Hayao Miyazaki: Anime Suffers Because the Industry is Full of "Otaku"

[roseofbattle]

Hayao Miyazaki: Anime Suffers Because the Industry is Full of "Otaku"

Lauded animated film director Hayao Miyazaki says anime suffers when the people making it can't stand observing real people.

Hayao Miyazaki spoke out against the anime industry in a recent television interview. He recently retired, making The Wind Rises his final film, with many of his previous works such as Spirited Away becoming popular even outside of Japan. According to Miyazaki the quality of anime is suffering because industry staff is made up of "otaku," or people who obsessively love anime.

The term "otaku" has a rather negative connotation in Japan and is used more to classify fans who obsess over something (this need not be anime). Miyazaki's specific concerns are over the lack of attention paid to people in real life. He said people in the industry "don't spend time watching real people" and can be characterized as "humans who can't stand looking at other humans." He then called the industry "full of otaku."

Miyazaki approaches animation by observing others. In the interview, as Miyazaki sketches, he explains he's able to create art because he spends time watching others. "Whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, 'Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.'"

With plenty of anime portraying characters without development or capability of change and agency, Miyazaki has a point. In order to create compelling stories and characters, a person needs to both have well-rounded experiences and meet different people.

Source: Anime News Network [http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/01/30/ghiblis-hayao-miyazaki-says-the-anime-industrys-problem-is-that-its-full-of-anime-fans/]


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[roseofbattle]

I just read God saying: "Religion suffers because it's full of zealots."

Oh, my.

 

[Colt47]

I agree with the man. I keep looking back at older anime series and realize that details such as how characters move or interact with each other has become more and more unnatural. There's also a lack of "weight" to movement in a lot of anime as well. Story is sort of in it's own world, though.

 

[scorptatious]

He makes a good point. If you don't know how people in real life work, how are you going to make the people in your creation believable and relatable?

On another note, I think I remember hearing that Miyazaki has a son who's going to follow in his footsteps. Is this true?

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

While I do dislike his terminology, the fact remains that we do have so much anime where the characters don't feel like people. So many shows involve reactions and settings that seem completely unrealistic (harem is one of the worst). I guess I understand why he uses Otaku since they are the ones more closely associated with anime but Hikkikomori would be a better word. Hopefully, anime will be able to have these believable characters without sacrificing the fun. Kill la Kill wouldn't be fun if they were more realistic but I do admit that some of the reactions and behaviors are a bit unhuman.

Ultimately, it comes down to Sturgeon's law: 90% of everything is crap and in this case, that 90% has anime with horrible character development and no agency

 

[hickwarrior]

*sighs* I honestly need to see the man's stuff some day...

Regardless, kind of agreed here. But the context given for those quotes makes me believe he wants good characters in everything. Last time I checked, that doesn't happen in a lot of stuff nowadays.

But I don't have much contact with people nowadays. Can't judge on 'realism' in anime characters if I can't even do so in real life. Even if it did quite a lot better.

I now realize I painted quite the grim picture of myself.

 

[Church185]

He makes a good point. If you don't know how people in real life work, how are you going to make the people in your creation believable and relatable?

On another note, I think I remember hearing that Miyazaki has a son who's going to follow in his footsteps. Is this true?

It's true, and he has made one movie that wasn't well received. Check out Tales from Earthsea [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Earthsea_%28film%29].

 

[Meinos Kaen]

Huuuu, no. No offense to Miyazaki -love his movies- but I expected something more intelligent to come out of his mouth.

The Anime industry is suffering because it's becoming hollywood, as in, there's no will to invest or risk anymore. Producers want to invest in what's sure to bring back money, and that sadly means the same old formula almost all the time, with the same kind of characters and protagonists and humour, with fanservice taking over things like plot, character design and even animation, sometimes.

When was the last time we had a series planned to last over 13 or 25/26 episodes in the last few years, even when it comes to manga adaptations, which causes constrictions and cutting of the original source material which most of the times ruins the source material? (with due exceptions. The Jojo Anime did real well in condensing the manga's sometimes really dragged out chapters, and I can't wait for Stardust Crusaders).

