Forum - View topicINTEREST: AFP: Mamoru Hosoda Criticizes Depiction of Women in Hayao Miyazaki Anime
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Oh no, someone dares to criticize Miyazaki, quick, let's call him a hack whose opinion is completely invalid.
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Whitestrider
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Personally I don't think Miyazaki is always right or that all his movies are great (I didn't like too much The Wind Rises, for example) BUT what Hosoda said makes no sense whatsoever... |
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Amuro1X
Posts: 175 |
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Good lord, these comments. Definitely feels like they didn't read the full quote.
I'm glad someone is criticizing Miyazaki. Acting like he's an infallible genius is not healthy. |
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Whitestrider
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Even if we read his full statement he still said this...how can anyone say something like this?? How can you even dare to think something like this...shame on him, I thought he was a better person. It's like amateur psychology applied to a person he doesn't even fully know, he probably has met him only a bunch of times. |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1359 |
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Well, Nausicaa is pretty much a saint, though the manga also has Kushana, who, like Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke, is a complicated character. Kushana also has enough time, in the manga, to develop.
Kiki, Satsuki, Fio, all are pretty genki --- Satsuki is sometimes tired of her bratty little sister, Kiki goes through a period of desperation and lack of self-confidence, but they win out in the end. And Sophie, in Howl's moving castle? Sheeta in Laputa? The proto-Sheeta in Future Boy Conan? I'll pass on Hosoda's pop-psychology, though. I agree that Hosoda is treading a bit on thin ice --- Hana, the mother in Wolf Children really is a bit too perfect. Though Natsuki in Summer Wars was pretty manipulative in how she lured what's-his-name to the family estate (plus the whole idea of deceiving the grand-mother). Now, the grand-mother in Summer Wars... there was a character I'd love to see more of. |
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Whitestrider
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Nausicaa was basically a messiah in the movie...in the manga? Not so much. |
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InvertedIkemen
Posts: 9 |
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There's probably a valid critique of Miyazaki's tendency to cast young girls as the naive heroines of fairy tales, but... Man, Belle doesn't exactly sound like a cutting social critique itself. Nothing says "I'm disrupting Japanese conceptions of femininity" like "introvert becomes an idol singer through the internet", yeah?
(Also, if Hosada wants to correct the portrayal of the internet, why does he always use these really fantastic, VR-y conceptions of it?) |
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ChrissyC
 Posts: 545 |
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A hot take is not always a good take.
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2115 |
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I'm okay with that -- film is a visual medium. And it's the social side of the internet that he wants to offer an alternate view on, not the technical side. |
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xxmsxx
 Posts: 564 |
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Took the words right out of my mouth. I have problems with Miyazaki's female characters too but I have A LOT more problems with Hosoda's depiction of female characters, motherhood and family units in general.
Yeah exactly, I think everyone takes a shot at Miyazaki if given the chance. He is the biggest name after all. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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Exactly. Even though I love Wolf Children, I can agree that Hana is pretty much a perfect person. |
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ThatMoonGuy
Posts: 364 |
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I think he's got a point, really. Miyazaki has an adoration for the pastoralist ideal rivaled only by his disdain of the modern world. Old man is two steps away from quoting Julius Evola. His adoration for young girls is an extension of that. They are the old, innocent children who weren't tainted by terrible stuff like Ultraman and Kamen Rider and thus became disinterested in the real world.
Mkyazaki's world is one of eternal idyl and anything that threatens that idyl is evil. I that sense, he is similar to Satoshi Kon and Hideaki Anno, except that both of them are better directors with a far more interesting and elaborate take on society and philosophy. Miyazaki makes pretty movies, tho. |
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InvertedIkemen
Posts: 9 |
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Do you think it'll capture that social side? I get that you need to a bit inventive to make the internet visually interesting, but I always worry after a certain point you lose the ability to meaningfully comment on it. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Frankly, I think anime in general - including Hosoda - has a problem with the depiction of young female characters as protagonists. Way too much idealization going on. However, having said that, Miyazaki was way ahead of Western animation in using girls as heroic characters. For ages, you wouldn't see a female lead character in any kind of heroic role in the West (not talking about princesses who need to be rescued) because of the perception that girls would watch movies with boy heroes but boys would not watch movies with girl heroes.
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joemuszynski
Posts: 51 |
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To say girls are venerated in Japanese animation, yet underestimated, seem to be opposites to me. Hard to see how both are true. But if so, it seems like an interesting characterization to use. It’s probably best to build on what your predecessors did rather than shit on them.
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