Pop Culture Gadabout
Sunday, August 16, 2009
      ( 8/16/2009 08:20:00 AM ) Bill S.  


"EVEN TODAY, I CANNOT DENY MY OWN STARTING POINT." Timed in the U.S. to ride on the release of his newest feature Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki's Starting Point: 1979-1996 (Viz Media) is a hefty 461-page collection of essays, lectures and interviews that focuses on the first part of the anime master's career. As such, the book ends just before the animator broke through to Western audiences with Princess Mononoke, giving us a look at the aesthetic growth and philosophical principles that have led to such later works as Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.

A strong-willed workaholic with a clear set of opinions, Miyazaki makes for an engaging reading companion. He can be harsh about the failings of both his peers and himself, blistering when it comes to describing what he considers wrongheaded storytelling. He calls, for example, the popular trend toward mecha focusing on giant fighting machinery representative of an "infantile infatuation with power" and is scornful of anime that's adapted from printed manga. "Although it may be good training," he states early in the volume, "I think it is worth bearing in mind that animating an original manga is unrewarding, even if the result is popular with the general public." He even is withering about the term "anime," stating he frankly despises "the truncated word 'anime' because to me it only symbolizes the current desolation of our industry."

Miyazaki's ferociously opinionated personality has undoubtedly helped to keep him from being ground down by the Japanese animation factory system. He's not afraid to buck the prevailing trends, making movies that remain accessible to a younger age audience even as many studios have honed in an older audience. "The future of animation," he states in a 1984 piece, "is threatened by the fact that for most films being planned today, the target age is gradually creeping upward." Yet Miyazaki approaches the continued creation of his lushly inventive all-ages fantasies with a missionary zeal.

At times, when discussing the makings of some of his earliest works, Starting Point can get obscure to those non-cognoscenti unfamiliar with works like Lupin III, Porco Rosso, or Go Panda Go. But his insights on the psychology of his young characters remain fascinating even when you're not fully versed in the early cartoons being discussed. He even carries his critical acumen into discussion of other cinematic children's works, noting of the dragon in The Neverending Story, for instance, that "the more we humans anthropomorphize something and make it an easy target for empathy, the less interesting it becomes."

Starting Point also provides a heady look into the recurring themes in Miyazaki's work, particularly his ongoing sensitivity to ecological concerns. Though his movies celebrate the natural, they do so without any condescending sentimentality. "It's not enough to just go around saying how wonderful nature is;" he notes, "we also need to explain what sort of inconveniences and even harm nature can bring us." It's this ability to convey the complexities of such subjects into works being marketed as children's entertainment that makes such Miyazaki epics as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Mononoke so compelling.

Starting Point contains a few pages of Miyazaki artwork: an amusing eight-page color comic on the history of in-flight meals done for Japan Airlines in-flight magazine back in 1994, a series of black-and-white scrapbook pages representing the artist's fascination with planes and land vehicles, plus a charming two-page boyhood reminiscence of a garden featuring dinosaur statuary. These tantalizing pages make the reader yearn for more of Miyazaki's penwork. But for that I guess we have to look back at reprints of his seven-volume manga masterwork, Nausicaa -- and look forward to the next full-bodied book of provocative thoughts and reminiscence from the still vital career of this animation genius.

Labels:

# |



Pop cultural criticism - plus the occasional egocentric socio/political commentary by Bill Sherman (popculturegadabout AT yahoo.com).