The Otakus are not on the inside, the Otakus are on the outside. On the inside there are people who want easy money.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

He makes a good point. If you don't know how people in real life work, how are you going to make the people in your creation believable and relatable?

On another note, I think I remember hearing that Miyazaki has a son who's going to follow in his footsteps. Is this true?

It is true to an extent. His name is Goro Miyazaki he has already produced 2 films, Tales of Earthsea and From Puppy Hill. The former is not nearly as good as Hayaos own productions and people railed on it hard, but it's still worth a watch. The latter was much better received, though I haven't watched it personally.

He aspires to be a director like Hayao, but he just hasn't got his dads knack for it. But he is young (relatively) and has time to develop his trade. I've heard rumors that he doesn't have a great relationship with his dad, but this isn't uncommon in japanese culture, especially when your dad is running a notably successful empire/

 

[Chemical Alia]

I think I like this guy. One of the reasons I really can't stand anime is that it always feels like it's derived from other anime, and once you get into a cycle of turning to your own industry for the majority of your inspiration, reference, and where you pull your ideas and creativity from, it becomes very stale and predictable. It's why I also can't stand styles like steampunk and even traditional high fantasy to a point.

The same problem exists in video games as well, where you have artists pulling from comics, anime and other games instead of looking outside of the "nerd kingdom" to history, culture and art history. I hear about people not getting jobs because they're not as "passionate of gamers" as the team wants them to be, but they might bring something new and valuable with their experience that may be slightly nontraditional.

In my opinion, the solution is to welcome people who might come from different backgrounds, and the more variety you have in the people making the game, anime, or whatever, that cycle will eventually break and more people will become interested in pursuing these kinds of careers.

 

[Lt. Rocky]

You have no idea how glad I am to hear this coming from what could be considered an industry leader or idol.

If you asked me if I knew anything about an anime made after 1998, I wouldn't be able to give you a straight answer, if any at all, and if I asked you to say what you liked about an anime, chances are you'd be dedicating a good portion of the time talking about how cute you thought one of the individuals opposite of your gender was. The Japanese shows of today have become so increasingly samey, appealing towards the lonely or sexually miscontent.. it used to be an art show of the wondrous and a look into the East's culture and its difference from the West, now its become a virtual strip-club with a questionable age demographic.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I like quite a bit of anime, but it's hard to disagree with what he's saying. There are so many strange and unnecessary elements, such as the prevalence of downright creepy fan-service, which you find in anime all over the place. It's hardly a surprise that many people are turned off by stuff like this.

And if a large portion of female characters can be classified as either "moe" or "tsundere" that's a definite sign that something has gone terribly wrong.

It feels like it's just fans creating anime for the fans, so themselves, and therefore there are no longer many creative impulses to try something new and everything just turns samey.

 

[viranimus]

Yes and no.

Anime "suffers" because it is a product long before it is art. So those making anime have to make sure what they are making is going to be profitable, and its been proven that really all media, but Anime in particular suffers because it is abusively repetitive as a whole entity and it is so because thats what people buy. That represents more than just the Otaku.

I cant help but mentally likening it to saying "Reality TV suffers because of Duck Dynasty" being stated by Simon Cowell. Trying to craft a master work of art in a medium designed to pander to the least inclined to appreciate the art is going to be problematic at best.

 

[MrBaskerville]

Huuuu, no. No offense to Miyazaki -love his movies- but I expected something more intelligent to come out of his mouth.

The Anime industry is suffering because it's becoming hollywood, as in, there's no will to invest or risk anymore. Producers want to invest in what's sure to bring back money, and that sadly means the same old formula almost all the time, with the same kind of characters and protagonists and humour, with fanservice taking over things like plot, character design and even animation, sometimes.

