
Hayao Miyazaki
Biography
Hayao Miyazaki (Miyazaki Hayao, born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly five decades, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company. The success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney, British animator Nick Park as well as Robert Zemeckis, who pioneered Motion Capture animation, and he has been named one of the most influential people by Time Magazine.
Miyazaki began his career at Toei Animation as an in-between artist for Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon where he pitched his own ideas that eventually became the movie's ending. He continued to work in various roles in the animation industry over the decade until he was able to direct his first feature film Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro which was published in 1979. After the success of his next film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, he co-founded Studio Ghibli where he continued to produce many feature films until Princess Mononoke whereafter he temporarily retired.
While Miyazaki's films have long enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax released his 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan—until it was eclipsed by another 1997 film, Titanic—and the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards. Miyazaki returned to animation with Spirited Away. The film topped Titanic's sales at the Japanese box office, also won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and was the first anime film to win an American Academy Award.
Miyazaki's films often incorporate recurrent themes, such as humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. Reflecting Miyazaki's feminism, the protagonists of his films are often strong, independent girls or young women. Miyazaki is a vocal critic of capitalism and globalization. While two of his films, The Castle of Cagliostro and Castle in the Sky, involve traditional villains, his other films such as Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke present morally ambiguous antagonists with redeeming qualities.
Acting (45 movies)

Professional Special: Director Miyazaki Hayao
2009

Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion
2021

Yasuo Ōtsuka's Joy in Motion
2004

Mei and the Kittenbus
2002

Ghibli Landscapes - A Journey to Encounter Directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki's Starting Point
2011

Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo
2012

Kurosawa's Way
2011

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
2013

The Birth of "Princess Mononoke" Part 1: A Drama on Paper
1997

Isao Takahata and His Tale of The Princess Kaguya
2014

25th Anniversary Studio Ghibli Concert
2008

A Hedgehog Came Out of the Fog
2011

2399 Days with Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli
2023

Miwa: A Japanese Icon
2013

Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron
2024

Super TV: Frontline Information 15 Months of Exclusive Coverage! The Secret Behind "My Neighbors the Yamadas"
2000

Princess Mononoke: Making of a Masterpiece
2004

The World, The Journey Of My Heart - Traveler: Animation Film Director Hayao Miyazaki
1998

Miyazaki, Spirit of Nature
2025

Hayao Miyazaki Produces a CD
2004

Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum
2005

Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki
2017

The Nippon Television Special
2001

Poppy Hill - 300 Days of War Between Father and Son
2011

The Work of Hayao Miyazaki "The Wind Rises" Record of 1000 Days/Retirement Announcement Unknown Story
2014

Princess Mononoke in the U.S.A.
2001

Ghibli and The Miyazaki Mystery
2005

The Art of 'Spirited Away'
2003

How Ponyo Was Born: Hayao Miyazaki's Thought Process
2009

How Ghibli Was Born
1998

The Birth of "Princess Mononoke" Part 3: The Day The Record Was Broken
1997

A Ghibli Artisan - Kazuo Oga Exhibition - The One Who Drew Totoro's Forest
2007

The Birth of "Princess Mononoke" Part 2: Life Has Been Breathed Into It!
1997

In Love With and Living Within Movies - Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki
1993

"The Ornithopter Story: Fly, Hiyodori Tengu!"
2002

Imaginary Flying Machines
2002

The Making of Only Yesterday
1991

Lasseter-san, Thank You
2003

Inside Ghibli's Creation: 400 Days of Clash Between Hayao Miyazaki and The New Director
2010

The Cat Returns - Making of
2002

Manga!
1994

Ghibli's Bookshelf
2010

Ghibli Landscapes - The Japan Depicted In Miyazaki's Works
2008

The Birth of Studio Ghibli
2003

Miyazaki
2025
Directing (39 movies)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
1984

Princess Mononoke
1997

Spirited Away
2001

Castle in the Sky
1986

Howl's Moving Castle
2004

Porco Rosso
1992

My Neighbor Totoro
1988

Ponyo
2008

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro
1979

Kiki's Delivery Service
1989

The Sky-Colored Seed
1992

House Hunting
2006

Lupin the Third: Greatest Capers
1995

Mei and the Kittenbus
2002

The Wind Rises
2013

Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess
2010

Imaginary Flying Machines
2002

Koro's Big Day Out
2002

The Whale Hunt
2001

Mon Mon the Water Spider
2006

The Day I Bought a Star
2006

Nandarou
1992

Sherlock Hound: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle / Treasure Under the Sea
1984

Yuki's Sun
1972

Sherlock Hound: The Movie
2024

Future Boy Conan
1979

Boro the Caterpillar
2018

The Boy and the Heron
2023

Sherlock Hound: Mrs. Hudson Is Taken Hostage / The White Cliffs of Dover
1986

Treasure Hunting
2011

A Splendid Dance
2001

Rambutan Adventures
2001

The Fish of the Fish
2001

Tacolator
2002
Bobo-kun
2002

Madaran's World
2007
Piyopiyo Baba
2002

Future Boy Conan: The Big Giant Robot's Resurrection
1984

On Your Mark
1995