Faced with the rampant porn industry, Miyazaki Hayao, who is dissatisfied with his desire, picks up his pen again

"It is better to die making animations than to die doing nothing." The news of Hayao Miyazaki's continuous retirement and comeback seems to have become the norm now. Every time he announces his retirement, people still wait for his new works to come out. This also makes many fans admire the old man's spirit and perseverance in devoting himself to the love of his life. But the problems reflected behind this exciting enthusiasm are realities that deserve sober reflection.

Breaking promises several times, the kind of flip-flopping that people really enjoy seeing

Recently, NHK TV station released a special documentary about Hayao Miyazaki, which showed that Miyazaki was not satisfied with making "The Caterpillar's Fault" which he had conceived for 20 years into a 12-minute CG short film, and announced that he would return again to direct a feature-length animated film.

In 2013, after making The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement and said he would no longer make feature-length animated films and would focus on making short films. Such official statements are often ridiculed as Hayao Miyazaki's "seven in, seven out" retirement plan because the audience knows that Hayao Miyazaki will never give up animation production lightly.

Of course, most people will gladly accept it, whether it is a step forward or a step back. But there are also more radical views: the elderly Miyazaki is facing the fact that his talent is running out, and forcing himself to repeatedly produce his last work is not enough, which will also suppress the rising stars to a certain extent. Regardless of whether this statement without factual basis can stand up, the argument that a small workshop like Ghibli, driven by one person, suppresses many large studios sounds like "sour grapes".

Just like a general's desire to die on the battlefield, after being inspired by his old friend, Miyazaki, now 75 years old, began to think deeply about how to spend the rest of his life. In this way, a new long work with a production cycle of nearly 5 years and expected to be completed before he turns 80 was put on the agenda. In the end, he resolutely chose to die on the path he loved.

This can be said to mean a kind of perfection for Hayao Miyazaki himself. On another level, his decision to make frequent comebacks is also due to his personal obsession and attitude and persistence under the current state of the industry. In recent years, more and more Japanese animation local IPs have been transformed into Hollywood, which seems to be the only "way out" for the international transformation of Japanese animation IPs. The works of the late animation director Satoshi Kon, even if the content is complex and the audience is small, will still be used by Hollywood directors in their own movies as a reference. Now Mamoru Oshii has taken the lead with the profound "Ghost in the Shell". Hayao Miyazaki's works are simple and clear and have a wide audience. They are naturally attractive and have the potential for box office and dissemination. There is no suspense that they will surpass other niche works.

In addition, regarding the current state of the industry, the older generation always has an admirable persistence in their careers, but the younger generation rarely has such people. Miyazaki has always been concerned about the quality of animation. He knows that young people may be very familiar with the front-end technology, but they lack the proper understanding of the emotions and some subtle things in the works.

Anno once said that Ghibli was supported by Hayao Miyazaki alone. It can be said that from the entire industry to Ghibli, due to this irreplaceable, unique influence and decisive role, it is difficult to cultivate a qualified successor, which has been verified in "Howl's Moving City" and "Tales from Earthsea". The outsider Mamoru Hosoda was unable to convince the public and was squeezed out, so Miyazaki had to suddenly push his son to an important position. However, his lack of experience was exposed. As Miyazaki Hayao got older, the successor crisis of the Ghibli Empire became more and more serious.

No successor: The crisis reflected by Ghibli is also the crisis faced by the industry

In the documentary mentioned above, DAWANGO's president, Kawakami Yoshio, went to Studio Ghibli to demonstrate AI animation production technology. In the demonstration, they used the movement of zombies to show the ability of AI to produce animations. Unexpectedly, Miyazaki was very unhappy. He mentioned that seeing this kind of movement reminded him of "people who can't exercise because of physical pain", and that people who make this kind of thing "have never considered what pain is." He directly rebuked, "You are insulting life."

Want to make CG animation, this is a new technology, this is something for young people, but how can CG express itself? How to do it without drawing on paper? These are the problems that bother Hayao Miyazaki in today's industry development. Confused about the new technology, dissatisfied with CG animation but helpless, Hayao Miyazaki feels that he is gradually becoming a loser in this dilemma.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the general supervisor of Mobile Suit Gundam, pointed out that although most animation productions nowadays use 3DCG technology in part or in full, the production concept based on hand-drawing is the strength of Japanese animation, especially in the drawing of characters. However, the workload and energy required are unimaginable.