When was the last time we had a series planned to last over 13 or 25/26 episodes in the last few years, even when it comes to manga adaptations, which causes constrictions and cutting of the original source material which most of the times ruins the source material? (with due exceptions. The Jojo Anime did real well in condensing the manga's sometimes really dragged out chapters, and I can't wait for Stardust Crusaders).

The Otakus are not on the inside, the Otakus are on the outside. On the inside there are people who want easy money.

I don't know, he does have a point. Japan is having huge problems because young people are turning asexual and generally losing interest in other people. If that's true, then it makes sense that it could also have a negative effect on the anime business. The thing is, they are probably trying to appeal to these people, leaving less room for the good stuff.

 

[medv4380]

I think hikikomori would have been a better word than otaku. Hikikomori are the people who don't socialize or interact with other human beings. Otaku are just obsessed in the context he's using, and that doesn't exactly exclude social interactions, but hikikomori does.

 

[Meinos Kaen]

Huuuu, no. No offense to Miyazaki -love his movies- but I expected something more intelligent to come out of his mouth.

The Anime industry is suffering because it's becoming hollywood, as in, there's no will to invest or risk anymore. Producers want to invest in what's sure to bring back money, and that sadly means the same old formula almost all the time, with the same kind of characters and protagonists and humour, with fanservice taking over things like plot, character design and even animation, sometimes.

When was the last time we had a series planned to last over 13 or 25/26 episodes in the last few years, even when it comes to manga adaptations, which causes constrictions and cutting of the original source material which most of the times ruins the source material? (with due exceptions. The Jojo Anime did real well in condensing the manga's sometimes really dragged out chapters, and I can't wait for Stardust Crusaders).

The Otakus are not on the inside, the Otakus are on the outside. On the inside there are people who want easy money.

I don't know, he does have a point. Japan is having huge problems because young people are turning asexual and generally losing interest in other people. If that's true, then it makes sense that it could also have a negative effect on the anime business. The thing is, they are probably trying to appeal to these people, leaving less room for the good stuff.

Oh, that Japanese are about to go extinct because of their culture, focus on work and social lives is true, but blaming that all on Anime is really blind. Anime and Manga are a refuge, the root of the problem is in japanese culture in general. Removing that refuge will do nothing but harm. If Japan wants to help itself, it needs to change how their citizens live and get brought up, starting from their scholastic system.

As for Anime producers, they're businessmen. Of course they want to appeal to the people, that's the whole point of the entertainment business. Then, there are those who manage to both appeal to people and even make something good with their resources, but that's a minority, sadly.

 

[jericu]

It seems a bit hypocritical for someone who neglected his children while making movies to be complaining that the industry has too many people who don't pay attention to people.

But yeah, it could be a problem that creators are out of touch... but Otaku by the typical American definition would probably be good, someone who's passionate about what they enjoy and transfer that into what they make.

 

[Trishbot]

One reason I like the Street Fighter II Animated Movie so much is the fights feel "real". They're visceral, quick, and weighty, with even a "special move" used on rare occasion and integrated as part of their repertoire rather than a Dragonball Z style final move (that they should've used from the beginning). It was choreographed by an actual martial artist... and almost every other "fight" I've seen in an anime feels weightless and puny, even the CG stuff like in Advent Children. Overly choreographed, flashy, but silly and puny.

Observing real people, how they talk, how the move, can do wonders for any animated industry, from anime to western shows to video games to movies.

 

[iniudan]

I guess I understand why he uses Otaku since they are the ones more closely associated with anime but Hikkikomori would be a better word.

Hikkikomori doesn't work has he is speaking of the people working in the industry, kind of hard of been classified has having withdrawn from society, if you go to work outside your home.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I guess I understand why he uses Otaku since they are the ones more closely associated with anime but Hikkikomori would be a better word.

Hikkikomori doesn't work has he is speaking of the people working in the industry, kind of hard of been classified has having withdrawn from society if you go to work.

fair enough, that is true, i guess i was thinking about the Hikkikomori's tendency to shut the world out. Regardless, the industry does need to get some perspective on the real world and actually learn how not to make pandering messes