Dani Cavallaro

Miyazaki has been a favorite of animation fans ever since they could get their hands on his works from Japan. Bootlegs circulated for a long time, but mainly stayed in the animation world, given that the films were very different than what American audiences were used to. But in the early 2000’s, thanks to John Lasseter and Disney, all US audiences were introduced to Miyazaki’s masterpieces, beginning with Spirited Away, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003. This book explores the 2004-2013 period of Miyazaki’s career looking closely at six feature films he contributed to, including three that he directed.

Cavallaro explores these “last” six films from Miyazaki’s talented career as viewed through an academic perspective. Last is used in quotations, because although he has announced his retirement he continues to keep working to this day. Cavallaro does a good job of highlighting the themes seen in these films, all of which were released under the Studio Ghibli logo, which is Miyazaki’s creative home. And while she does a decent job of talking about these films I had several issues with this work.

The biggest issue for me, and the one many others have pointed out, is that she uses so much academic jargon that what she’s trying to say often gets lost in trying to figure out what the words mean. Even among an academic audience this is sure to lose some readers. Not to mention the fact that this would be a book many fans of Miyazaki would have enjoyed if the language wasn’t so academic in nature.

The second biggest issue for me, is that it seems strange to only focus on the “later” works of Miyazaki, as from my perspective he hasn’t had different periods like other filmmakers have. That’s not to say Miyazaki sprung forth whole making the movies we know and love, but more that the bulk of his career with Studio Ghibli can be looked at as a collective. Miyazaki’s films feature the same central tenants of strong female characters, a compelling story that often looks at natural and historical themes. This isn’t something reflected only in his later years, but all of them.

In addition, she also neglects that these themes that she mentions are less Miyazaki and more that Studio Ghibli in general operates under these themes. The studio was founded upon shared principles of the same collaborative beliefs and these themes that the films look at, even the ones Miyazaki didn’t direct, fit into the overall look and pattern of the Studio.

While these concerns detract from the book, the overall information and analysis is useful for any fan of Miyazaki. I would hope that a sequel, or prequel as the case may be, comes out that focuses on Miyazaki’s earlier works, and takes some of these concerns into account.

Review Copy provided by LibraryThing Early Reviews… (altro)

I was rather cautious when deciding whether to request this book; while I'm a fan of Miyazaki's work, my previous experience with books published by McFarland has been less than positive. After reading it, neither of those opinions have changed.

Part of the problem is the highly academic style of writing, which I frequently just bounced off. In part, this was due to the fact that I don't have the background to understand what the author is talking about with some philosophical concepts (this is also a major reason I didn't give the book a lower rating); however, the book's description gave the impression that it was more accessible to a general audience.

Even taking the above into account, the scholarship often seems sloppy. Claims are made about Miyazaki's viewpoints without any citations to back them up. The citations that are present (which are frequent, in case my wording gives any other impression) are given in a non-standard method that makes looking up the source difficult. For example, "(Miyazaki, H. 2008a)" might follow a quotation, sending the reader to a list in the back of the book to find the source (especially tricky with Miyazaki himself, as there are about three and a half pages of sources from him). Also, quotes are frequently broken up with paraphrases and digressions, resulting in sentences having patches of one or two words in quotation marks separated by longer stretches of the author's words. At times, this style seems to be used to attribute the author's view to someone else, as when she ends a statement with a particular bit of wording from Blake (specifically, "mind-forg'd manacles"), the citation making it sound like the entire statement was paraphrasing him. (While he might have been in agreement with the argument, the changes that have occurred in the two centuries plus since he wrote the words in question make it unlikely that his concerns were quite the same as either Miyazaki's or the author's.) There are also some bits of either poor wording or poor research that call much of the research into question due to how basic the items in error are. (I definitely recall a statement that seemed to imply both Shinto and Buddhism are native to Japan, although the index makes it impossible for me to find it again. While Shinto is indeed of Japanese origin, Buddhism came from China, possibly via Korea.)… (altro)