| Contrarian Corner: The Fallacy of “The Next Miyazaki” The title “The Next Miyazaki” has been thrown around quite frequently in the last few years. Indeed, even recently, MyAnimeList’s own Featured Article section published a piece on Mamoru Hosoda and his potential to become someone of Hayao Miyazaki’s caliber. I must say it was not to my liking. This title is poorly dubbed and extremely misguided in so many ways, that I feel the need to speak out against it. Not only does the title itself ignore the important context behind why Miyazaki has been greatly admired, it also ignores why we shouldn’t be looking for the next Miyazaki. One of the biggest mistakes when judging directors is treating them as if they are all applicable to a similar sort of standard. The very title of “The Next Miyazaki” is incredibly loaded, because it is looking for a director who will have a similar impact on the industry and on the perception of anime that Miyazaki has had. The MyAnimeList article draws a connection between Hosoda and Miyazaki by painting them both as filmmakers who create beautifully animated, and largely family friendly, works that appeal to all ages. This is a misguided notion. Firstly, there are plenty of directors who have made a living off of family friendly and beautifully animated works. One must only look at the minds at Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks to see that there’s a wide variety of talent precisely fitting into this criteria. If we were talking strictly about Japan, we have seen many directors in Studio Ghibli create family friendly films, and we have seen that Satoshi Kon has produced fantastically animated works, many of them very family friendly. If we were trying to measure Miyazaki as a director simply off of how fantastic he has been at crafting a family friendly experience, many other directors are closely following him in line. What made Miyazaki so influential was he was revolutionary with his filmography as well as put anime specifically on the map for the rest of the world. For starters, he personally animated and directed a number of his films and was one of the first directors to incorporate 3D animation into anime with films like Princess Mononoke. Few studios can match up to Ghibli’s, specifically Miyazaki’s, level of animation quality from the fluidity to the general realism of the animation. Many simply followed in Miyazaki’s footsteps and took notes from his hands on and involved style of directing. What is more important about Miyazaki was his global appeal. No other director, from Takahata to Makoto Shinkai to Mamoru Hosoda has had such a pervasive impact on the West’s perception of anime. While it’s true that films such as Princess Kaguya and Momo’s Letter were submitted to the Oscars for consideration, none of these had the same sort of stir that a Miyazaki film, such as his latest The Wind Also Rises would have in the academy. Now granted, the Oscar’s Animated Feature award is a complete and utter sham, but even beyond the Academy, there are a great deal of anime fans who would have never heard of anime were it not for Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, or Howl’s Moving Castle. What’s even more impressive is that Miyazaki is one of the few directors who is noted for his strong female leads. Satoshi Kon received much acclaim for this as well, but whether it’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time or Fate Stay/Night, most in the industry would pay to have the same sort of mass appeal Miyazaki’s female characters have achieved. Nausicaa from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, along with San from Princess Mononoke, are largely recognized for their independent and empowering feminine roles. Nausicaa in particular plays the role of the princess, but showcases a level of strength, leadership, resolve, and self-sacrifice that is missing from other characters of her stature. Chihiro from Spirited Away demonstrated Miyazaki’s ability to turn a young girl who is shy and unconfident to one who is headstrong and determined. These all put together strikes at some of the key features of who should be labeled as “The Next Miyazaki.” An important animator and artist, who led the way to push anime onto the global scene, who enjoyed tremendous success due to successfully characterizing an underrepresented demographic, no one who is being thrown around with the moniker “The Next Miyazaki,” comes even close to Miyazaki’s perceived achievements. Makoto Shinkai? Shinkai is a brilliant animator who possesses a gift for visual storytelling, but he’s no Miyazaki. He has little talent in writing characters, and all of his movies tend to recycle a particular theme that is much too reminiscent of young love and drama to leave any lasting significant impact in the way that Miyazaki’s female characters and environmental themes have done. What makes Shinkai fantastic is his commitment to a perfect visual experience, and it shows in his set pieces and cinematography, but that’s not what makes him a successor to the Ghibli legend. Mamoru Hosoda? Absolutely not. Hosoda is the closest to Miyazaki in terms of producing family friendly films, and he also sports a rather impressive filmography of decently animated anime. The problem, however, is Hosoda is too run of the mill of a storyteller. He tells nice stories with engaging dramas, but there’s nothing more to it that would add to his complexity as a narrator. Whether it’s the deep environmental tones in Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke, or the blissful nostalgia and pre-war fantasy of