Son of Miyazaki: A Goro Miyazaki Retrospective

YouTube essayist and documentary filmmaker Steven McCarthy returns once again with another look at Studio Ghibli, this time examining the career of Goro Miyazaki, the son of founding director Hayao Miyazaki who was responsible for Tales From Earthsea, From Up on Poppy Hill and Ronja the Robber's Daughter. This video goes into detail on these films, including production, overarching themes and public reception.

Goro Miyazaki doesn't get enough love from the fans. Part of that is due to the family name and the curse of having a famous father (ask Julian Lennon), and part of that is simply experience, as we have so few works to examine and study. If he continues to create animated films and television series and develop his own unique voice as an artist, those qualities will begin to dominate the conversation.

McCarthy does an excellent job moving that discussion forward, highlighting his strengths and weaknesses, his difficult relationship with his father, and the qualities that make Goro his own man. He may yet define the next generation of Studio Ghibli, bringing it into the modern era of 3D computer graphics animation while retaining the qualities of the hand-drawn tradition.

Once again, great video and great work. McCarthy promises this will be his final Ghibli documentary for a while, as he pursues other topics. I look forward to seeing his future projects. Somebody give him some grant money so he can create a feature length movie.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter on Blu-Ray & DVD (UK)

Ronja the Robber's Daughter, the television anime series directed by Goro Miyazaki, animated by Polygon Pictures, and co-produced by Studio Ghibli, will be released on separate 4-disc Blu-Ray and DVD sets this December in the UK. Studio Canal is the publisher, known for their support of the Studio Ghibli films and many anime titles in recent years.

In the United States, Ronja is currently airing exclusively on Amazon Prime, and no announcements have yet been made regarding a home video release. It is expected that negotiations will be made with an American distributor for a BD/DVD release. For obvious reasons, GKIDS is the most likely choice, although to repeat once again, no official statements have been made at this time.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter is based on the children's book by Astrid Lindgren, the author most famous for Pippi Longstockings. Ghibli Freaks will remember that Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe famously attempted to create an anime series based on Pippi in 1971, but was personally blocked by Lindgren, who refused to approve the project. No doubt the idea of animating Ronja was pursued by Miyazaki, who brought his son Goro to direct.

The series employs CGI animation, painted in the style of hand-drawn animation. Its 2D/3D hybrid is somewhat unique but has also divided fans who would prefer the series to be drawn in the traditional style. Nonetheless, Ronja has received warm reviews from critics and makes a fine addition to the greater Ghibli canon. Does it reach the heights of the legendary Heidi, Girl of the Alps, the 1974 anime masterpiece created by Takahata, Miyazaki and Kotabe? Such comparisons, naturally, are unfair, and somewhat unnecessary. This is an entertaining series in its own right, deserving of success on its own terms. And young Goro-san has endured enough life underneath his father's long shadow.

Let us hope that a home video release for Ronja arrives in the US.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter Coming to Amazon Prime

 

Ronja the Robber's Daughter will be coming soon to online streaming service Amazon Prime. Studio Ghibli made the announcement via their Twitter page, as recording wraps up for the 26-episode TV series.

Ronja was directed by Goro Miyazaki and jointly produced by Studio Ghibli and Polygon Pictures (Transformers Prime). The art design combines traditional hand-painted 2D backgrounds with 3D CG characters. It's a fascinating combination of old and new, and even if it lacks the lush animation of classics like Heidi, Girl of the Alps (which is clearly a major influence upon this series), I am greatly impressed at what the younger Miyazaki and his teams have created. This is a series that is worth watching, and may point to the future of Japanese animation in the CG-era.

A release date for Ronja has yet to be announced, but it is widely believed to happen before the end of this year. Likewise, a Blu-Ray and DVD release is also widely expected sometime next year, but is yet to be announced.

Goro Miyazaki Discusses Ronia

Goro Miyazaki spoke to Japan's Asahi Shimbun today, discussing his career in landscape architecture, animated movies, and his complicated relationship with his famous father. He also discusses his latest project, the NHK anime series, Ronia, the Robber's Daughter.

Some excerpts from the full interview:

Q: You made your debut abruptly as an animated film director when you made Tales from Earthsea (2006). Don’t you think you were given that opportunity precisely because you are Hayao’s son?

A: I don’t know, really. As always, it was [Toshio] Suzuki, the producer, who came up with the proposal, but I have no idea if that was because I am Hayao Miyazaki’s son or was for other reasons.

My father was strongly opposed. He said, for one thing, “How hard do you think I worked as an underling before I was finally a director? It’s reckless for an amateur to be one.”

For another, he said, “If you direct a movie even once, you will be called a director for the rest of your life. Do you understand what that means?”

I replied, at that time, that I didn’t understand. Only later did I realize what that meant. My father was right.

Q: Ronia shows in careful detail how the protagonist girl interacts with her father. In Tales from Earthsea, a boy, who is the main character, stabs his father with a sword in an opening scene. But father-child relations seldom constitute a leitmotif in Hayao Miyazaki’s works. What do you think?

A: I read the original Ronia when I had just become a father myself, so how the robber father rejoiced when Ronia was born came very vividly to me. That is the source of my creative drive.

But apart from that, what you said probably has to do with the fact that I have to remain conscious of my own father, even now.

I used to believe that imagery was there as a means of expressing narratives. But the works of my father have made me realize strongly that imagery has a side that is not about narratives or about logic, and can exist on its own if only it comes with a certain sort of sensuous persuasiveness or an instantaneous pleasure.

