'Author' Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a very famous Japanese manga artist, film director and animator of many anime feature films. He started his career at Toei Animation and directed his first feature film a classic Japanese anime Lupin III: the castle of Cagliostro’ during 1979. Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and co-founded the ‘Studio Ghibli’an animation studio and production company together with Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. Miyazaki’s success in films has been considered on the same level with Walt Disney and Nick Park.


Many of Hayao Miyazaki's films as been distributed by Disney such as Ponyo, Howls Moving castle, etc...

Ponyo Trailer

Studio Ghibli logo

Hayao Miyazaki is famous of his films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howls Moving Castle, Ponyo and many more. In my opinion, he is more focused on fantasy genre which is more related on the Japanese theme like old folk tales, superstitions and characters relates to Japanese legendary creatures. Spirited Away has a good example of creatures based on the Japanese legends.


His character designs shows:
Anthropomorphism - animals adopting human characteristics
Zoomorphism- characters having the form of an animal
The balance between these is a key aspect of many Miyazaki's/Ghibli films and often indicates shifts in character and meaning

Kamaji from Spirited away is based on a Japanese legendary creature Tsuchigumo

Kawa no Kami is based on a sea god Kappa and a water dragon Muzuchi

Metamorphosis is a vital element in many Ghibli films, either through deliberate use of magic to alter form (Studio Ghibli  p25)
Climate plays important role for aesthetic, emotional or thematic reasons. the state of the weather and its relationship to the environment demonstrates the delicate balances in nature. (Studio Ghibli p25)

I have noticed that the majority of Hayao Miyazaki's character design has been kept throughout his films. It is similar to the old animes during 70s or older where the characters cheeks are chubby with less details and looks 2D flat with no much shadows and light areas compared to the modern animes which has more gradients and details and shows light and dark shadows. Miyazaki's art style has kept the traditional Japanese painting style almost like Hokusai where they have flat colours with less shadows and less texture which makes it a Japanese art

Old anime, Ponyo (Miyazaki's character), Modern anime characters

In my opinion, Miyazaki's character designs are aimed for all ages but mostly for kids, to let them aware of the legends most people have forgotten and somehow be inspired and be imaginative.


A number of Western authors have influenced Miyazaki's work, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Lewis Carroll, and Diana Wynne Jones. Miyazaki confided to Le Guin that Earthsea had been a great influence on all his works, and that he kept her books at his bedside (wikipedia)


I have chosen Hayao Miyazaki because I fell inlove with Japanese art and anime and Hayao Miyazaki is for of the well known Japanese animator, director, Auteur. I also liked the fact that he has sticked to the traditional art/ anime style even though people are used watching more detailed characters with fancy textures, special effects, 3D, Miyazaki's work will stand out from the rest.


Reference:


Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc, (2009) Studio Ghibli, Kamera Books, Harpenden, Herts 
Jonathan Clements & Helen McCarthy, (2006) The Anime Encyclopedia, Stone Bridge Press
Wikipedia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki#Works

Animation Genres

Martial Arts Genre


Tom and Jerry: The Karate Guard


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2d-oiBPlw





Text Opening has a feel of the oriental font like Chinese and Japanese calligraphy where most of the end stroke of the lines are sharp. Most martial arts originated from China and Japan, and dojos use hand written calligraphy for their logos. The red colour represents fire, wild, aggressive which could related to the personality of the martial artist.


The blue background in the intro could represent gentleness or perhaps a bit weak in the character Jerry...not being able to defeat Tom with his martial arts because of his size.


Few seconds in the sound intro had a typical tune of a Chinese kung fu. The tune represents China because, it is usually played in Chinese festivals and do the Chinese Dragon Dance


Mise-en-scene: the use of the karate GI of Jerry, Japanese samurai armour for the Guardian, the master spirt, martial arts dummy, Chinese Gong, 


Scene - in a modern house. This could represent that martial arts isnt ancient, it could also mean martial arts can beat modern technology weapons like the paintball near the end of the story.




Romance Genre


Romeo X Juliet (anime)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZSoy_T-Kgw





As you can see it the first few minutes intro of the animation, you cannot see the romance genre, and the fact they mentioned Sky Continent Neo Verona shows that  it has a sense of magic to it, suggesting a floating continent (world). As the intro progress, the melody shows a sense of thrill, something bad is about to happen, It represent that this show is for mature viewers, it has a greyish background which could also represent death. As the story shows the dead woman followed by the man cursing the man in black using his surname shows that, it is a war between families, this shows the genre of adventure, action, crime, war, and drama.


After the intro, its followed up by an opening theme, the song tune is the same of "you raise me up" but in Japanese version with different lyrics. it somehow represents sadness. as you watch the animation of the opening theme, It shows 2 family crest separated means that there's going to be conflict. and the tile Romeo and Juliet gave sense of the story would be more focused about Romance. It is based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. they showed the main characters, Romeo and Juliet. After they showed Juliet, a flower petal flew to her almost shaping like a heart, which shows romance. As the animation goes on showing most of the cast, they show clips of battles which could represent the conflict between families and Romeo and Juliet almost held each others hands means, they cant be together but near the end of the opening, it showed both of them kissing


If you look at the character designs, it doesnt appeal to a younger audience, its aimed at mature people.


Settings shows that it is set on the earlier ages like the victorian times. they showed churches and some roman ruins which could represent love


It is mainly focused on the main genre of Romance because of the title Romeo and Juliet
they showed flowers wrapping Romeo and Juliet, Juliet being naked, Kissing, hugging, laying on grass...and Red colour stands out to represent blood and Heart...white flowers could represent the wedding dress :D