On Sale Now!
Measure by Measure:



A Romantic Romp with the Fat and Fabulous
By Rebecca Fox & William Sherman

(Available through Amazon)

Measure by Measure Web Page







Ask for These Fine Cultural Blogs & Journals by Name!

aaronneathery.com News
Aaron Neathery

American Sideshow Blow-Off
Marc Hartzman

Arf Lovers
Craig Yoe

Attentiondeficitdisorderly
Sean T. Collins

Barbers Blog
Wilson Barbers

The Bastard Machine
Tim Goodman

The Beat
Heidi MacDonald

BeaucoupKevin
Kevin Church

Big Fat Blog
Paul McAleer

Big Mouth Types Again
Evan Dorkin

Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog
Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag

Blog This, Pal!
Gordon Dymowski

Bookgasm
Rod Lott

Cartoon Brew
Amid Amidi & Jerry Beck

Cartoon Web Log!
Daryl Cagle

Clea's Cave
Juana Moore-Overmyer

Collected Editions

The Comics Curmudgeon
Josh Fruhlinger

The Comics Reporter
Tom Spurgeon

Comics.212
Christopher Butcher

Comics Waiting Room
Marc Mason

Comics Worth Reading
Johanna Draper Carlson

a dragon dancing with the Buddha
Ben Varkentine

Egon

Electromatic Radio
Matt Appleyard Aaron Neathery

Estoreal
RAB

Eye of the Goof
Mr. Bali Hai

Fred Sez
Fred Hembeck

Greenbriar Picture Shows
John McElwee

The Groovy Age of Horror
Curt Purcell

The Hooded Utilitarian
Noah Berlatsky

Hooray for Captain Spaulding
Daniel Frank

The Horn Section
Hal

The House Next Door
Matt Zoller Seitz

Howling Curmudgeons
Greg Morrow & Friends

The Hurting
Tim O'Neil

I Am A Child of Television
Brent McKee

I Am NOT the Beastmaster
Marc Singer

In Sequence
Teresa Ortega

Innocent Bystander
Gary Sassaman

Irresponsible Pictures
Pata

Jog - The Blog
Joe McCulloch

The Johnny Bacardi Show
David Allen Jones

Journalista
Dirk Deppey

King's Chronicles
Paul Dini

Let's You And Him Fight
One of the Jones Boys

Mah Two Cents
Tony Collett

Metrokitty
Kitty

Michael's Movie Palace
Michael

Nat's TV
Nat Gertler

Ned Sonntag

Neilalien

News from ME
Mark Evanier

No Rock&Roll Fun
Simon B

Omega Channel
Matt Bradshaw

Pen-Elayne on the Web
Elayne Riggs

PeterDavid.net
Peter David

(postmodernbarney.com)
Dorian White

Progressive Ruin
Mike Sterling

Punk Rock Graffiti
Cindy Johnson & Autumn Meredith

Revoltin' Developments
Ken Cuperus

Rhinoplastique
Marc Bernardin

Scrubbles
Matt Hinrichs

Self-Styled Siren
Campaspe

Spatula Forum
Nik Dirga

Tales from the Longbox
Chris Mosby

TangognaT

The Third Banana
Aaron Neathery & Friends

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

Toner Mishap
B2 et al

Trusty Plinko Stick
Bill Doughty

TV Barn
Aaron Barnhart et al

Unqualified Offerings
Jim Henley

Various And Sundry
Augie De Blieck

Video WatchBlog
Tim Lucas

When Fangirls Attack
Kalinara & Ragnell

X-Ray Spex
Will Pfeifer

Yet Another Comics Blog
Dave Carter



A Brief Political Disclaimer:

If this blog does not discuss a specific political issue or event, it is not because this writer finds said event politically inconvenient to acknowledge - it's simply because he's scatterbrained and irresponsible.




My Token List of Poli-Blogs:

Alicublog
Roy Edroso

Eschaton
Atrios

Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher

James Wolcott

Lance Mannion

The Moderate Voice
Joe Gandelman

Modulator
Steve

Pandagon
Amanda Marcotte & Friends

The Sideshow
Avedon Carol

Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy

Talking Points Memo
Joshua Micah Marshall

This Modern World
Tom Tomorrow

Welcome to Shakesville
Melissa McEwan & Friends



Blogcritics: news and reviews
Site Feed



Powered by Blogger



Twittering:
    follow me on Twitter