Hayao Miyazaki: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Hayao Miyazaki's cinema grows out of Toei Doga's studio floor in the late 1950s, Soviet and French animation smuggled into postwar Tokyo, European children's literature, and a lifelong creative argument with Isao Takahata. This mix traces those threads forward into the generation of Japanese directors who now work in his shadow.

The Kynda mix for Hayao Miyazaki

• Key Influence · Hakujaden (Panda and the Magic Serpent) by Taiji Yabushita (1958). Japan's first color animated feature, made at Toei Doga, is the film Miyazaki saw as a high school student preparing for exams; the experience of being overwhelmed by its heroine is a story he has retold for decades as the moment animation became possible as a career. He joined Toei Doga in 1963 as an in-betweener, working in the very studio system that produced it, alongside veterans of the film.
• Influencia Obscura · The Snow Queen by Lev Atamanov (1957). Soyuzmultfilm's Andersen adaptation reached Japan while Miyazaki was a young, disillusioned union animator at Toei, and he has repeatedly named it as the work that convinced him to keep going, praising Gerda's unglamorous determination. Its patient, weighty movement and its girl protagonist who simply walks toward what she loves prefigure Nausicaa, Kiki and Chihiro more directly than any Japanese source.
• Local Roots · The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon by Yugo Serikawa (1963). Made at Toei Doga in Tokyo the year Miyazaki was hired, this stylized retelling of the Susanoo myth was the studio's boldest design experiment, animated by the crew Miyazaki apprenticed under, including Yasuji Mori, whose drawing he studied closely. Its flattened graphic backgrounds and mythic Japanese landscape belong to the same studio culture that trained him and Takahata.
• Beyond the Medium · Arzach by Jean Giraud (Moebius) (1975). Miyazaki's admiration for the French bande dessinee artist was mutual and documented: Moebius named his daughter Nausicaa after Miyazaki's heroine, the two held a joint exhibition in Paris in 2004, and Moebius drew tribute images of Ghibli characters. Arzach's silent, wind-scoured desert vistas and pterodactyl flight sit remarkably close to the Valley of the Wind's ecology and its gliders.
• Peer · Angel's Egg by Mamoru Oshii (1985). Oshii emerged as Japan's other major auteur animator in exactly the years Miyazaki founded Ghibli, and the two are documented sparring partners who once developed an unrealized project together in the 1980s. Where Miyazaki animates abundance and motion, Oshii's cryptic, water-logged fable pursues stillness and doubt, making it the clearest contemporary counter-argument to Nausicaa's humanism.
• From the Canon · My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki (1988). Made on a shoestring as a double bill with Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies, a pairing Toshio Suzuki engineered to get either film funded, Totoro distills Miyazaki's method: rural Saitama landscapes drawn from his own childhood, no villain, and drama built from waiting at a bus stop. Its catbus and forest spirit became Ghibli's emblem, and merchandise from it effectively financed the studio's future.
• Key Collaborator · Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata (1988). Takahata directed Miyazaki's first major job, The Little Norse Prince, at Toei, led the labor union he joined, and co-founded Studio Ghibli with him; the two spent fifty years as colleagues and rivals. Released on the same bill as Totoro, this Nosaka adaptation shows Takahata's opposite instinct, documentary restraint and historical grief, and Miyazaki's public grief at his 2018 death was unmistakable.
• Legacy · Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda (2012). Hosoda was hired to direct Howl's Moving Castle before the project reverted to Miyazaki, and he has spoken about that Ghibli experience shaping his independence. His films inherit Miyazaki's rural Japanese settings, self-sufficient mothers and undramatized domestic labor, and Wolf Children's mountain farmhouse and mushrooming sequences read as a direct answer to Totoro's countryside.

