Incredible to read. Why do I feel like I've seen Heidi as a child in the 80's? Given it's based on a European story, was it ever broadcast in the UK? It just seems very familiar.
It was great to get an understanding of where Miyazaki's ideas and themes started to come from. As I'm slowly working through his film work, I notice more and more that things happen slowly, deliberately, or even just happen because that's part of the characters normal life, with no real consequence to the story. The sense of presence is now something I understand. Also loved looking at the stills and storyboards.
Ah, thank you! Super happy you enjoyed, and that the piece was able to make a few things click about his style. That's our dream for write-ups like this one! As for Heidi, it was broadcast very widely around the world, and became hugely successful in parts of Europe. Based on what we've read, the series itself didn't reach the UK, but a movie version heavily recut from the show (and unapproved by its creators) did. It's absolutely possible that you came across it in some form!
This was a fantastic read for me for so many reasons—including my fascination with when Miyazaki and Takahata stylistically split (to put it simplistically) and how Takahata created the Nippon Animation World Masterpiece Theatre “house style” with his three children’s lit adaptations. (Not mentioned here, but interesting is that Future Boy Conan was based on a children’s novel too, but not a reality based established classic). Though the many non Takahata WMT series that followed varied wildly in style, I remember in the 90s when I first got into anime, the then current series Romeo’s Blue Skies (one of the best of the later series) confused us fans with no info about it as to why it seemed to share so much with women’s of both Taka and Miya Studio Ghibli films…
I’m a huge Osamu Dezaki fan and it’s no secret that T and M in the 70s were at odds with his sophisticated limited animation style — Dezaki favouring extremely detailed character designs, striking camera direction providing most of the movement and often a lot of visual stylization (impressionistic colour choices, etc) whereas with Heidi etc the focus was on as fluid movement as they could afford, simple character designs that allowed that, more full frame shots with realistic backgrounds etc.
For this reason I’m especially interested in comparing Takahata’s three Nippon WMT series (even if Heidi was technically before) with Dezaki’s Nobody’s Boy Remi and Treasure Island—series that were partly commissioned to rival the success of the WMT series with family targeted serials based on Western children’s literary classics set in the past. Really exemplifies perfectly the wildly different takes the two directors (and collaborators) had towards very similar projects (and I love both styles). Both Dezaki and Takahata felt more interested in film and approaching their works as films for example—but had wildly different styles in mind (Dezaki would have no interest in Takahata’s “documentary” approach, etc)
And I’ve rambled on long enough but your wonderful article gave me a lot to think about. I will add that as a kid in Canada in the 80s who was raised English but was in French immersion school and so allowed to watch tv in the afternoon/-if it was in French, one of my biggest joys was finding the French dub of Anne (oddly no English dub was made for Canada despite the source). Of course back then I had no idea it would be my first exposure to Takahata’s work.
Thanks for this kind and very thoughtful comment! You make a lot of excellent points.
The gap between Remi and Takahata's shows is something that Takahata mentioned himself at the time -- in a few articles/interviews, he specifically cited Remi as an example of what he wasn't doing. Dezaki used his style to make fascinating projects (we like Aim for the Ace: The Movie quite a bit), but it's a whole different approach than the one in Heidi and the Takahata/Miyazaki projects that followed.
And it's very true that Ghibli's work and WMT had similar approaches to character design -- just look at stuff like My Annette, Pollyanna and Tales of Little Women in the '80s! Both Ghibli and WMT took a lot of influence from the designs that people like Yoichi Kotabe and Yasuji Mori were doing for early WMT/Calpis. Not to mention the direct crossover that designers like Yoshifumi Kondo had: Anne and Little Women, but also Grave and Only Yesterday. There's a huge amount of shared DNA between WMT and Ghibli, including their focus on stories aimed at girls and women, as seen in Ghibli projects like Kiki and Whisper of the Heart (among others).
Thank you for your kind reply! I was a bit embarrassed at how long and unruly my reply to you was, so it's much appreciated.
