Japanamerica interviews on Hayao Miyazaki's second Oscar

I first interviewed Hayao Miyazaki for Japanamerica in the early aughts. I was very fortunate. It was the usual story--a friend of a friend of a friend, and so on. He was a bit tight-lipped at first but relaxed and opened up when he realized that I was no otaku. 

Later I was invited to interview him live onstage at UC Berkeley in California (video here), and we've had a few informal chats since. 

When he was awarded a second Oscar this year (third if you count his 2014 honorary statuette), I gave interviews to the BBC, CNN and The Guardian, in addition to a couple of online Japanese media.

The business has undergone a revolution since our first meeting for Japanamerica. File-sharing and streaming media have made Japanese pop culture in general and anime in particular a content goldmine. The reputation of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli has grown in prominence over the past 20 years, partly owing to its rich and unparalleled catalog of quality content, but also because of licensing deals signed by longtime producer/marketing maestro Toshio Suzuki for merchandise and global streaming platforms (Netflix, Max)--both revenue streams Miyazaki once told me he'd never deign to tap.

It's also worth noting that Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli set themselves apart from the rest of the anime industry in Japan. Miyazaki doesn't even use the word "anime" for his work, preferring "feature-length animated films," with the emphasis on movies, not episodic TV series or manga adaptations. Miyazaki himself openly disdains otaku fanboy culture and thinks most anime from Japan is cheap and puerile commercial drivel.

Outside of Japan, Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli = Anime. But at home, they want nothing to do with it.