Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki

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.

Not what I was expecting, but still an interesting, brief look into a year (or 2) of the life of a great artist. I thought the home-video, camcorder effect would be temporary to kind of set up the intimate nature of the film, but, no, that's the whole movie.

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.

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.