Turning Point: 1997-2008

Some people also suffer from the misconception that Isao Takahata-san and I are both some sort of environmentalists, and that we will make a film out of anything as long as it has an ecological theme or message. Nothing could be further from the truth. Such a film would be like a big fat dried-up log, propped upright. What we need is a living thing

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Recently, Miyazaki-san finished drawing Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Reading it, I was moved to tears. This makes me want to ask Miyazaki-san about his views on the environment. People find it very difficult to understand environmental problems from discussions about the ways in which the environment is being destroyed or the fact that the e

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—What was the difference between what you and your staff were doing and what other studios were doing at that time? Miyazaki: Other studios may also have been pushing their limits. I do think they were all working very hard. But I think we were working the hardest. What I mean is not that we were just working hard, but that we consciously determine

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My personal dilemma over this has become increasingly pointed. I’ve turned my back on the flood of visual material being produced, but I’m struggling desperately in the hope of creating something a little better. In order to do so, I’ve even had to rationalize the art of navigating this world. I tell people I hate professionals, but I know that in

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