You're completely right about the Ghibli and WMT and it's a very good point to mention people like Kotabe and Mori and their involvement (Kondo especially)--I have a tendency, mostly due to lack of knowledge, to not give all these collaborators their due for what we think of as the "Ghibli" (or WMT) style.
The point I didn't make clearly is I remember as a teenager discovering these works, back when I could only get most Ghibli films as fansub videos, and Romeo's Blue Skies had just aired as the most recent WMT--in those early days of internet online fandom (mostly email groups) when most English speaking fans still knew nothing about WMT's history for example, there was so much confusion from people saying "Well surely Ghibli must be involved" etc. But of course they were unaware of the mutual heritage...
I didn't realize Kondo was particularly involved in the Little Women WMT (as well as Pollyanna it looks like--) I did grow up with Little Women in French as well, and liked it a lot but it made less of an impact on me than Anne.
But speaking of Kondo, and Dezaki, Kondo was one of the most important animators on Dezaki's charming and underappreciated 1975 series Ganba no Bouken.
I'll have to try to find Takahata's comments on Dezaki's Remi. I've more just read some comments from Miyazaki (perhaps misquoted) about why in the 70s he didn't not like Dezaki's approach to animation. Takahata and Dezaki are my two all time favourite anime directors, so it fascinates me to no end how their work and style both "connect" to me on such an emotional level even though they are almost at extreme different ends. I know that with Remi (and Treasure Island) TMS/NTV were inspired by the success Nippon Animation/FujiTV had alreayd been having with their children's literature adaptations. (It's ironic that the series that ended the original run of WMT in 1996 was their own adaptation of Remi, but with a girl lead character...)
Thanks again for your wonderful posts and thoughtful reply!
I was so surprised when I recently found out that Anne of Green Gables, a cartoon I briefly watched as a kid, was made by Takahata. I remember finding it kind of depressing haha, maybe it was because of his pursuit of naturalism as you explained. Need to go and rewatch it!
This kind of thing was easy to miss! Shows like Heidi and Anne aired all around the world, and we've heard that many viewers weren't even aware they were Japanese: they assumed they'd been made in their own countries. All that said, Anne is a fascinating show and well worth trying again -- Takahata designed it so that people would perceive it differently at different ages, so you might have a totally new experience this time.
I loved it in French as a kid but it really does focus on the mundane a lot. Doing daily kitchen chores is shown with at least as much emphasis as the Anne moments any kid who knows the books or Canadian miniseries remembers (like Anne breaking a writing tablet on Gilbert’s head when he teases her about her red hair or Anne inadvertently serving her friend booze and getting her drunk)
So I can see why that wouldn’t appeal to all kids. (The current tv anime adaptation, Anne Shirley which is done with much love and some obvious nods to the Takahata series, tellingly has no time for all those daily chores—but they also are getting through adapting the first three Anne books in half as many episodes as Takahata had to adapt just the first 😉)
This is damn ingenious. Thank you. The dialectic that led two. creatives to succeed fabulously then draw apart. A wonderful story of the evolution of the creative mind(s). Wonderful.
Thanks, Jon! Tying different contexts together like this is something we love, especially when it's about artists chasing their goals/philosophies in a world where they have to navigate time, budget and other forces. It's always intriguing to study.
That was very interesting to read, thank you very much! I liked how Miyazaki said he’s “the kind of person who wants to lie a lot”! Anyway, I hope you write about the making of Sherlock Hound, it’s my favorite series by Miyazaki, very rich and enjoyable.
Really glad you liked it! Thanks for the kind comment. Believe it or not, we were actually planning to return with a piece on Sherlock Hound, but switched gears because we discovered an Italian source we needed to import for Sherlock. That came in a few days ago, so we *should* be able to write about it sometime in the next few months. We'll see what time allows!
Great stuff, it's great to see this synthesized and narrativized. Anyone interested in this might want to investigate the connection between Tomino and Takahata, considering their work history. I watched some Turn A Gundam some time ago, and those Ghibli comments were not just fluff!
