Hayao Miyazaki: Exploring the Early Work of Japan’S Greatest Animator
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Greenberg, Raz. "Tall Mountains and Green Gables." Hayao Miyazaki: Exploring the Early Work of Japan’s Greatest Animator. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. 31– 50. Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 1 Oct. 2021. <http:// dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501335976.ch-002>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 1 October 2021, 10:59 UTC. Copyright © Raz Greenberg 2018. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. C h a p t e r 2 T ALL M OUNTAINS AND GREEN G ABLES Miyazaki spent almost a decade at T ō ei, working mostly on action- oriented adventure fi lms focused on male protagonists, and these fi lms’ sense of quick pacing, alongside grandiose action sequences, certainly infl uenced his later career as a director. But as the T ō ei animation department started falling apart, Miyazaki began working for other studios on productions of a very diff erent nature—slow- paced, focused on the daily life of their (mostly female) protagonists. If the T ō ei period of his career taught Miyazaki about animation that’s always on the move, his subsequent career in animation taught him how to stand still, appreciating the beauty of the scenery. And while this idea sounds opposed to the idea of animation in theory, it also became a staple of his later work, one to which he owes much of his critical acclaim: the ability to draw the audience’s attention to the small, simple details of everyday life and fi ll them with beauty and magic. Th e fi rst such production to involve Miyazaki was Moomins (pronounced in Japanese as M ū min ), a television series produced by Tokyo Movie (later renamed Tokyo Movie Shinsha), a studio that emerged with the television anime boom of the mid-1960s. Japanese animated adaptations of foreign legends and classic books were not a new phenomenon when the studio began production on the series in 1969; as noted in the previous chapter, Miyazaki himself worked on such adaptations as Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon and Puss ’n Boots . But Moomins represented a move to a new territory—the studio had purchased the rights to a successful series of children’s books by a foreign author, hoping to score a hit with the local and foreign audience alike. Th e book series by Finnish author Tove Jansson (1914–2001) followed the adventures of the Moomins, a family of cute trolls who live in the deep northern forests of Scandinavia. With the fi rst book appearing in 1945, the Moomin series, written and drawn by Jansson in the years 31 32 Hayao Miyazaki following World War II and the great destruction it brought on Europe, was praised for its promotion of peaceful living, and its sensitive, ideal portrayal of family and community life. 1 For the animators at the Japanese studio, many of them T ō ei veterans (notably Miyazaki’s mentor, Yasuo Ō tsuka), the series’ production was an opportunity to break away from action- oriented productions into something new,2 but the end result was not viewed favorably by Jansson, who did not like the obnoxious behavior of characters in the animated adaptation, and its introduction of violence and modern elements into her stories. 3 Miyazaki was responsible for one such modern element that may have angered Jansson—drawing and animating a military vehicle for an episode of the show. 4 Th e episode in question may have been the show’s twenty- fi rst episode, 5 in which a clunky animated tank makes an appearance in a short sequence. Th e episode itself is otherwise a non- violent and touching story, concerning a young and seemingly lost boy who fi nds a home among the Moomins. As it turns out, the child is actually the heir of a royal family who had had enough of the strict life in the palace (his royal life is mocked in a fl ashback sequence reminiscent of Th e Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird palace sequences) and the episode emphasizes his enthusiasm for the simple, rural surroundings where he fi nds a new home. But when the boy’s royal family arrives and demands his return, he must leave his newfound friends. Although at the episode’s conclusion it is made clear that the boy keeps in touch with the Moomins, it is also hinted that the simple, non- royal life that he sought is now forever out of his reach. Th is episode contains many elements that are featured in the productions that marked a new direction for Miyazaki’s career. East Meets North Miyazaki left T ō ei in 1971. While realizing this meant