"I'm rather like a foreman, like the boss of a team of craftsmen. That is the spirit of how I work." - Hayao Miyazaki

Continuing on...

As Miyazaki and Takahata became more prominent in the animation sector of the industry, they were offered more and more opportunities to work on feature length projects.

Takahata worked on Downtown Story (1981) and Goshu the Cellist (1982), while Miyazaki landed his first feature-length directing job with Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). Soon after, however, with no other feature-length direction opportunities, Miyazaki returned to working on TV shows.

With more time on his hands Miyazaki began work on a manga project entitled Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Part way through its run, Nausicaa's success lead to a film adaptation being greenlit. Miyazaki was of course to direct and he brought in Takahata to produce the film which partly because of its popularity in its original manga form, was a great success for the pair.



Tokuma Shoten, the company that owned the magazine in which the original Nausicaa manga was published agreed to help fund a new animation studio venture where artists and directors would be in charge and freedom of expression would play a big role in all undertaken projects. This was of course, the beginnings of Studio Ghibli.



Ok, so there we have the origins of Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki's successes. Next comes the part that I'll enjoy a hell of a lot more. I'm going to write about the Studio Ghibli films that I have on DVD interspersed with some posts on themes and other things etc. I'm not really going to review them as its pretty obvious that I like 'em, but I'll find something interesting to say, I'm sure.

I was just going to go through the films in chronological order, but that would be dull, so I've picked one out of a hat and the first one is Howl's Moving Castle, so that's what I'll be writing about next time (unless I write about something else first :) ).

Until then..

"Is someone different at age 18 or 60? I believe one stays the same." - Hayao Miyazaki

Ok, I discovered that since both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's careers intertwine so closely, it would be a lot easier to post about them at the same time.

Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1941 and grew up with his three brothers and his mother and father. His father worked for his brother at Miyazaki Airplane and thus Hayao Miyazaki acquired his fascination for planes and aviation.



His mother has been described as a free-thinking woman who inspired Miyazaki and his brothers to question everything. Sadly, she suffered from a long term ailment of spinal tuberculosis and the family moved around the country frequently to find the best treatment for her. It has often been speculated that this childhood experience was the inspiration for the plot of Miyazaki's 1988 film My Neighbour Totoro.



Miyazaki graduated from Gakushin University after studying Political Science and Economics. He then joined the fledgling studio Toei Doga.

Isao Takahata was born in 1935 in Ise, Japan. He attended the University of Tokyo and graduated in French Literature.



He was inspired to pursue a career in animation after seeing Paul Grimault's Le Roi et l'oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird) and applied for a position at Toei Doga.

At the studio workers formed a union and this is how Miyazaki and Takahata met. Animator Yasuo Otsuka became mentor to them both during their time at Toei Doga. Otsuka recommended Takahata to direct Horus: Prince of the Sun (aka The Little Norse Prince) and so Takahata brought in Miyazaki to work on the film but it was a financial flop and soon after they both left Toei Doga.

Since then the pair have had successful and often intertwining careers. Their first successful collaboration was with the short film Panda Kopanda (1972). Takahata directed, and Miyazaki provided the story, design and key animation.



In 1978 Miyazaki directed a TV series called Conan: The Boy in Future where he worked with his closest colleague Isao Takahata and their mentor Yasuo Otsuko once more.

That's enough for now I think. I'll continue on the subject of Miyazaki and Takahata's careers next time. Until then...

Graduating to the Big Class

I know I said that this next post would be about Hayao Miyazaki, but I also wanted to be able to slot in the occasional off-topic posts if the fancy took me, which today it did.

Another interest/hobby of mine is learning Mandarin Chinese. I joined a class back in January of this year and I've loved every minute of it, even though its a bitch of a language to get a grasp on.



For these first six months I was part of a small beginner's class, learning the basics and useful phrases and conversations for say, if you went on a trip to China; booking a hotel room, asking for directions etc. We've been learning both the pinyin (the Chinese words written with the English alphabet) and the Chinese characters, so its been a pretty hard slog.

Last week, Cathy (the teacher) told us that we'd be joining her other, more advanced class that's been running for TWO YEARS. I must admit that I was scared joining the other class this week and there was a lot of vocabulary flying around that I didn't really understand, but it wasn't quite as horrific as I expected it to be and I think I managed to grasp the most important stuff we learned.

Well, the new class involves learning the sounds, pinyin and characters to short Chinese poems, which I love! I couldn't find a copy of the poem we worked through this week, but here is one of my favourites that I found a while ago - first in English, then in the Chinese characters and pinyin.

An Invitation to Mr Liu
by Bai Juyi

Green lees of beer that's newly brewed,
A little stove of red clay burns.
As evening comes, the sky's about to snow,
Can you drink one cup with me?











I love this simple, brief poem and how it manages to conjure up such a vivid, cosy, friendly image in my mind of a chilly Winter's evening. This poem and many other Chinese poems can be found at this fantastic site: Chinese-Poems.com

Anyways..next post will be about Miyazaki. Until then..

Much love,

Byebye

Ghibli and its Origins

I won’t claim to be an expert on Studio Ghibli. I’m a huge fan of the films they produce, but as to the history and development of the studio, I’m afraid that as of right now, I’m rather in the dark about it all. In fact, expect these first few posts to be edited as I become more wise on the subject. Infact, just don't bother reading this at all. Actually please do read it, I'm kidding.

I’m going to research and learn as I go, so please excuse any minor mistakes (by all means correct me though!). There are also some links at the bottom of this post to other sites with more detail on the subject. So...here is some very brief and basic info about Studio Ghibli and its origins:

Studio Ghibli is the name of both an animation studio and production company co-founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. The studio’s logo features the character Totoro from Ghibli’s 1988 film My Neighbour Totoro.



From 1982 – 1994, the manga Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki) was published in Tokuma Shoten’s Animage magazine and in 1984 a successful film adaptation of Nausicaa was produced which sparked the beginnings of Studio Ghibli.



The studio itself is headed by acclaimed anime director Hayao Myazaki along with his long-term and also lauded colleague Isao Takahata.

Below is a list of films by Studio Ghibli (excluding shorts and those films made exclusively for the Ghibli Museum). Please note that some of the films in the list were released before the formation of Studio Ghibli and really this is a list of films connected or involved with Studio Ghibli and its most notable staff.

The Little Norse Prince (1968)
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Porco Rosso (1992)
I Can Hear the Sea (1993)
Pom Poko (1994)
Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Cat Returns (2002)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)

Here are some links to other fantastic Ghibli related websites:

Nausicaa.net
Online Ghibli
Ghibli World

Alright, I think that’s enough to be going on with for now. In the next post, I’ll focus on Hayao Miyazaki himself. Until then...

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Hey Lets Go!

Hello. My name is Charlotte, I'm 22 years old and live in Lancashire in the north west of England. This first post will only be very short as its now 12:30am and I have to get up for work in the morning.

At first I tried to put my finger on one single theme for this blog, but I couldn't choose something, so I'm just going to play it by ear for now. I have a good many different hobbies and interests, but my favourite thing in the whole wide world (bar family and friends and all that crap) is film..so that narrows it down a bit.

My favourite three things about film are:

1. The horror genre
2. The films of Wes Anderson
3. Films produced by Studio Ghibli

And since I've been in a Ghibli-ish mood lately, that's what I'm gonna concentrate on for now.

So in the next post, expect some general chat and info about Studio Ghibli. Until then..

Much love,

Byebye.