Reviews of Starting Point: 1979–1996 (1996/2009) and related work

Collected writings of, interviews with and a few comic trifles by Miyazaki Hayao. Aside from a foreword, afterword, biography and editorial footnotes, the collection contains:

• “Nostalgia for a Lost World” (1979).
• “From Idea to Film” (1979).
• “Lupin Was Truly a Creature of His Era” (1980).
• “A Proposal to Acquire Film Rights” (1980).
• “Thoughts on Fleischer” (1980).
• “Thoughts on Fantastic Planet” (1981).
• “My Scrapbook” (1981).
• “Panda in Process” (1982/1994).
• “My Point of Origin” (1982).
• “On Animation and Cartoon Movies” (1982).
• “On Nausicaä” (1982).
• “A Woman Finish Inspector” (1982).
• “A ‘Slanderous’ Portrait” (1982).
• “Having Seen Machi and Purezento” (1983).
• “A Film That Can Be Enjoyed by People Who Have Never Read the Original Story” (1983).
• “Speaking of Conan” (1983).
• “Hayao Miyazaki on His Own Works” (1984).
• “Original Proposal for Castle in the Sky” (1984).
• “About Period Dramas” (1985).
• “Using a Bucket to Pour Water on a Flood” (1985).
• “The Citroen 2CV Is the Descendant of French Aircraft of the 1930s” (1985).
• “I Want a Garden Like This” (1986).
• Castle in the Sky (1986).
• “Personally, I Think There Is a Continuity from Nausicaä” (1986).
• “Project Plan for My Neighbor Totoro” (1986).
• “My Neighbor Totoro — Directorial Memo: Characters” (1987).
• “On the Periphery of the Work” (1987).
• “A Greeting of Solidarity — Afterword” (1987).
• “Thoughts on Japanese Animation” (1988).
• “My Car” (1988).
• “Kiki — The Spirit and the Hopes of Contemporary Girls” (1988).
• “Totoro Was Not Made as a Nostalgia Piece” (1988).
• “Having Seen The Man Who Planted Trees” (1988).
• “What the Scenario Means to Me” (1989).
• “I Parted Ways with Osamu Tezuka When I Saw the ‘Hand of God’ in Him” (1989).
• “I Wanted to Show the Various Faces of One Person in This Film” (1989).
• “About Futaki-san” (1989).
• “My Teacher and I” (1990).
• “Searching for One’s Own Starting Point: A Proposal for Dai Tokyo Monogatari (A Story of Greater Tokyo)” (1990).
• “Descendant of a Giant Sloth” (1990).
• “Bokkō (A Battle of Wits; Mo gong, Chinese) Memo: As an Animated Film” (1991).
• “A Nation That Merely Dithers Around” (1991).
• “The Porco Rosso Memos: Directorial Memoranda” (1991).
• “All I Want is to Maintain a Workplace to Create Good Movies” (1991).
• “On the Need to Create an Easy-to-Use Studio” (1991).
• “I Left Raising Our Children to My Wife” (1992).
• “Pithy Comments” (1992).
• “The Type of Film I’d Like to Create” (1992).
• “An Interview Just Prior to the Release of Porco Rosso” (1992).
• “Sometimes We Need Stories About the Old Days” (1992).
• “The Tokyo I Love” (1992).
• “The Sound of the Winds of These Times” (1992).
• “The Power of the Single Shot” (1993).
• “Why Shōjo Manga Now?” (1993).
• “Dining in Midair” (1994).
• “Earth’s Environment as Metaphor” (1994).
• “On Completing Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1994).
• “My Theories on the Popularity of Manga” (1994).
• “On the Banks of the Sea of Decay” (1994).
• “Things That Live in a Tree” (1994).
• “Panda! Go Panda! Creator’s Message” (1994).
• “The Pictures Are Already Moving Inside My Head” (1994).
• “The World of Anime and the Scenario” (1995).
• “Princess Mononoke Planning Memo” (1995).
• “What Takei Sanseidō Means to Me” (1995).
• “On Your Mark — I Purposely Distorted the Lyrics for This Film” (1995).
• “My Old Man’s Back” (1995).
• “There Should Be Commercials Thanking Loyal Customers” (1995).
• “‘My Random Thoughts Notebook Is My Hobby’” (1995).
• “A Requiem for Ryōtarō Shiba-san” (1996).
• “About Ryōtarō Shiba-san” (1996).

In the book, this is all arranged primarily by topic rather than chronology.

