6 Hilariously Glum Quotes From Hayao Miyazaki
If you want to continue to think that the animator responsible for films like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away is as equally full of whimsy, I’d recommend stopping here. It’s probably nicer, if less realistic, to assume that the man who creates beloved animated films is himself sitting in a verdant wood, shielding himself from the rain with a tree leaf.
The man behind the drawing board, though, isn’t exactly the ray of sunshine you might have hoped. Sure, he has inspirational quotes, but he’s also a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist, as these quotes show.
On Life
Life is suffering. It is hard. The world is cursed. But still, you find reasons to keep living.
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Damn, my man Hayao hit us with the classic “life is suffering.” Life is suffering, and the world is cursed? I’m going to go ahead and guess he’s probably not a morning person. Sure, he adds “still, you find reasons to keep living” at the end, but that’s not a swing in tone as much as it is the bare minimum for you not to be hospitalized for your own safety.
On Possibility
Problems begin the moment we’re born. We’re born with infinite possibilities, only to give up on one after another. To choose one thing means to give up another. That’s inevitable. But what can you do? That’s what it is to live.
I love how this is basically an inversion of the idea that life brings you opportunity after opportunity. Instead of a branching path of lives, he’s pitching it as a constantly pruned bush that eventually dies. I can’t really argue with it, either. When big decisions in life have to be made, people aren’t paralyzed with indecision because they’re so excited to do both, but because fear’s hand is holding the base of their spine.
On Utopia
Utopia exists only in one’s childhood life.
Depends on your childhood, of course. If you had a decent one, though, it’s hard to argue that you weren't pretty high on life. The feeling of sitting down in front of Saturday cartoons with a plate of Eggos is something that, if it existed in chemical form, would ruin people’s lives. Is that just heroin?
On The Modern World
Modern life is so thin and shallow and fake. I look forward to when developers go bankrupt, Japan gets poorer and wild grasses take over.
Hayao going beyond glum into full anarchy mode. If he hadn’t gotten into animation, the man had a future as a crust punk with a very sick looking magical deer as a pet. This is a borderline supervillain mindset, and I applaud it. You know if he’s ever seen a Godzilla, he’s rooting for the green guy to take us back to hunting and gathering.
On the End
It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime.
Just in case you thought that last one was a fluke.
On the Future
Personally, I am very pessimistic. But when, for instance, one of my staff has a baby, you can’t help but bless them for a good future. Because I can’t tell that child, “Oh, you shouldn’t have come into this life.” And yet I know the world is heading in a bad direction. So, with those conflicting thoughts in mind, I think about what kind of films I should be making.
For some people, interacting with a baby is a deeply rejuvenating experience. They’re like a little, extremely fragile bottle of pure hope. But not for Miyazaki. His immediate thought upon seeing a brand new, tiny human is “YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE COME HERE!,” like it followed him into a radiation zone. Perhaps not entirely shocking then, his relationship with his son hasn't been picture-perfect.
