158 Facts About Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist.

Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as its honorary chairman.

Hayao Miyazaki joined Toei Animation in 1963, working as an inbetween artist and key animator on films like Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon, Puss in Boots, and Animal Treasure Island, before moving to A-Pro in 1971, where he co-directed Lupin the Third Part I alongside Isao Takahata.

Hayao Miyazaki joined Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first feature film The Castle of Cagliostro and the television series Sherlock Hound.

Hayao Miyazaki wrote and illustrated the manga Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and directed the 1984 film adaptation produced by Topcraft.

Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, writing and directing films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Porco Rosso, which were met with critical and commercial success in Japan.

Hayao Miyazaki retired from feature films in 2013 but later returned to make The Boy and the Heron, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Hayao Miyazaki's works are frequently subject to scholarly analysis and have been characterized by the recurrence of themes such as humanity's relationship with nature and technology, the importance of art and craftsmanship, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic in a violent world.

Hayao Miyazaki's protagonists are often strong girls or young women, and several of his films present morally ambiguous antagonists with redeeming qualities.

Hayao Miyazaki's works have been highly praised and awarded; he was named a Person of Cultural Merit for outstanding cultural contributions in 2012, received the Academy Honorary Award for his impact on animation and cinema in 2014, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2024.

Hayao Miyazaki has frequently been cited as an inspiration for numerous animators, directors, and writers.

Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5,1941, in the town Akebono-cho in Hongo, Tokyo City, Empire of Japan, the second of four sons.

Hayao Miyazaki's father enjoyed purchasing paintings and demonstrating them to guests, but otherwise had little known artistic understanding.

Hayao Miyazaki was in the Imperial Japanese Army around 1940, discharged and lectured about disloyalty after declaring to his commanding officer that he wished not to fight because of his wife and young child.

Hayao Miyazaki regretted not having a serious discussion with his father, and felt he had inherited his "anarchistic feelings and his lack of concern about embracing contradictions".

In 1944, when he was three years old, Hayao Miyazaki's family evacuated to Utsunomiya.

Hayao Miyazaki was closest with Miyazaki, and had a strong influence on him and his later work.

Yoshiko Hayao Miyazaki died in July 1983 at the age of 72.

Hayao Miyazaki began school as an evacuee in 1947, at an elementary school in Utsunomiya, completing the first through third grades.

Hayao Miyazaki aspired to become a manga artist, but discovered he could not draw people; instead, he drew planes, tanks, and battleships for several years.

Hayao Miyazaki was influenced by several manga artists, such as Tetsuji Fukushima, Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka.

Hayao Miyazaki destroyed much of his early work, believing it was "bad form" to copy Tezuka's style as it was hindering his own development as an artist.

Hayao Miyazaki preferred to see artists like Tezuka as fellow artists rather than idols to worship.

Around this time, Hayao Miyazaki often saw movies with his father, who was an avid moviegoer; memorable films for Hayao Miyazaki include Meshi and Tasogare Sakaba.

Hayao Miyazaki later recounted that, falling in love with its heroine, the film moved him to tears and left a profound impression, prompting him to create work true to his own feelings instead of imitating popular trends; he wrote the film's "pure, earnest world" promoted a side of him that "yearned desperately to affirm the world rather than negate it".

Hayao Miyazaki joined the "Children's Literature Research Club", the "closest thing back then to a comics club"; he was sometimes the sole member of the club.

Hayao Miyazaki frequently approached manga publishers to rent their stories.

In 1960, Hayao Miyazaki was a bystander during the Anpo protests, having developed an interest after seeing photographs in Asahi Graph; by that point, he was too late to participate in the demonstrations.

Hayao Miyazaki graduated from Gakushuin in 1963 with degrees in political science and economics.

In 1963, Hayao Miyazaki was employed at Toei Doga; this was the last year the company hired regularly.