More of the same for another decade: The era of Miyazaki’s blockbuster hits and breakthrough international cult status. Entries include:

• “The Battle Between Humans and Ferocious Gods — The Goal of This Film” (1995).
• “What Is Important for Children” (1996).
• “The Elemental Power of the Forest Also Lives Within the Hearts of Human Beings” (1997).
• “Those Who Live in the Natural World All Have the Same Values” (1997).
• “You Cannot Depict the Wild Without Showing Its Brutality and Cruelty: A Dialogue with Tadao Satō” (1997).
• “On Japan’s Animation Culture” (1997).
• “Princess Mononoke and the Attraction of Medieval Times: A Dialogue with Yoshihiko Amino” (1997).
• “A Child’s Five Minutes Can Be Equivalent to a Grown-Up’s Year” (1997).
• “What Grown-ups Can Tell Children So That They Can Live in a Happy Time” (1998).
• “I Want to Fill the Space Between Myself and the Audience” (1998).
• “Recalling the Days of My Youth” (1998).
• “Forty-four Questions on Princess Mononoke for Director Hayao Miyazaki” (1998).
• “Animation Directing Class, Higashi Koganei Sonjuku II School Opening: Urging at Least One Seedling to Sprout” (1998).
• “To Energize People, Towns and the Land” (1998).
• “Sacrifices of the Sky” (1998).
• “Animation and Animism: Thoughts on the Living ‘Forest’” (1998).
• “The Sky That Saint-Exupéry Flew Through” (1998).
• “Traditional Japanese Aestheticism in Princess Mononoke: An Interview by Roger Ebert” (1999).
• “Chihiro, from a Mysterious Town — The Goal of this Film” (1999).
• “Notes for the Spirited Away Image Album” (2000).
• “Words of Farewell” (2000).
• “The Heart That Accepts a ‘Lonely Man’” (2001).
• “Room to Be Free: Speaking About Spirited Away at the Press Conference Held Upon Completion of the Film” (2001).
• “‘Don’t Worry, You’ll Be All Right’: What I’d Like to Convey to Children” (2001).
• “Children Have a Future That Transcends ‘Imagination’” (2002).
• “Once Again, a World Where People Believe Everything Is Alive: A Dialogue with Tetsuo Yamaori” (2002).
• “It’s a Tough Era, But It May Be the Most Interesting of All: A Conversation with Tetsuya Chikushi” (2002).
• “So, Where Do We Go From Here?” (2002).
• “This Is the Kind of Museum I Want to Make” (2002).
• “Nothing Makes Me Happier Than Watching Children Enjoy Themselves” (2002).
• “We Should Each Start Doing What We Can” (2002).
• “The Lights of Zenshōen” (2002).
• “On the Film Dark Blue World: A Dialogue with Producer Toshio Suzuki” (2002).
• “The Fujimi Highland Is Fascinating” (2002/2004).
• “Proposal for an Original Animated Short Titled ‘Mon Mon the Water Spider,’ for the Saturn Theater in the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka” (2004).
• “Proposal for ‘The Day I Bought a Star’” (2004).
• “Proposal for ‘House Hunting’” (2004).
• “Two Pages Are Fine. Just Draw Them!” (2004).
• “Robert Westall’s Blackham’s Wimpey: Proposal for a Book with a Supplementary Guide of Random Thoughts” (2005).
• “I’ve Always Wanted to Create a Film About Which I Could Say, ‘I’m Just Glad I Was Born, so I Could Make This’” (2005).
• “What’s Important for the Spirit: Text of a Speech to Be Given on the Occasion of Receiving the Japan Foundation Award for 2005” (2005).
• “An Attempt at a Short Film: Remarks on Accepting the Japan Foundation Award for 2005” (2005).
• “The Question Is Whether You Really Find It Interesting or Not” (2005).
• “Remark to the Staff of the Ghibli Museum at the Screening of ‘Mon Mon the Water Spider,’ ‘The Day I Bought a Star,’ and ‘House Hunting’” (2005).
• “Welcome to the Ghibli Forest Short Film ‘Mon Mon the Water Spider’” (2006).
• “Worlds of Insects, Trees and Humans: A Dialogue with Takeshi Yōrō” (2006).
• “Feeling Responsible for the Future of Children and Not Wanting to Make Halfhearted Films” (2006).
• “Memories of Lost Landscapes: On Genzaburō Yoshino’s Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiruka” (2006).
• “On Ponyo” (2006).
• “A Man Who Lived Bravely, Confronting a Tough Reality” (2006).
• “House of Three Bears” (2007).
• “From the Anthill: An Introduction” (2006/2007).
• “Words of Farewell” (2007).
• “Memo on Music for Joe Hisaishi” (2007).
• “Snezhnaya Koroleva (The Snow Queen): A Film That Made Me Think Animation Was Worthy Work” (2007).