Hayao Miyazaki: Activist or Filmmaker?

An analysis of the Miyazaki exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles juxtaposed on who he is as a filmmaker and who he is thought of as. Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Some claim he is a filmmaker while others claim he is an activist. But can’t he be both? This video dives into Miyazaki’s films to uncover if they did in fact have an underlying message or were they just films with great stories. -Rita Navasardyan

Barco, Mandalit del. “You Can Now Enter Hayao Miyazaki’s Enchanting Animated World at the Academy Museum.” NPR, NPR, 2 Oct. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/10/02/1042155204/academy-museum-hayao-miyazaki-studio-ghibli-exhibition. 

“Future Boy Conan-Remnant Island.” Miyazaki, Hayao, director. Season 1, episode 1. 

Gossin, Pamela. “Animated Nature: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Empathy in Miyazaki Hayao’s Ecophilosophy.” Mechademia: Second Arc, vol. 10, 2015, p. 209., https://doi.org/10.5749/mech.10.2015.0209. 

Miyazaki, Hayao, director. Mo Fa Gong Zhu Princess Mononoke. 1997. 

Miyazaki, Hayao, director. My Neighbor Totoro. 1988. 

Miyazaki, Hayao, director. Ponyo. 2008. 

Miyazaki, Hayao, director. Tian Kong Zhi Cheng Laputa: Castle in the Sky. 

Miyazaki, Hayao, et al. Kaze No Tani No Naushika = Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. 

Miyazaki, Hayao. Until. 30 Sept. 2021 – 5 June 2022, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles.

Mumcu, Sema, and Serap Yilmaz. Anime Landscapes as a Tool for Analyzing the Human-Environment Relationship: Hayao Miyazaki Films”. 2018, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324561409_Anime_Landscapes_as_a_Tool_for_Analyzing_the_Human-Environment_Relationship_Hayao_Miyazaki_Films. 

Pougin, E (2019, June 25). From ‘Princess Mononoke’ To ‘My Neighbor Totoro’: Hayao Miyazaki, Environment Activist.