professional instability, the atmosphere in the studio following its treatment of Th e Little Norse Prince convinced Miyazaki that creative opportunities should be found elsewhere. Having already worked on Moomins , he now joined another attempt to adapt a popular work of Scandinavian children’s literature, Astrid Lindgren’s seminal book series Pippi Longstocking . Miyazaki joined Yutaka Fujioka, the president of Tokyo Movie Shinsha, on a visit to Sweden in order to convince Lindgren to sell the studio the rights for her work. Th is was Miyazaki’s fi rst trip Tall Mountains and Green Gables 33 outside Japan, and it left a deep impression on him: it was his fi rst exposure to the European landscapes that he knew, up to that point, only from books and fi lms. He remarked that upon visiting the city of Visby he felt as though he stepped into “the world of Grimm and Andersen.” Th e visit further inspired Miyazaki to enrich the sketchbook that he started working on, visualizing what the proposed adaptation should look like, but the eff ort proved unsuccessful as Lindgren refused to meet the studio’s representatives and discuss selling the rights to her work.6 Undeterred, Miyazaki began working on a story for an original production that, in many respects, was a retelling of Lindgren’s book, with a distinct Japanese touch. Th e end result was two short fi lms, directed by Takahata based on Miyazaki’s scripts: the 33-minute Panda kopanda and the 38-minute Panda kopanda: amefuri sakasu no maki (titled Panda! Go Panda! and Panda! Go Panda! Rainy Day Circus for their release in English- speaking countries), released in 1972 and 1973, respectively, and screened during special children’s cinema events held during vacations. Both fi lms follow the (mis)adventures of Mimiko, a 7-year- old orphaned girl raised by her grandmother in a sleepy Japanese town. Aft er her grandmother leaves the town for a trip and Mimiko is left in charge of her house, she quickly befriends a giant panda bear and his cub, much to the annoyance of the authorities of the local zoo from which both bears escaped. In Rainy Day Circus , Mimiko and the pandas come to the help of a tiger cub from a traveling circus, again causing much havoc along the way. Th e superfi cial similarities between the two fi lms and Lindgren’s books are obvious: Mimiko’s look—especially the red hair, tied in pigtails—is strongly inspired by Pippi, and both characters enjoy demonstrating their physical strength (Pippi by lift ing heavy animals, Mimiko by standing on her hands). Many of the fi lms’ plotlines also mirror those of Lindgren’s novel, especially in the portrayal of the embarrassment caused to representatives of the adult society, disturbing the ordered and organized nature of their life and work. Mostly, these are the same representatives found in Lindgren’s novel: a local police offi cer, Mimiko’s school teacher, uninvited guests who break into Mimiko’s house and the staff of the wandering circus. Other than the plotlines inspired by Lindgren, Miyazaki’s choice of panda bears as the protagonist’s friends was inspired by the panda craze that Japan experienced in the early 1970s (following China’s agreement to deliver two panda bears to Japan’s zoos7 ), and perhaps also by the comic relief panda characters in Panda and the Magic Serpent . 34 Hayao Miyazaki By re- locating the basic plot of Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking novels to a Japanese environment and an original story, Miyazaki’s scripts for the Panda! Go Panda! fi lms gave the audience a heroine who longs for a proper family and social life, rather than rebelling against them as in Lindgren’s books. Visually, both fi lms featured the style that later became recognized as being associated with both Miyazaki and Takahata: the loving detail in which the fi lm presents modern society—roads, houses and vehicles— that co- exist with lush natural environment. Traveling outside Japan for the fi rst time in his life had left a signifi cant impression on Miyazaki: on one hand, it provided him with a chance to see the European landscapes that he read of in the childrens’ books he studied during his days at the university. On the other hand, upon returning to Japan, he suddenly became aware of how beautiful his home country is—how its natural landscapes are every bit a thing to be proud of as the Europeans are proud of their own natural environment. Aft er working on projects that, for the most part, emphasized foreign and exotic locations, it was Miyazaki’s fi rst trip overseas that brought his home- country to the center of his attention and his work.