Who is Hayao Miyazaki? Jap manga anime anyone?

Since I recently watched *Ponyo* and was nicknamed "Ponyo" by my Japanese rmmate at the clinic.... I am much intrigued to find out more abt the director! Thanks to my Malay friend(Surprise surprise!) that it's by the director Hayao Miyazaki! He is so famous even my Japanese rmmate nodded her head furiously to agree that his works are GREAT!

So who is Hayao Miyazaki? My 2nd AngMo bestfriend, Wiki, says:


Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿, Miyazaki Hayao), born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly five decades, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company. The success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney, British animator Nick Park as well as Robert Zemeckis, who pioneered Motion Capture animation, and he has been named one of the most influential people by Time Magazine.

Miyazaki began his career at Toei Animation as an in-between artist for Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon where he pitched his own ideas that eventually became the movie's ending. He continued to work in various roles in the animation industry over the decade until he was able to direct his first feature film Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro which was published in 1979. After the success of his next film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, he co-founded Studio Ghibli where he continued to produce many feature films until Princess Mononoke whereafter he temporarily retired. After taking a short break, Miyazaki returned to direct Spirited Away and has continued to direct several films since then.


While Miyazaki's films have long enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax released his 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan—until it was eclipsed by another 1997 film, Titanic—and the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards. His next film, Spirited Away, topped Titanic's sales at the Japanese box office, also won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and was the first anime film to win an American Academy Award. Many of his other films have won or been nominated for many awards.


Miyazaki's films often incorporate recurrent themes, such as humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. Reflecting Miyazaki's feminism, the protagonists of his films are often strong, independent girls or young women. While two of his films, The Castle of Cagliostro and Castle in the Sky, involve traditional villains, his other films such as Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke present morally ambiguous antagonists with redeeming qualities.

So I watched *Spirited Away 千与千寻* before!

Last nite I watched *The Cat Returns 猫的报恩*

very light hearted n warm... besides... never see Nugget Boy watch TV so attentively b4, he actually finished the whole movie with me (1hr12mins)... so cute!

 When the movie ended, I found Nugget curling up in his favourite sofa that was beside me, head resting on his paws and still watching the TV attentively... he had a "Awww..... so sweet ending" look on his face....kekekke!

Honestly, I am not a fan of anime, but it was really enjoyable!

Who knows, I might be a new convert?!

 

Btw, ever watch this before? *A Chinese Ghost Story, 小倩* by The Tsui Hark Animation 

 

I would say this was the first anime I watched in the cinema! =D

Catch it n have Fun!