Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao MiyazakiThomas - Flickr [Public domain] 

Hayao Miyazaki is my hero not only because of his artistic abilities but the messages he sends throughout his artwork. He sees humanity for what it is, not always good, and not always bad; he sees it somewhere in between. Hayao has incredible naturopathic abilities as an artist; he has mastered the art of communication in many ways. 

Hayao was born January 5. In 1941 during WWII, he grew up in a world that is difficult for most of us to imagine: a post-apocalyptic world in Japan. This clearly affects his later work. His father was a rutter maker and he worked for a company run by Hayao's uncle. The company built zero fighter planes for WWII. There were events in his life that has affected him. During WWII he had be watching daily bombings, when a chemical bomb hit the ground a few miles away. Hayao shuttered as each bomb fell on nearby towns and cities.

He had memories of his mother taking him outside, putting him in a big posh car and telling the driver to drive. Hayao looked back and saw people begging to come along with them, but his parents and the driver were not stopping. After hearing that, it shows Hayao's overall character. Hayao has a huge heart and always wanted to do good in the world. 

After hearing what he went through, you can now see why he would say things like, “creating animations is like creating a fictional world, that world soothes the spirit of those who are disheartened and exhausted from dealing with the sharp edges of reality.” Thinking about growing up in a world like that is a bit far removed from our lives that we live now. I imagine that is what drives him and gives his movies such depth. 

His family eventually moved to Utsunomiya City, to escape the bombing of Tokyo and to be closer to his uncle's airplane business in Kinuma City. The move fueled a discussion with his father about the war and the morals of the company. He was clearly torn about making machinery which caused death and destruction, which later inspired movies such as Nausicaa and Totoro. Hayao wanted to be more familiar with nature, as he believed everything is connected into one big symphony of emotion and feeling. 

Fun fact: the reason Totoro's eyes are so big is because he didn't want you to know which direction he was looking. Totoro was thinking of nothing at all or in deep thought. This dualism runs throughout his movies, whether it’s the IQ of Totoro, or if Lady Akiyoshi from Princes Mononoke is really evil. Hayao is always keeping us on our toes. Sometimes he imagined himself floating in the clouds above the cities in Japan. Most likely to escape the reality of the situation he was in. From a young age he was interested in manga. When he dreamed of becoming a manga artist, he studied the works of Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, when manga was first published and created. But because of Hayao being a perfectionist, he unfortunately destroyed his early works, because he thought it might be too similar to Astro Boy.

This shows the heroic courage to always keep going and not to give up. In 1947 his mother got sick with tuberculosis, and in one of his films, My Neighbor Totoro, the mother in the story also had tuberculosis. Hayao's mother passed away 9 years later. His father loved films and took him to see many great films in that time. Hayao also loved European films, which in his later animations we can see he uses many different building structures from European buildings in films he saw as a teen with his father. 

Those films are Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service. Hayao stated that he was a physically weak child and he read a lot of books. He wanted to become a strong hero. And in many of his films he draws the main boy as how he wanted to look when he was young. After he graduated from junior high he studied at Toytime Art High School. In his third year he saw the first ever Japanese full-length color anime, Hakumen, and became interested in animation.

His goal was to make good animation and make something that surpasses the next generation of animation. A flawless formula of perfection. At the time he wanted to become a manga artist and he was sketching what he described as observest drama, but he incorporated purity and emotion into each one of his drawings. He wanted to draw emotion so strong that it moves people to tears. He wanted an emotional attachment to his art. 

He loved animation and started going to higher education art schools. In college he joined the children's animation society, which taught him a lot about fables and tales from all over the world. He joined an animation studio and met some lifelong friends after college. He later became a cofounder of Ghibli and married his wife. As his life progressed he became a full-time animator and took control of Ghibli, producing many lovable films that were so good that it got Disney's attention. And I consider him my hero because I simply love his devotion to art and the joy he spread to my family through his unbelievable art. Hayao made my childhood really special. Watching his movies was like an escape from times when times in my life were hard. I can remember after I found out my grandpa died of cancer, I sat outside in the summer breeze and laid on my back on the grass and watched the leaves on the trees as I listened to the orchestra music from his films, and I was able to cope with the situation. His films almost always prevent me from growing up, not physically I mean, but mentally I always feel like a child while watching his films.