Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki

Most intimate and human documentary of Mr. Miyazaki so far. Glimpses into his life as a director, a father and above all a human, with deep and conflicted feelings about the value of ones life and work, and of humanity.

Kaku Arakawa bravely captures the struggling human behind the living legend.

The man with an apron and the years that he has blessed us with the god-tier animation.

A short documentary about the legendary Hayao Miyazaki: his retirement, philosophy, dealing with the dying industry and the taking over of computer animation.

The crew of the movie was close to Hayao, so we could see him up close and see parts of his daily life. And I definitely had a better understanding of Hayao's ideals, drive, and demand. Even though his old age is getting the better of him and his old crews, his passion for the industry was still unyielding.

It's also interesting to see how he worked the new crew to make Boro the Caterpillar, his first CGI animated film (it's only available at the Ghibli Museum, which was sad).

Overall, even though the documentary was slow at times, I felt that I knew more about the man behind the animation. Despite the limitation of hand-drawn animation, Studio Ghibli would always has the best animation, and it will live on for generations. 8.5/10.

I really didn't know much about the man, himself: Hayao Miyazaki. I knew of his work and have been bouncing around watching many of his films for the first time, every time in the original Japanese language.

Man, this was tough. It's a struggle: retire and be bored to tears or go back to working in an extreme way? I don't know any circumstances outside of this documentary, but what frustrated me is it seemed like such a simple solution, especially for a man as revered as himself: stick to 2D animation! Don't do anything OTHER than 2D animation, his absolute bread and butter for decades.

Ignoring that, we get a time capsule in his life from ~2014-2016. Often times, a bit sad. He treats his chiropractor like his therapist. I appreciate him agreeing to be a part of this documentary, I only wish we get to see this sort of thing in his more recent years.

This really makes me appreciate the attention to detail in all of his films, I truly had no idea he was such a perfectionist, probably too much with regards to his poor staff. Literally a Kubrick in a different medium. I'd recommend a watch, although it's definitely frustrating at times, it's worth it!

If your a fan of Miyazaki, see this movie. If your someone who's going to go into the movie valuing production design, this isn't the movie for you.

Feeling a little like a sequel to 2013's The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki is another behind-the-scenes look at Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, effectively taking the view that Ghibli is Miyazaki, and vice-versa. It sees the legendary filmmaker coming out of retirement - kind of - to make a short film that incorporates CGI animation, and how he struggles with that and occasionally finds it interesting... still, he probably complains about it more often than not, and that can also be entertaining in its own way.

Miyazaki comes across as even more of a doomer in this than usual, but I guess it's interesting to watch in the wake of The Boy and the Heron being released; it feels a little less downbeat, knowing Miyazaki found the drive post-2016 to work on another feature film. The personal nature of this documentary really gets to the core of how creatively driven this man is, even while he constantly battles feelings of self-doubt and even self-hatred.

Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki can never go too in-depth, given its 70-minute runtime, and I think it's also a little repetitive in parts. I still found it largely engaging throughout, and it's easy to recommend to fans of Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki; any behind-the-scenes documentaries about such subjects feel vital and interesting by default.