Review of “On the Periphery of the Work” (1987)
Miyazaki Hayao (writer).
Read in Starting Point.
The poverty of young animators; Disney’s difficulties replacing the Nine Old Men; the experience of a traditional job screening process for animators failing completely to identify talent; the punishing experience of making Heidi: A Girl of the Alps (1974) for an industry that only wanted more of the same without paying more; the first all-staff hike; and a proposal for managing a new natural park as a thousand-year old-growth forest.
A series of short articles that ran in Asahi Shimbun through mid-to-late September. As such they have no common thread, but they’re all fun.
References here: Starting Point: 1979–1996 (1996/2009), “Recalling the Days of My Youth” (1998), “Animation Directing Class, Higashi Koganei Sonjuku II School Opening: Urging at Least One Seedling to Sprout” (1998), “Feeling Responsible for the Future of Children and Not Wanting to Make Halfhearted Films” (2006).