Hayao Miyazaki began renting a four-and-a-half tatami apartment in Nerima, Tokyo, near Toei's studio; the rent was, while his salary at Toei was.

Hayao Miyazaki's proposed changes to the ending of Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon were accepted by its director; he was uncredited but his work was praised.

Hayao Miyazaki found inbetween art unsatisfying and wanted to work on more expressive designs.

Hayao Miyazaki was a leader in a labor dispute soon after his arrival at Toei, and became chief secretary of its labor union in 1964; its vice-chairman was Isao Takahata, with whom Miyazaki would form a lifelong collaboration and friendship.

Around this time, Hayao Miyazaki questioned his career choice and considered leaving the industry; a screening of The Snow Queen in 1964 moved him, prompting him to continue working "with renewed determination".

Concerned that opportunities to work on creative projects and feature films would become scarce following an increase in animated television, Hayao Miyazaki volunteered in 1964 to work on the film The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun ; he was chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer, and was credited as "scene designer" to reflect his role.

Hayao Miyazaki moved to a residence in Higashimurayama after his wedding in October 1965, to Oizumigakuencho after the birth of his second son in April 1969, and to Tokorozawa in 1970.

Hayao Miyazaki provided key animation for The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots, directed by Kimio Yabuki.

Hayao Miyazaki created a 12-chapter manga series as a promotional tie-in for the film; the series ran in the Sunday edition of Tokyo Shimbun from January to March 1969.

Hayao Miyazaki later proposed scenes in the screenplay for Flying Phantom Ship in which military tanks would cause mass hysteria in downtown Tokyo, and was hired to storyboard and animate the scenes.

Under the pseudonym Akitsu Saburo, Hayao Miyazaki wrote and illustrated the manga People of the Desert, published in 26 installments between September 1969 and March 1970 in Boys and Girls Newspaper.

Hayao Miyazaki was influenced by illustrated stories such as Fukushima's Evil Lord of the Desert.

In 1971, Hayao Miyazaki developed structure, characters, and designs for Hiroshi Ikeda's adaptation of Animal Treasure Island, providing key animation and script development.

Hayao Miyazaki created the 13-part manga adaptation, printed in Tokyo Shimbun from January to March 1971.

Hayao Miyazaki left Toei Animation in August 1971, having become dissatisfied by the lack of creative prospects and autonomy, and by confrontations with management regarding The Great Adventure of Horus.

Hayao Miyazaki followed Takahata and Yoichi Kotabe to A-Pro, where he directed, or co-directed with Takahata, 17 of the 23 episodes of Lupin the Third Part I, originally intended as a movie project.

Hayao Miyazaki drew storyboards for the first episode of The Gutsy Frog in 1971, provided key animation and storyboards for two episodes of Akado Suzunosuke in 1972, and delivered key animation for one episode each of Koya no Shonen Isamu and Samurai Giants in 1973.

The production team wanted the series to set new heights for television animation, and Hayao Miyazaki traveled to Switzerland to research and sketch in preparation.

In 1977, Hayao Miyazaki was chosen to direct his first animated television series, Future Boy Conan; he directed 24 of the 26 episodes, which were broadcast in 1978.

Visually, Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by Paul Grimault's The Adventures of Mr Wonderbird.

Hayao Miyazaki did key animation for thirty episodes of the World Masterpiece Theater series Rascal the Raccoon and provided scene design and organization on the first fifteen episodes of Takahata's Anne of Green Gables before leaving Nippon Animation in 1979.

Hayao Miyazaki moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha to direct his first feature anime film, The Castle of Cagliostro, an installment of the Lupin III franchise.

Otsuka had approached him to direct the film following the release of Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo, and Hayao Miyazaki wrote the story with Haruya Yamazaki.

Production ran for four months and the film was released on December 15,1979; Hayao Miyazaki wished he could have had another month of production.

Hayao Miyazaki became a chief animation instructor for new employees at Telecom Animation Film, a subsidiary of Tokyo Movie Shinsha.

