Over the next few posts I will upload a study I undertook on Hayao Miyazaki and his depiction of females.
This opening chapter will explain what is to come in the following posts.
Anime is well established enough to draw scholarly attention. Traditionally Japanese women have been subordinate, therefore, through the use of qualitive and quantitive research, this study investigates Hayao Miyazaki’s depiction of girls and women using four works of animation from Studio Ghibli as case studies, in order to understand whether Miyazaki’s character portrayals are based on real women in Japanese society and whether these portrayals have had any significant impact thus far on Japanese women or girls in contemporary Japanese society because anime in itself has become a gateway into understanding Japanese society.
There was a large-scale commercialisation of Japanese animation beginning in the 1960’s which led to the birth of a new genre; anime (Japanese animation). The fantasy, science fiction and adventure ‘comic-book’ (manga) works are most familiar to the British public and, although no knowledge of Japanese is needed to enjoy anime, it is impossible to watch Japanese animation without wanting to gain some knowledge of Japanese culture and trying to understand the basic moral assumptions that make anime distinctive.
Hayao Miyazaki is a phenomenon in Japan and has a reputation second to none for his commitment to artistic quality. The technical quality of his films is outstanding. His stories are great sweeping epics and his characters sophisticated. Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded an animation studio called Studio Ghibli and subsequently Disney signed a deal for world distribution rights for a number of Miyazaki’s animated movies, thus his work is no longer just on the periphery of Western cult viewing. With his animated characters taking on a life of their own in the form of merchandise, and his museum in Tokyo devoted to the work of Studio Ghibli, the researcher believes that Miyazaki’s anime may have had an important impact on Japanese society, girls and women in particular, and therefore, it is an opportune time to investigate and record whether Miyazaki’s representations of his female characters has had any impact on Japanese women’s lives, thus far or whether Studio Ghibli’s films reflect contemporary Japanese society.
A consideration of the available scholarly literature highlights how Japanese manga and anime have grown in popularity in the Western world. Studies have spread across different fields such as media studies, film studies, cultural studies and sociology. Hayao Miyazaki, ‘The master of Japanese animation’[i] is finally receiving the credit he deserves, having raised comics and animation to ‘the status of artistic and literacy excellence.’[ii] Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki stand ‘at the pinnacle of artistic achievement’[iii] and the worldwide appeal of his young female characters, and sweeping epic stories, prompts me to ask two questions. Miyazaki is a phenomenon in Japan so do his animated films with their shojo (Japanese girl) heroines represent Japan’s society or is Japanese society affected by Miyazaki’s anime? By asking these questions I seek to understand what impact Miyazaki’s anime has had, or will have, on Japanese society, especially women and girls lives. Testing my assumption that women are at a disadvantage in Japan, the study aims to develop an understanding of, and embrace the role and position of females, in four feature-length films directed by Miyazaki, as case studies from Studio Ghibli: My Neighbour Totoro (1988), Porco Rosso (1992), Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001).
[i] McCarthy, H. (2002) Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation, Berkley; Stone Bridge Press. Pg 1
[ii] Ibid Pg 48
[iii] Ibid
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