-length picture called "How You Live," based on the 1937 Japanese book of the same name about the boy Junichi Honda, who received the nickname after Copernicus. In his youth, he lost his father, was forced to move to a wealthy uncle, where he immediately became the object of ridicule of arrogant cousins. This picture is expected to be released in the next few years.
It was also known that he worked on the short film Boro Caterpillar, which he used using CGI graphics. But as a result, I was unsatisfied with the format, deciding to make another full-length film.