Hayao Miyazaki provided key animation for one episode of The New Adventures of Gigantor, and directed six episodes of Sherlock Hound in 1981, until legal issues with Arthur Conan Doyle's estate led to a suspension in production; Hayao Miyazaki was busy with other projects by the time the issues were resolved, and the remaining episodes were directed by Kyosuke Mikuriya and broadcast from November 1984 to May 1985.

Hayao Miyazaki spent some time in the United States during the film's production.

Around that time, Hayao Miyazaki was approached for a series of magazine articles by Animages editorial staff.

Hayao Miyazaki drew the episodes primarily in pencil, and it was printed monochrome in sepia-toned ink.

Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by the comic series Arzach by Jean Giraud, whom he met while working on the manga.

In 1982, Hayao Miyazaki assisted with key animation for an unreleased Zorro series, and for the feature film Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie.

Hayao Miyazaki found some of Topcraft's staff unreliable, and brought on several of his previous collaborators, including Takahata, who served as producer, though he was reluctant to do so.

Pre-production began on May 31,1983; Hayao Miyazaki encountered difficulties in creating the screenplay, with only sixteen chapters of the manga to work with.

Several critics have labeled Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind as possessing anti-war and feminist themes; Hayao Miyazaki argues otherwise, stating he only wishes to entertain.

Hayao Miyazaki felt Nausicaa's ability to understand her opponent rather than simply defeat them meant she had to be female.

The studio's name had been registered a year earlier; Hayao Miyazaki named it after the nickname of the Caproni Ca.

In 1984, Hayao Miyazaki traveled to Wales, drawing the mining villages and communities of Rhondda; he witnessed the miners' strike and admired the miners' dedication to their work and community.

Hayao Miyazaki was angered by the "military superpowers" of the Roman Empire who conquered the Celts and felt this anguish, alongside the miners' strike, was perceptible in Welsh communities.

Hayao Miyazaki returned in May 1985 to research his next film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, the first by Studio Ghibli.

Hayao Miyazaki used the floating island of Laputa from Gulliver's Travels in the film.

Hayao Miyazaki produced and financed the film, and provided several animated sequences.

An attempt to pitch My Neighbor Totoro to Tokuma Shoten in the early 1980s had been unsuccessful, and Hayao Miyazaki faced difficulty in attempting to pitch it again in 1987.

Hayao Miyazaki struggled with the film's script until he read a Mainichi Graph story about Japan forty years prior, opting to set the film in the country before Tokyo's expansion and the advent of television.

Hayao Miyazaki has subsequently donated money and artwork to fund preservation of the forested land in Saitama Prefecture, in which the film is set.

The film was originally intended to be a 60-minute special, but expanded into a feature film after Hayao Miyazaki completed the storyboards and screenplay.

Hayao Miyazaki felt the struggles of the protagonist, Kiki, reflected the feelings of young girls in Japan yearning to live independently in cities, while her talents reflected those of real girls, despite her magical powers.

From March to May 1989, Hayao Miyazaki's manga was published in the magazine Model Graphix, based on an earlier film idea he had assigned to a younger director in 1988 that fell through due to creative differences.

Hayao Miyazaki began production on a 45-minute in-flight film for Japan Airlines based on the manga; Suzuki extended it into a feature-length film, titled Porco Rosso, as expectations and budget grew.

Hayao Miyazaki began work on the film with little assistance, as its production overlapped with Takahata's Only Yesterday, which Hayao Miyazaki co-produced.

The outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 affected Hayao Miyazaki, prompting a more sombre tone for Porco Rosso; the Croatian War of Independence moved the film's setting from Dubrovnik to the Adriatic Sea.

Hayao Miyazaki later referred to the film as "foolish", as its mature tones were unsuitable for children, noting he had made it for his "own pleasure" due to his love of planes.

