A richly illustrated journey through the extraordinary cinematic worlds of beloved filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki

For over four decades, Hayao Miyazaki has been enchanting audiences of all ages. His animated films, often featuring children navigating unfamiliar and challenging worlds, offer timeless explorations of youth and what it means to grow up. Celebrated and admired around the globe for his artistic vision, craftsmanship and deeply humanistic values, Miyazaki has influenced generations of artists. The universal appeal of his evocative natural settings and complex characters, many among them strong girls and young women, cuts across cultural boundaries.

This book is published on the occasion of the 2021 inaugural exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, in collaboration with Studio Ghibli in Tokyo. It accompanies the first ever retrospective dedicated to the legendary filmmaker in North America and introduces hundreds of original production materials, including artworks never before seen outside of Studio Ghibli’s archives. Concept sketches, character designs, storyboards, layouts, backgrounds and production cels from his early career through all 11 of his feature films, including My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), offer insight into Miyazaki’s creative process and masterful animation techniques.

Flipping through the pages of this book, I am fairly certain that most, if not all of the art work, illustrations and storyboards featured in the book can be found in the individual Ghibli Art Of / Storyboard books as well as Japanese Roman albums. What is of added value in this book is of course the context provided by the English write-ups, as well as some of the archival photographs of Hayao Miyazaki in the earlier days of his career, many of which are not easily found either online or in publications.

When I first saw the listing for this book on Amazon I actually had little interest in getting a copy, as I surmised that the art content featured would just be a re-hash / compilation of what I already have in numerous existing Ghibli art books. While the part about the art work is true, what I mentioned previously about the context provided by the English text makes it a worthwhile read, and the publisher has done a good job altogether in the presentation of both the visuals and the prose. For anyone keen on learning more about the impressive work of Hayao Miyazaki, complimented by a very hearty spread of his lovely art work, this comes highly recommended.

P.S. If you are looking for more of Hayao Miyazaki’s lovely art work, I very highly recommend the splendid 2 volume Hayao Miyazaki And The Ghibli Museum art book set.

Hayao Miyazaki ( Academy Of Motion Pictures Exhibition ) Art Book details :

– Dimensions – ‎9.06 x 11.02 inches
– hardcover, 288 pages
– Full color, in English

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