Miyazakiworld This page intentionally left blank Miyazakiworld a l i f e i n a r t Susan Napier new haven and london Copyright © 2018 by Susan Napier. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office). Designed by Sonia L. Shannon. Set in The Sans type by Integrated Publishing Solutions. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958122 ISBN 978-0-300-22685-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Steve: In memory of a snow-splashed angel This page intentionally left blank contents Prologue: In Search of Miyazakiworld ix 1. Hametsu 1 2. Constructing an Animator 16 3. The Joy of Movement 33 4. Ups and Downs: Castle of Cagliostro 55 5. Nausicaä and “the Feminine Principle” 70 6. Orphans of the Sky: Laputa: Castle in the Sky 86 7. Umbrellas in the Haunted Forest: Transcending National and Personal Trauma in My Neighbor Totoro 101 8. The Witch and the City: Time, Space, and Gender in Kiki’s Delivery Service 122 9. Porco Rosso Lands in Casablanca 140 10. From Messiah to Shaman: The Nausicaä Manga Seeks Light in the Darkness 158 11. The Faces of Others: Boundary Crossing in Princess Mononoke 176 12. The Intimate Apocalypse of Spirited Away 195 13. The Castle, the Curse, and the Collectivity: Howl’s Moving Castle 212 14. Rich and Strange: The Apocalypse of the Innocents in Ponyo 229 15. “A Terrible Wind”: The Wind Rises 246 16. Conclusion 260 Notes 265 Bibliography 281 Acknowledgments 289 Index 291 Color illustrations follow page 124 viii Contents prologue In Search of Miyazakiworld On a gray Sunday in February 2014 I drag a little suitcase through rolling woodland paths outside Nagoya, Japan, to visit the sole remnant of the 2005 Aichi World Expo. The twenty-first century’s first world’s fair (121 nations ex- hibiting on the theme of humans’ harmonious coexistence with nature) drew twenty-two million visitors over six months, but its greatest attraction, and the goal of my journey, wasn’t a 3D ride or a woolly mammoth. Rather, it was a replica of a modest country house from the 1988 Japanese animated film My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro). The house is known as Satsuki and Mei’s House in honor of the two young sisters who live in the house with their father while their mother lies ill in a nearby sanatorium. Although the girls do encounter natural wonders around their woodland home, it is less their coexistence with nature that draws so many visitors than their discov- ery of a large, furry magical being who can fly with the aid of a spinning top and an umbrella, make plants grow exponentially fast, and find lost children. This creature, whom the sisters call Totoro, becomes a quiet, benign presence lending enchantment to their lives. And, over the years, the lives of tens of millions of animated-film view- ers. Totoro, Mei, and Satsuki are characters in one of eleven feature-length animated films directed by Hayao Miyazaki since 1978. Miyazaki officially re- tired in 2013, at the age of seventy-two, but came out of retirement in 2017 and is now superintending the development of another film, to be released ix