Except for the Curtiss R3C-2, all planes in Porco Rosso are original creations from Hayao Miyazaki's imagination, based on his childhood memories.

The protagonist's name, Marco Pagot, is the same as an Italian animator with whom Hayao Miyazaki had worked on Sherlock Hound.

Around this time, Hayao Miyazaki started work on the final volumes of the manga Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which he created in-house at Studio Ghibli.

Hayao Miyazaki assisted with the concept of Takahata's Pom Poko, and designed the storyboards and wrote the screenplay for Kondo's Whisper of the Heart, being particularly involved in the latter's fantasy sequences.

Hayao Miyazaki revisited the project after the success of Porco Rosso allowed him more creative freedom.

Hayao Miyazaki chose the Muromachi period for the setting as he felt Japanese people stopped worshiping nature and began attempting to control it.

Hayao Miyazaki experimented with computer animation to supplement traditional animation.

Hayao Miyazaki intentionally made it cryptic, wanting viewers to interpret it themselves.

Hayao Miyazaki completed Princess Mononokes formal proposal in April 1995 and began working on storyboards in May He had intended it to be his final directorial work at Studio Ghibli, citing his poorer eyesight and physical pains.

Hayao Miyazaki approved the deal, not personally interested in the money and wanting to support Tokuma Shoten, who had earlier supported him.

In Princess Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki revisited the ecological and political themes of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Hayao Miyazaki felt the melancholy of the protagonist, Ashitaka, reflected his own attitude, while he compared Ashitaka's scar to modern physical conditions that children endure, like AIDS.

Hayao Miyazaki supervised the 144,000 cels in the film, about 80,000 of which were key animation.

Hayao Miyazaki collaborated directly with Hisaishi on the soundtrack from early in production; Hisaishi wrote an "image album" of pieces inspired by the story, which were reworked as production continued.

Hayao Miyazaki officially returned to Studio Ghibli as its leader on January 16,1999, taking an active role in employee organization.

From 1998, Hayao Miyazaki worked on designs for the Ghibli Museum, dedicated to showcasing the studio's works, including several exclusive short films, for which production began in July 1999.

In 1999, a Japanese theme park engaged Studio Ghibli to create a 20-minute short film about cats; Hayao Miyazaki agreed on the condition that it featured returning characters from Whisper of the Heart.

Hayao Miyazaki realized he had not created a film for 10-year-old girls and set out to do so.

Hayao Miyazaki read manga magazines like and for inspiration but felt they only offered subjects on "crushes and romance", which is not what the girls "held dear in their hearts"; he decided to produce the film about a female heroine whom they could look up to, based on two of the girls he had met.

Hayao Miyazaki traveled to France in December 2001 and the United States in September 2002 to promote the film.

Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed more short films for the Ghibli Museum: Koro no Daisanpo, which screened from January 2002, and Mei and the Kittenbus, which screened from October.

Studio Ghibli announced the production of Howl's Moving Castle in September 2001, based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones, which Hayao Miyazaki had read in 1999.

Hayao Miyazaki was inspired to direct the film, struck by the image of a castle moving around the countryside; the novel does not explain how the castle moved, which led to Hayao Miyazaki's designs.

Some computer animation was used to animate the castle's movements, though Hayao Miyazaki dictated it consist of no more than 10 percent of the film.

Hayao Miyazaki received the honorary Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival in 2005.

Hayao Miyazaki visited the United States in June 2005 to promote the film.

In March 2005, Studio Ghibli split from Tokuma Shoten, and Hayao Miyazaki became corporate director.

Studio Ghibli obtained the rights to produce an adaptation of Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea novels in 2003; Miyazaki had contacted her in the 1980s expressing interest but she declined, unaware of his work.

Hayao Miyazaki later wrote a message for his son: "It was made honestly, so it was good".

In February 2006, Hayao Miyazaki traveled to the United Kingdom to research A Trip to Tynemouth, for which he designed the cover, created a short manga, and worked as editor; it was released in October.

