An Inspiring Director: Hayao Miyazaki

In 2001, an innovative Japanese animated film was released from a relatively unknown Japanese animation company named Studio Ghibli that was the first of its kind to win an academy award for best animated feature film in 2003. The films name was Spirited Away and it's director and creator was Hayao Miyazaki.
As one half of the founders of the now world renowned Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki has been compared to many American animation directors, even Walt Disney himself. Despite this, his style is one of the most unique, intricate and beautiful creations I have seen. Miyazaki goes to great lengths to create his perfect vision by undertaking many of the tasks himself in the early stages of development; screen writing, directing, storyboarding, character developing and most importantly, the narrative. When you watch a Miyazaki animation, it is quite possible to get lost in the world, enveloped in fantasy and real life likenesses alike. He fills the screen with breathtaking and often whimsical visions of magic and strife.

Some of his stand out films for me include:

• The aforementioned Spirited Away
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky
• and Howl's Moving Castle

Hayao Miyazaki uses many different techniques in his film making to build his expansive, mythological worlds in a way that can be compared to no other. His films are full of vibrant, breathtaking colour which is often used in Japanese anime, yet diversifying it into something far more artistic. He tends to also focus upon female protagonists that largely go against the culture of female representation in Japanese manga and anime respectively, which has lead to some of his co-animators suggesting that he is a feminist. Through his work with his collaborators, Miyazaki has built a general style that is quintessentially his own. One of these collaborators is the celebrated Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, who has composed for nearly every film of Miyazakis making, creating sweeping, emotionally powerful scores that match the shots in the films in every way.