Turning Point: 1997-2008

When the editors of Animage encouraged me to create a manga, I got all excited and, as fate would have it, decided to create my own version of Nausicaä. I am now forced to reflect yet again on why, years ago, I once gave up drawing manga because I felt I lacked talent. At this point, I hope that I can somehow bring this young heroine into a world o

Hayao Miyazaki has sometimes been described as “a man with no need for the production process.” Even on the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind animated feature, when I served as producer, he never needed anyone to whip his behind to get him to do any of his work. He participated as a member of our animation staff as if he weren’t worried about the

There are too many animators who aren’t interested in that way of expression. Many of them didn’t enter into this field to draw everyday occurrences; they want to forget about reality and go somewhere

The author’s views of an End Times or Armageddon come from his own latent insecurities and fears, so he brought an awful lot of this pessimism with him, and I had some serious doubts about the appropriateness of this in a series for children. Even if someone’s lost all hope for the future, I still think it’s incredibly stupid to go around stressing