Hayao Miyazaki aimed for the film to celebrate the innocence and cheerfulness of a child's universe.

Hayao Miyazaki was intimately involved with the artwork, preferring to draw the sea and waves himself, as he enjoyed experimenting.

In early 2009, Hayao Miyazaki began writing a manga called Kaze Tachinu, telling the story of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter designer Jiro Horikoshi.

From July 2008, Hayao Miyazaki planned and produced the film Arrietty, for which he co-wrote the screenplay with Keiko Niwa, based on the 1952 novel The Borrowers; it was the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who had started as an inbetween artist on Princess Mononoke.

Hayao Miyazaki wanted his next film to be a sequel to Ponyo, but Suzuki convinced him to instead adapt to film.

Hayao Miyazaki was inspired to create The Wind Rises after reading a quote from Horikoshi: "All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful".

Hayao Miyazaki was moved by the film, the first of his own works to make him cry.

In September 2013, Hayao Miyazaki announced he was retiring from the production of feature films due to his age, but wished to continue working on the displays at the Ghibli Museum.

Hayao Miyazaki was awarded the Academy Honorary Award at the Governors Awards in November 2014.

Hayao Miyazaki developed Boro the Caterpillar, an animated short film which was first discussed during pre-production for Princess Mononoke.

Around this time, Hayao Miyazaki was working on a manga titled Teppo Samurai.

In February 2019, a four-part documentary was broadcast on the NHK network titled 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, documenting production of his films in his private studio.

In 2019, Hayao Miyazaki approved a musical adaptation of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, as it was performed by a kabuki troupe.

Hayao Miyazaki has often criticized the state of the animation industry, stating that some animators lack a foundational understanding of their subjects and do not prioritize realism.

Hayao Miyazaki bemoaned the state of Disney animated films in 1988, saying "they show nothing but contempt for the audience".

Hayao Miyazaki has criticized the use of artificial intelligence in animation.

Hayao Miyazaki's comments resurfaced in March 2025 after the generative artificial intelligence model ChatGPT was updated to produce works strongly resembling artists' styles, including Studio Ghibli's.

Hayao Miyazaki abandoned his Marxist values while creating Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind as he felt Nausicaa's status in an elite class did not affect her class consciousness, recognizing that "No matter what class people are born into, idiots are still idiots and good people are still good".

Hayao Miyazaki felt events like Japan's ownership of the Liaodong Peninsula and its invasion of Manchuria led him to lack an affinity for his homeland, though in his thirties he examined that the land itself had "tremendous power".

In 2015, Hayao Miyazaki disapproved Abe's denial of Japan's military aggression, stating Japan "should clearly say that [they] inflicted enormous damage on China and express deep remorse over it".

Hayao Miyazaki felt the government should give a "proper apology" to Korean comfort women who were forced to service the Japanese army during World War II and suggested the Senkaku Islands be "split in half" or controlled by both China and Japan.

In 2024, Hayao Miyazaki acknowledged the "terrible things" Japan committed against the Philippines during the war.

When Spirited Away was nominated at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003, Hayao Miyazaki refused to attend in protest of the United States's involvement in the Iraq War, and later said he "didn't want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq".

Hayao Miyazaki did not publicly express this opinion at the request of his producer until 2009 when he lifted his boycott and attended San Diego Comic-Con as a favor to his friend John Lasseter.

Hayao Miyazaki expressed his opinion about the terrorist attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, criticizing the magazine's decision to publish the content cited as the catalyst for the incident; he felt caricatures should be made of politicians, not cultures.

In November 2016, Hayao Miyazaki believed "many of the people who voted for Brexit and Trump" were affected by the increase in unemployment due to companies "building cars in Mexico because of low wages and [selling] them in the US".

