Hayao is a master who creates not just movies, not just anime, and not even just masterpieces. He creates phenomena
MIYAZAKI'S UNIQUENESS
Miyazaki never wrote a screenplay. At most, he had a general idea of what the film would be about. He doesn’t think in terms of events, but in terms of characters.
Hayao sees a character in front of him, his environment, and imagines in his head what could happen. The image that his imagination has created, he immediately sketches in pencil and watercolor.
MIYAZAKI'S CARTOONS ARE ESSENTIALLY A STREAM
OF CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFERRED TO PAPER
CHARACTERS
The main characters in most of Miyazaki’s films were children and girls. It was important for the master to show the inner strength of his characters, not their outer strength.
Miyazaki wanted to convey to children that real strength is not in muscles, but in mental beauty. And it's through it that you can cope with anything
Hayao Miyazaki made cartoons primarily for children, so his main characters are role models through which he wanted to convey his values. Hayao Miyazaki’s great goal was to restore children’s faith in miracles and to teach them to dream.
MAGICAL CREATURES
This term is used to refer to demons, spirits, ghosts, and even animate ancient furniture, such as the ancient myth of the «living» umbrella, which is more than a hundred years old.
The universe of Miyazaki’s films is populated by all kinds of creatures, from talking frogs to gods. Almost all of them are based on characters from Japanese folklore called «yokai».
THAT THESE CREATURES LOOK LIKE IS MIYAZAKI'S IMAGINATION. IN MYTHOLOGY, ONLY THE ESSENCE OF THE YŌKAI IS DESCRIBED, AND IN THE VAST MAJORITY OF CASES, HAYAO INVENTED THE FORMS THEY CAN TAKE ON HIS OWN
NATURE
Of course, this is a highly simplified view of nature, but nevertheless, the main idea is conveyed through the image of Totoro very clearly: if a person treats nature with love, respect and admiration, then nature will treat him similarly, opening for him a world of miracles and magic.
The image of nature in Miyazaki's films can be associated with Totoro, the kindest forest spirit. It's not for nothing that Totoro became the logo of Studio Ghibli
Miyazaki’s nature is a full-fledged character, not just a background for the main characters actions. The characters interact with nature, and to a large extent it is the way they behave that shows Miyazaki’s own attitude toward these characters.
PROGRESS
It’s all about how technology interacts with the world around it. The robot and the castle do no harm and live in perfect harmony, so Miyazaki has no complaints about them. Moreover, Hayao is irrevocably and uncompromisingly in love with aviation technology.
In fact, the way Miyazaki zealously defends nature over technology does not mean that he is an absolute enemy of progress. The robot in Laputa’s Celestial Castle, for example, as well as Howl’s walking castle are positive characters, even though they are a direct manifestation of progress.
The main thing in the master's picture of the world is balance, the sacred there must be harmony in everything. The question of balance is one of the main ideological principles that the great Hayao Miyazaki conveys through his paintings
POST SCRIPTUM
In his cartoons, he creates worlds that balance on the edge between fantasy and reality. Even the most impossible things here are worked out in such detail and fit so seamlessly into the environment that you want to believe in them.
Each of Hayao Miyazaki's films is complete and self-contained. But all together they create a harmonious universe that cannot be confused with anything else
Of course, the goal of animation has never been to directly imitate real life. The beauty of animation is the expanded possibilities of the real world. And Miyazaki makes jewel-like use of this functionality. But even more jewel-like, he fills reality with fictional details.
BECAUSE OF THIS ATTENTION TO DETAIL AND THE DESIRE TO GIVE MEANING TO EVERY CHARACTER’S ACTIONS, MIYAZAKI’S WORLD SLIVE AND BREATHE
JULIA BEDA
