Jan 5, 1941

Tokyo, Japan

Hayao Miyazaki is a director of animation films and a co-founder of the animation studio, Studio Ghibli.

Miyazaki is the creator of many popular animation feature films, as well as manga. Although largely unknown in the West outside of animation circles until Miramax released his film Princess Mononoke in 1999, his films have enjoyed commercial and critical success in Japan and East Asia. Miyazaki's Spirited Away is the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan; Princess Mononoke held the sa... ... (read more...) me title for a short period until the release of Titanic later in the same year.
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Miyazaki's films are distinguished by recurring themes such as humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. The protagonists of his movies are often strong, independent girls or young women; the "villains" (if any presented at all) are often ambiguous characters with redeeming qualities.

Miyazaki's films have generally been financial successes. His success has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney. However, Miyazaki does not see himself as a person building an animation empire, but as an animator lucky enough to have been allowed to make idiosyncratic films.

Toshio Suzuki, at a Studio Ghibli press conference on 2007-01-17, indicated that the title of the next Miyazaki film would be announced in March 2007.