Hayao Miyazaki did not think Donald Trump would be elected president, calling it "a terrible thing", but said Trump's political opponent Hillary Clinton was "terrible as well".

Hayao Miyazaki's works are characterized by the recurrence of themes such as feminism, environmentalism, pacifism, love, and family.

Hayao Miyazaki is critical of exploitation under both communism and capitalism, as well as globalization and its effects on modern life, believing "a company is common property of the people that work there".

When characters in Hayao Miyazaki's films are forced to engage in violence, it is shown as being a difficult task; in Howl's Moving Castle, Howl is forced to fight an inescapable battle in defense of those he loves, and it almost destroys him, though he is ultimately saved by Sophie's love and bravery.

Hayao Miyazaki is concerned with the sense of wonder in young people, seeking to maintain themes of love and family in his films.

Hayao Miyazaki found many of the protagonists in Miyazaki's films present an idealized image of families, whereas others are dysfunctional.

Hayao Miyazaki forgoes traditional screenplays in his productions, instead developing the narrative as he designs the storyboards, stating "We never know where the story will go but we just keep working on the film as it develops".

Hayao Miyazaki has cited several Japanese artists as his influences, including Sanpei Shirato, Osamu Tezuka, Soji Yamakawa, and Isao Takahata, and Western artists and animators like Frederic Back, Jean Giraud, Paul Grimault, Yuri Norstein, and animation studio Aardman Animations.

Hayao Miyazaki's wife, Akemi Ota, was born in 1938 and hired as an inbetween artist at Toei Animation in 1958, working on Panda and the Magic Serpent and Alakazam the Great.

Hayao Miyazaki initially fulfilled a promise to his wife that they would both continue to work after Goro's birth, dropping him off at preschool for the day; however, upon seeing Goro's exhaustion walking home one day, Hayao Miyazaki decided they could not continue, and his wife quit in 1972 to stay at home and raise their children.

Hayao Miyazaki was reluctant to do so but considered it necessary to allow Miyazaki to focus on his work.

Hayao Miyazaki said he "tried to be a good father, but in the end [he] wasn't a very good parent", and later said he felt he owed "that little boy an apology".

Hayao Miyazaki was described as the "godfather of animation in Japan" by BBC's Tessa Wong in 2016, citing his craftsmanship and humanity, the themes of his films, and his inspiration to younger artists.

Courtney Lanning of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette named him one of the world's greatest animators, comparing him to Osamu Tezuka and Walt Disney; Hayao Miyazaki has been called "the Disney of Japan", though Helen McCarthy considered comparison to Akira Kurosawa more appropriate due to the combination of grandeur and sensitivity in his work, dubbing him "the Kurosawa of animation".

Swapnil Dhruv Bose of Far Out Magazine wrote that Hayao Miyazaki's work "has shaped not only the future of animation but filmmaking in general", and that it helped "generation after generation of young viewers to observe the magic that exists in the mundane".

Hayao Miyazaki became the subject of an exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2021, featuring over 400 objects from his films.

Hayao Miyazaki has frequently been cited as an inspiration to numerous animators, directors and writers around the world, including Wes Anderson, Tony Bancroft, James Cameron, Barry Cook, Dean DeBlois, Guillermo del Toro, Pete Docter, Mamoru Hosoda, Bong Joon-ho, Travis Knight, John Lasseter, Nick Park, Henry Selick, Makoto Shinkai, Steven Spielberg, and Gints Zilbalodis.

Glen Keane said Hayao Miyazaki is a "huge influence" on Walt Disney Animation Studios and has been "part of our heritage" ever since The Rescuers Down Under.

Hayao Miyazaki won the Ofuji Noburo Award at the Mainichi Film Awards for The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Boy and the Heron, and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film for Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Whale Hunt.

Hayao Miyazaki was named a Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government in November 2012, for outstanding cultural contributions.

Hayao Miyazaki was an honoree of the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2024 for his usage of art to "illuminate the human condition".