Porco Rosso, Hayao Miyazaki always possesses a deeper sophistication that I think Hosoda is currently missing. If anything, Hosoda evokes some of Miyazaki’s more playful films such as Kiki’s Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro, and while Hosoda certainly adds an element of drama, specifically relating to the issue of family, love, and friendship, I think he doesn’t stray enough away from the dramatic element to really achieve something artistically meaningful. Perhaps the one director who truly could have been considered the next Miyazaki was Satoshi Kon. Like Miyazaki he was a fantastic animator and was a tremendous fan of trying to take animation to places where live action could never touch. He was also well known for his interesting portrayals of women in society, from Millennium Actress to Paprika, and showcased a very profound understanding for the blending of reality and fiction, and the secret lives of people behind their public appearances. But herein lies the greatest of all mistakes when we try to name “The Next Miyazaki,” which is that we shouldn’t even be looking for another Miyazaki. Miyazaki is a relic of a different time in animation history. We cannot mistake the fact that he was deeply influential, but times have drastically changed, and it is egregiously unfair to new directors and new talents to have to measure up to the influence that Miyazaki has cast upon the scene. I consider Kon a superior director to Miyazaki in a variety of respects, but I would never go so far as to say he would have been the next Miyazaki should he have lived, because that’s not who Kon was as a director. See, the big problem with this label is that it constrains our understanding of great Japanese animators to a singular standard, and it also constrains our understanding of the history of the anime medium as a whole to a singular standard. We shouldn’t just be asking who the next Miyazaki will be, but rather who will be the next Osamu Tezuka, or the next Hagio Moto, or the next Osamu Dezaki, or the next Hideaki Anno, or the next Yohiyuki Tomino. These are all fantastic names in the industry, and while Miyazaki was incredibly important in putting anime onto the map from a Western context, all of these names were deeply influential to the development and success of anime. Directors should surely be judged against their peers and predecessors, but when they are coming from completely different angles or have completely different philosophies on how they create their anime, perhaps it’s time to abandon this notion that every anime director must be matched up against Miyazaki, or must be matched up against Satoshi Kon. This is not just a great disservice to the directors who may be unfairly judged against directors who are not even comparable, but a great inhibitor to being more open and understanding the nuances of what makes animators and directors different from one another. At the end of the day, people are free to use terms however they like. However, for all the freedom that they hold, I would still deeply question the legitimacy of the phrase “The Next Miyazaki.” In the way that people have used it, it appears nebulous, unhelpful, and ultimately counterintuitive to respecting and appreciating the great talent there exists in the industry today. |
ZergneedsfoodMar 30, 2016 1:27 PM
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| This phrase is not something I would usually pay mind to when reading an article, but your essay really opened my eyes to see why throwing it around can become an issue to understanding and appreciating different works from different directors. Your examples and analysis are all on point in my opinion. I was nodding along as I read. Even if these kind of opinions on the works of directors can be subjective in a sense, you really made a case as to what pulls some of these directors back (maybe not what necessarily influences their lack of impact on the West, but something to be considered nonetheless) without playing down what makes them popular with viewers. Your words also highlight how superficial and simplistic some of these comparisons can be when made taking just one or two scale into account and not the multiplicity of angles that can be considered like you said almost at the end. I really enjoyed reading this! |
密室殺人はなぜ美しいのか。 |
| That's actually a very subtle thing that lies in "who's the next Miyazaki" words, that even me never noticed that before. I am in agreement with you after reading this, very thoughtful and enlightening. I enjoy reading this as well. |
 Tobacco Causes Severe Health Problems, Smoke Moderately While Respecting Others. |
Moneta said: Satoshi Kon has produced fantastically animated works, many of them very family friendly. Just a small typo here. Good article. However, I've always thought this was obvious, rather than something that should be regarded as contrarian. But I suppose it's somewhat become a standard practice to draw false equivalences to significant individuals in creative industry. You can see a similar case where M. Night Shyamalan kept being hailed as "the next Spielberg" which ironically ended up damaging more than helping his cause. Similarly with drawing parallels between Shinkai and Miyazaki, they're completely different directors with very different talents, and it saddens me when people do this as I feel it misaligns expectations. With how sparse the anime movie industry is, it feels almost like Miyazaki's legacy will be more of a curse than a blessing for future directors until it fades. |
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