What influenced Hayao Miyazaki

• Osamu Tezuka. States Miyazaki was influenced by manga artist Osamu Tezuka. (also via Astro Boy) “Miyazaki was influenced by several manga artists, such as Tetsuji Fukushima , Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka .” (Wikipedia)
• Yasuo Ōtsuka. Ōtsuka was Miyazaki's mentor whose approach profoundly influenced his work. “he worked closely with his mentor, Yasuo Ōtsuka , whose approach to animation profoundly influenced Miyazaki's work.” (Wikipedia)
• The Snow Queen by Lev Atamanov (1957). The Snow Queen (Lev Atamanov) — ghost for Hayao Miyazaki “Hayao Miyazaki has cited Atamanov's 1957 film The Snow Queen as a seminal influence on his work and his favorite film.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The King and the Mockingbird by Paul Grimault (1980). The King and the Mockingbird (Paul Grimault) — ghost for Hayao Miyazaki “Visually, Miyazaki was inspired by Paul Grimault's The Adventures of Mr.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Tetsuji Fukushima. States Miyazaki was influenced by manga artist Tetsuji Fukushima. “Miyazaki was influenced by several manga artists, such as Tetsuji Fukushima , Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka .” (Wikipedia)
• Arzach by Jean Giraud (Moebius) (1975). Arzach (Jean Giraud (Moebius)) — culture for Hayao Miyazaki “Esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, he has been described as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Arzach by Jean Giraud (1976). Miyazaki was inspired by Jean Giraud's Arzach comic series. “He was also inspired by the comic series Arzach by Jean Giraud , whom he met while working on the manga.” (Wikipedia)
• Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka (1952). Astro Boy (Osamu Tezuka) — titan for Hayao Miyazaki “Miyazaki was influenced by several manga artists, such as Tetsuji Fukushima, Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Soji Yamakawa. States Miyazaki was influenced by manga artist Soji Yamakawa. “Miyazaki was influenced by several manga artists, such as Tetsuji Fukushima , Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka .” (Wikipedia)
• Gakushuin University. Miyazaki studied at Gakushuin University. “Miyazaki graduated from Gakushuin in 1963 with degrees in political science and economics .” (Wikipedia)
• The Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird by Paul Grimault. Miyazaki was visually inspired by this Paul Grimault film for Future Boy Conan. “Visually, Miyazaki was inspired by Paul Grimault 's The Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird .” (Wikipedia)
• Luxo Jr. by John Lasseter. Spirited Away's lamp character homages Pixar's Luxo Jr. (via Spirited Away) “Spirited Away ' s hopping lamp character is seen as an homage to Lasseter's character Luxo Jr.” (Wikipedia)
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton (1952). The Borrowers (Mary Norton) — culture for Hayao Miyazaki (openlibrary.org)
• Hakujaden (Panda and the Magic Serpent) by Taiji Yabushita (1958). Hakujaden (Panda and the Magic Serpent) (Taiji Yabushita) — titan for Hayao Miyazaki “Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yasuji Mori, Leiji Matsumoto and Yōichi Kotabe have worked with the company.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The White Snake Enchantress. The film sparked Miyazaki's interest in animation.
• Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Earthsea's theme of names having power suggested to have inspired Spirited Away. (via Spirited Away)

Peers and kindred spirits

• Isao Takahata. Establishes lifelong collaboration between Miyazaki and Takahata. (also via Grave of the Fireflies, Jarinko Chie (Chie the Brat)) “Miyazaki first worked with Isao Takahata (pictured) in 1964, spawning a lifelong collaboration and friendship.” (Wikipedia)
• Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata (1988). Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata) — collaborator for Hayao Miyazaki “He joined Toei Animation in 1963, working as an inbetween artist and key animator on films including Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (1965), The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968), and Animal Treasure Island (1971), be…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Nibariki. Miyazaki co-founded the company Nibariki with Takahata. “Miyazaki and Takahata created a studio to handle copyright of their work, naming it Nibariki” (Wikipedia)
• Angel's Egg by Mamoru Oshii (1985). Angel's Egg (Mamoru Oshii) — peer for Hayao Miyazaki “A producer of the film, Toshio Suzuki, later founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Home of the Three Bears. Miyazaki founded a preschool for Studio Ghibli employees' children. “Miyazaki founded Home of the Three Bears, a preschool for the children of Studio Ghibli employees” (Wikipedia)
• Jarinko Chie (Chie the Brat) by Isao Takahata (1981). Jarinko Chie (Chie the Brat) (Isao Takahata) — geography for Hayao Miyazaki “He joined Toei Animation in 1963, working as an inbetween artist and key animator on films including Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (1965), The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968), and Animal Treasure Island (1971), be…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Joe Hisaishi (1950). Hisaishi became Miyazaki's longtime musical collaborator. (also via Kikujiro)
• Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (1988). Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo) — peer for Hayao Miyazaki (themoviedb.org)
• The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon by Yugo Serikawa (1963). The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (Yugo Serikawa) — geography for Hayao Miyazaki (themoviedb.org)
• Kikujiro by Joe Hisaishi (1999). Kikujiro (Joe Hisaishi) — collaborator for Hayao Miyazaki “Takahata enlisted experimental and minimalist musician Joe Hisaishi to compose the film's score; he subsequently worked on all of Miyazaki's feature films.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli.

Who Hayao Miyazaki influenced

• Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda (2012). Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda) — legacy for Hayao Miyazaki “Toei Animation's Mamoru Hosoda was originally selected to direct the film, but disagreements between Hosoda and Studio Ghibli executives led to the project's abandonment in 2002.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Your Name by Makoto Shinkai (2016). Your Name (Makoto Shinkai) — legacy for Hayao Miyazaki “Miyazaki has frequently been cited as an inspiration to numerous animators, directors and writers around the world, including Wes Anderson, Tony Bancroft, James Cameron, Barry Cook, Dean DeBlois, Guillermo del Toro, Pete Docter, Mamoru H…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Travis Scott (1991). Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki) — culture for Travis Scott (via Spirited Away) (wikidata.org)
• Nintendo. Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki) — culture for Nintendo (via Castle in the Sky) (themoviedb.org)