Hayao Miyazaki: Japan's Premier Anime Storyteller

121 Pages·2012·4.54 MB·English

by  Jeff Lenburg

Legends
of
Hayao
Miyazaki
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Legends of Animation
Tex Avery:
Hollywood’s Master of Screwball Cartoons
Walt Disney:
The Mouse that Roared
Matt Groening:
From Spitballs to Springfield
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera:
The Sultans of Saturday Morning
Walter Lantz:
Made Famous by a Woodpecker
John Lasseter:
The Whiz Who Made Pixar King
Hayao Miyazaki:
Japan’s Premier Anime Storyteller
Genndy Tartakovsky:
From Russia to Coming-of-Age Animator
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Legends
of
Hayao
Miyazaki
Japan’s Premier Anime Storyteller
Jeff Lenburg
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Hayao Miyazaki: Japan’s Premier Anime Storyteller
Copyright © 2012 by Jeff Lenburg
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission
in writing from the publisher. For information contact:
Chelsea House
An Infobase Learning Company
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lenburg, Jeff.
Hayao Miyazaki : Japan’s premier anime storyteller / Jeff Lenburg.
p. cm. — (Legends of animation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60413-841-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-60413-841-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4381-3926-5 (e-book) 1. Miyazaki, Hayao, 1941– —Biography—
Juvenile literature. 2. Animators—Japan—Biography—Juvenile literature.
I. Title. II. Series.
PN1998.3.M577L46 2011
791.4302’33092—dc23
[B]
2011030269
Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please
call our Special Sales Department in New York at [phone] or (800)
322-8755.
You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at
http://www.infobaselearning.com
Text design by Kerry Casey
Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi
Composition by EJB Publishing Services
Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minn.
Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minn.
Date printed: December 2011
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of
publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links
may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
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In memory of my dear friend
Alton Clark.
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CONTENTS
Y
Acknowledgments 9
1 Becoming Master of His Universe 11
2 Realizing His True Potential 24
3 Emerging Into an Anime Auteur 36
4 Leading the Pack 55
5 Crossing Over 65
6 Finding a Renewed Sense of Spirit 78
7 Retreating to His Mystical World 90
Selected Resources 108
Selected Bibliography 111
Index 115
About the Author 120
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ACkNOwlEdgmENTS
Y
I
want to give special thanks to a number of individuals and organiza-
tions whose various contributions were extremely helpful in writing
and completing this insightful volume on the life and career of one of
anime’s greatest masters.
First, my thanks to the Associated Press; the Margaret Herrick
Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Arizona
State University Fletcher Library at the West Campus; Fullerton Col-
lege Library; Pixar Animation Studios; Reuters; University of California,
Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies; Studio Ghibli; TMS Entertain-
ment; Tokuma Shoten; and the Walt Disney Company and their staffs
for sparing their valuable time to provide numerous resources, such
as articles, books, histories, photographs, and other material, for this
worthwhile project.
I owe a great debt of gratitude as well to many published sources,
including the Animage, Daily Variety, The Christian Science Monitor, Film
Comment, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, Variety,
The Washington Post, and countless more that proved enormously help-
ful in researching and writing this biography.
Finally, thanks to Hayao Miyazaki, for your masterful, spirited, and
thought-provoking body of work, and soulful looks into human nature
and all its foibles, and for teaching many important values and lessons
that have enriched and enchanted us all.
9
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