My love for Hayao Miyazaki!!!

Hayao Miyazaki

Hi Charlie! 

It's my first time writing on this blog, so I hope my article will please you. 

I did not really know what I wanted to share with you all. But then, it hit my mind:

I am going to talk about (drum roll) Ghibli Studio!

So, for those who don't know this studio, it is a japanese animation film studio based in Tokyo. It was founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki (OMG a genius honestly), Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. Often, people only know Hayao Miyazaki because he has made most of the studio Ghibli movies and well, he is extremly talented.

Therefore, I chose to focus on his movies even if I have seen some animations from the others creators, his are still my favorites plus I know him better. Miyazaki has released, from 1985 until now, nine animated movies (ten if you count Nausicaa of the valley of the wind which was made in 1984, and whose success helped the creation of Ghibli Studio). It may not seems a lot compared to other film maker but since his movies are draw by hand, it takes a very long time to release one. Moreover, in 2013, he annonced his retirement (he was 72 years old) but he came back for a new feature film in 2016. 

I am obsessed with his work for a lot of reasons: 

• First of all, the animation in itself, I mean his films are BEAUTIFUL. Here are some examples:

Porco Rosso

 Spirited Away

Castle In the Sky

Howl's Moving Castle

• Then, the message. I saw all of Miyazaki's films when I was a kid because my parents are fans. But I am still able to enjoy them because now I can see beyond the story: he talks about  ecological problems, the war, growing up and finding our own way into the world. 
•  And, at last but not least: women! In Hayao Miyazaki films, if the main caracter is not a woman, than you can be sure that there are still women involved in the story. And they are not poor princesses, there are often badass. They fight, they work in factories, they are always useful and glorious. Something that is not current in animation and at that time (some of his creations are from the 80s and the 90s where feminism was not really present).

 To end this article, here is a little presentation of my two favorites Miyazaki's artwork:

1/ Nausicaa of the valley of the wind, because of the ecological dimention. People are forced to survive among toxicals plants and enormous and sometimes dangerous insects. As the animation go on, we found out that this problematic nature is the result of years of polution. So we can imagine that the story is set in our future. Also, I love the personality of Nausicaa, she's a princess who is willing to do anything to save her people.

Nausicaa of the valley of the wind

2/ Princess Mononoke, for the adventure. In this movie, there is a love story betwen two young people who are very different from eachother. It is also the story of a war between humans and nature who is set in the XVI century. This movie is full of myths and beautiful but imaginary creatures. There are a lot of hidden meanings in this one as well.

Princess Mononoke

It was really hard to choose my two favorites between all of his pieces of art and I highly recommend you to watch them all. And as I said before I only talked about Miyazaki but the other animations of the Ghibli studio are great as well. So my advice would be to, well, watch all of the Ghibli studio films and then give me your opinion on them!

Bye everybody!