Some people believe that the Japanese people's almost paranoid spirit of craftsmanship is the main reason that hinders their development.

So, what is the situation of the industry? Since 2000, Japan has made relatively complete plans in cultivating relevant industry talents through legislation, long-term revitalization strategies and support plans. To a certain extent, it has guaranteed the development of the new pillar industry of animation. However, to this day, many serious problems are still exposed and need to be overcome.

According to a survey report commissioned by the Japan Animation Creators Association, 759 relevant practitioners were surveyed. Young producers of Japanese animation, which has been well received overseas, are working an average of 11 hours a day and earning more than 1.1 million yen a year, which is far lower than other industries. The deputy representative of the Japan Animation Workers and Performers Association, Yamazaki Riki, who conducted the survey, said that the animators currently involved in this work are facing the dilemma of no successors. If the subsequent animation workers are not trained, the animation industry itself may not survive.

The topic of low pay for new animation practitioners has once again attracted people's attention to this industry in a special discussion on animators on a Japanese TV station. According to the earlier Japanese JAniCA animation production survey report, the turnover rate of new animators in Japan within 3 years is about 80%! And income has become a common problem that cannot be ignored. According to the same survey, the annual income of new animators is even less than half of the income of general staff announced by the National Tax Agency of Japan. Therefore, creating an environment that can cultivate subsequent talents has become an urgent priority to promote the healthy development of the industry.

The market economy has driven the booming development of the industry. From the post-war period to modern Japanese society, animation has gone through a long and challenging journey, from being regarded as a popular culture to being recognized and influenced by mainstream culture and penetrating into all aspects of life. The current decline of the industry is due to various domestic problems. In addition to the low labor costs in the country, many animation producers in Asian countries work at a contract price of a few hundred yen to make themselves more competitive, which has directly led to the poor living environment of domestic practitioners.

Cultural gap: The era of commercial animation makes the masters feel lost

In the era when Chinese animation was flourishing, artistic works were like the soul of Chinese animation. But now that commercial interests are the main consideration, it is no exaggeration to say that the remaining fragments of the soul seem to have been wiped out, which is despairing.

What many people don’t know is that in 1984, Hayao Miyazaki visited China and had a “disappointing trip” to the famous Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

It turned out that Miyazaki was eager to discuss animation art with the Shanghai Animation Studio, but the studio only cared about money. They kept asking how animation could be paid by piece, but Ghibli had a fixed salary. Miyazaki believed that piece-rate wages would not produce creativity and art, but would only produce industrial products and obedient, assembly-line animation. During this trip to Shanghai Animation Studio, Miyazaki, who pursued art above all else, suddenly became extremely disappointed with Chinese animation that only talked about money instead of art. He believed that once piece-rate wages were adopted, China would no longer be able to produce "Chinese school" animation.

So why is Hayao Miyazaki a master? Because his words unfortunately came true. Chinese animation has since lost its direction and can no longer find itself in the maze of interests. This incident made Hayao Miyazaki's initial hope for Chinese animation turn into disappointment and then into complete despair.

What Miyazaki despises most is selling out his creativity for profit, which he considers a humiliation.

This is precisely the reason why Chinese animation has not been able to develop so far. Compared with the high-investment and high-risk of developing independent IP, outsourcing is obviously more profitable, so Japanese painters have a hard time, and Japanese animation therefore needs my country's cheap labor more. This cycle repeats itself.

In terms of output, the overall decline is obvious to all. In the past, Japan developed rapidly and prospered, and a lot of anime works were born. Today, the animation industry as a whole tends to be otaku culture. In addition, Japan's birth rate is getting lower and lower, which means that there will be fewer and fewer Japanese teenagers in the future, causing many youth-oriented animation production teams to either disband or turn to the adult market. Content creation has deviated from the passion of the past, discarded the enduring charm, and harem porn is rampant. Few people in the entire industry are willing to tell good stories.

Hayao Miyazaki once said that he felt that under the influence of otaku culture, anime was becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary people to accept and would become a niche genre.

But in fact, from animation itself to surrounding fan works and even ACG, COS and other related industries are also growing day by day. At the same time, in recent years, Japanese animation has continuously absorbed light novels and other cultures, and it is possible that there will be greater breakthroughs. Therefore, looking back at the seemingly declining industry, sometimes think carefully, inheritance is of course important, but for the new era of the industry, perhaps this can be regarded as a different way to reach the peak.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.