I often ask myself what is the vehicle of expression for the sensuosity in my father’s works, and what he has that I don’t have. I also believe that there must be, on the contrary, something that I do have but he doesn’t. Well, life would be easy if I knew what that something was.

I could define it as a goal to create works that would parallel Miyazaki’s anime works from 30 years ago.

But Hayao Miyazaki is a genius who never stops updating himself. When I have climbed several steps, I find him going still further. I will probably never be able to overtake him, and I am telling myself these days that it’s just useless to try to overtake him.

Q: You have left Studio Ghibli to make Ronia, and in doing so, you are using computer graphics to create a likeness of the touch of hand-drawn anime. What do you have to say about that?

A: When Takahata and Miyazaki were creating TV anime series 40 years ago, the art was still evolving, and it involved a variety of trial and error. But the methodology of hand-drawn animated films has been established and is now fully mature.

If I were to create hand-drawn TV anime series now, I would only be following a path carved out by Hayao Miyazaki and others as a latecomer. Well, I wouldn’t like that.

Expression by computer graphics remains incomplete, so both the workers and myself believe that there still remains something that we could do.

It is generally believed that hand-drawn anime is superior to computer graphics when it comes to expressing emotions, but anime artists who use computer graphics maintain a sound ambition to believe that they could achieve something if they tried. They are, I believe, young of heart.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter - A Tale of Revenge, Obsession, and Father's Sons

Now, this is going to be interesting.  This I did not expect.

First, a little history lesson.  Back in 1971, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata left the Toei Doga studio, where they began their careers, and followed colleague and de-facto "older brother" Yasuo Otsuka to A Productions.  Otsuka was involved in his pet project, Lupin III "Series One," and Takahata and Miyazaki were brought in as the new "director's team."  But that's not the reason they came to the studio.

Takahata and Miyazaki came to A Pro because they wanted to produce an anime series based on Pippi Longstockings, the beloved Astrid Lindgren children's story.  The two had worked tirelessly on the project, especially Miyazaki, who created character designs, layouts, and artwork.  After assembling a considerable amount of pre-production work, they paid Lindgren a visit to secure the rights.

Lindgren, in one of the all-time great gaffes, turned them down.  She refused to allow them to create Pipi Longstockings.  It was a slighting the young Hayao Miyazaki never forgot, and seemingly never forgave.  When they returned to Japan, the two filmmakers brought back most of the old Toei crew, and poured all that frustration and disappointment into a new 30-minute short film. Panda Kopanda, which was released to theaters in 1972.  Much of the story elements, layouts, and character designs (particularly Mimiko, the little girl) were taken directly from the abortive Pipi project.  A second Panda Kopanda film, The Rainy Day Circus, was created the following year.

If you look closely, you can see the Pipi Longstockings character pop up in Miyazaki's work - Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Mononoke, House-Hunting (a short film created for the Ghibli Museum).  Father Miyazaki, in case you haven't yet noticed, is a very driven and stubborn man.  It goes with the territory.

And now son Goro, the heir apparent to Studio Ghibli, is directing a new television series...based on another one of Lindgren's stories.  Just try and convince me that Father Miyazaki's fingerprints aren't all over this one.  As I've said, this is going to be VERY interesting.

Ronia the Robber's Daughter is a joint collaboration between Studio Ghibli and Polygon Pictures, a CGI animation studio best known for their work on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, The Sky Crawlers, Pokemo, and Transformers Prime.  There's a great amount of speculation how, exactly, Ronia will look.  How much will be traditional 2D, and how much will be 3D CGI?  The only media released thus far is a promotional image, shown above.  This does suggest a visual style in the Ghibli tradition, aiming back, as they always do, to Heidi, Girl of the Alps. 

One suggestion is that this production will resemble Ni no Kuni, the Playstation 3 role-playing videogame that combined 3D polygons with 2D animated scenes created by Studio Ghibli.  Perhaps the characters will utilize a "cel-shaded" look?  Perhaps the environments will be rendered with 3D polygons, texture-mapped with Ghibli's artwork?  Nobody really knows yet.  We don't yet know the full relationship between the two studios, or the goals of their collaboration.

I have no idea what Ronia will look like.  I'm honestly surprised that Goro-san and Ghibli are working in television.  This is Ghibli's first TV production since the 1993 movie Umi ga Kikoeru (I Can Hear the Sea), and certainly the first long-form series since the Takahata-Miyazaki heyday of the 1970s.  I wonder what Goro had in mind when he took on this project?  And I wonder just how much influence his father had in orchestrating this production?

Once again, I am left wondering about Goro Miyazaki.  Who, exactly, is this man, beyond a famous father's son?  His identity, his very character, remain an enigma to me.  Perhaps I am clouded by the memories of other sons of famous fathers, like Julian Lennon or Dwezil Zappa, men who were cursed to live forever in their father's shadows, struggling to resolve that inherent conflict and create a unique identity for themselves.  The image of Father Miyazaki literally hounding over his son's shoulder, during the production of From Up on Poppy Hill, haunts me.

Is Goro trying to understand his father, trying to walk in his shoes as Dwezil is now doing with his touring "Zappa Plays Zappa" concerts?  Is he following, meekly and obediently, the family tradition?  Is he obeying the dictates of a stern, demanding father?  Is he still learning the craft, paying his dues, having earned the throne without properly earning it?  Just what exactly is happening here?

Perhaps I am over-thinking this; perhaps not.  Such speculations happen in the vacuum of information.  It certainly speaks well of Goro Miyazaki that we keep him in our thoughts.  We're all rooting for him.  We want him to triumph.  It's all such fascinating melodrama.  The man has become his own exhibition, his own living art.