January 14, 2005
Japanese Master of Anime Profiled by The New Yorker: A Rare Interview with Hayao Miyazaki
The late Osamu Tezuka is often cited as the Godfather of modern Japanese animation, or anime. Inspired by America's Walt Disney and Betty Boop shorts, Tezuka created Atom Boy (or Mighty Atom) and set the stylistic blueprint for the Japanese genre.
A generation later, auteur Hayao Miyazaki is Japan's most revered and successful anime film director. Two years ago, he won the Academy Award for his hand-drawn feature "Spirited Away," which is the highest-grossing animated film in Japanese history. In spite of the fame and adulation of legions of fans (animators at Disney and Pixar among them) worldwide or because of it, Hayao Miyazaki is notorious, especially in recent years, for ...
... rarely granting interviews with the media. In a journalistic coup, Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker magazine snagged a prized audience with Miyazaki. The interview is the basis of her article, a massive, fascinating profile of Japan's reigning anime creator, in this week's print edition of the New Yorker.
The article has not been made available on the Web (the New Yorker editors shrewdly and understandly sensing this particular feature as "premium content" to drive newstand sales among many who might not normally buy the mag), but the magazine has published an excellent online-only Q&A with Margaret Talbot about Miyazaki and her interview with him.
RELATED LINKS
New Yorker Q&A with Miyazaki Interviewer and writer Margaret Talbot
Midnight Eye Interview with Hayao Miyazaki
Up-to-date, Comprehensive Hayao Miyazaki Fan Site: Nausicaa.net
Official Website of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki's Animation Studio (Japanese)
Biography for Hayao Miyazaki (IMDb)
Posted by typhoon at January 14, 2005 12:48 AM