Thanks very much! It was definitely a challenge to bring all these details together in a cohesive way (and there's a lot more that could be written about these shows). Will keep that in mind about Turn A Gundam!
Great post! Recently I watched Horus and a little of Anne, it's neat to learn that Takahata and co. Were learning and testing other ideas in between as well.
Thanks very much! This was definitely a long, slow process of development from Horus onward, in terms of how Takahata, Miyazaki, Kotabe and their friends worked. And it continued from the point where this article stops -- Takahata moved away from naturalism, and Miyazaki's throwback cartooniness vanished in Nausicaä. Hoping to write more about all that eventually!
Good point. Early 80s projects by Takahata like Gauche the Cellist and Chie the Brat were probably his most cartoony works (until The Yamadas) which surprised me to discover as I assumed the increased realism in works like Anne led directly to two of the most highly “realistic” anime films ever, Grave of the Fireflies and (the present day scenes in) Only Yesterday, so great to point out it wasn’t such a clear progression in just one direction!
I grew up watching these shows on Portuguese national television. Future Boy Conan was by far my favourite. These shows were seminal on building my love for illustration and animation.
The influence these had worldwide was off the charts. We're hoping one day to write in more detail about how they spread outside Japan and their impact! It's a really fascinating subject.
Incredible to read. Why do I feel like I've seen Heidi as a child in the 80's? Given it's based on a European story, was it ever broadcast in the UK? It just seems very familiar.
It was great to get an understanding of where Miyazaki's ideas and themes started to come from. As I'm slowly working through his film work, I notice more and more that things happen slowly, deliberately, or even just happen because that's part of the characters normal life, with no real consequence to the story. The sense of presence is now something I understand. Also loved looking at the stills and storyboards.
Ah, thank you! Super happy you enjoyed, and that the piece was able to make a few things click about his style. That's our dream for write-ups like this one! As for Heidi, it was broadcast very widely around the world, and became hugely successful in parts of Europe. Based on what we've read, the series itself didn't reach the UK, but a movie version heavily recut from the show (and unapproved by its creators) did. It's absolutely possible that you came across it in some form!
You took the thoughts out of my mind! I was wondering the same thing about Heidi in the 1980's! :)
I think it’s on AmazonPrime
This was a fantastic read for me for so many reasons—including my fascination with when Miyazaki and Takahata stylistically split (to put it simplistically) and how Takahata created the Nippon Animation World Masterpiece Theatre “house style” with his three children’s lit adaptations. (Not mentioned here, but interesting is that Future Boy Conan was based on a children’s novel too, but not a reality based established classic). Though the many non Takahata WMT series that followed varied wildly in style, I remember in the 90s when I first got into anime, the then current series Romeo’s Blue Skies (one of the best of the later series) confused us fans with no info about it as to why it seemed to share so much with women’s of both Taka and Miya Studio Ghibli films…
I’m a huge Osamu Dezaki fan and it’s no secret that T and M in the 70s were at odds with his sophisticated limited animation style — Dezaki favouring extremely detailed character designs, striking camera direction providing most of the movement and often a lot of visual stylization (impressionistic colour choices, etc) whereas with Heidi etc the focus was on as fluid movement as they could afford, simple character designs that allowed that, more full frame shots with realistic backgrounds etc.
For this reason I’m especially interested in comparing Takahata’s three Nippon WMT series (even if Heidi was technically before) with Dezaki’s Nobody’s Boy Remi and Treasure Island—series that were partly commissioned to rival the success of the WMT series with family targeted serials based on Western children’s literary classics set in the past. Really exemplifies perfectly the wildly different takes the two directors (and collaborators) had towards very similar projects (and I love both styles). Both Dezaki and Takahata felt more interested in film and approaching their works as films for example—but had wildly different styles in mind (Dezaki would have no interest in Takahata’s “documentary” approach, etc)
And I’ve rambled on long enough but your wonderful article gave me a lot to think about. I will add that as a kid in Canada in the 80s who was raised English but was in French immersion school and so allowed to watch tv in the afternoon/-if it was in French, one of my biggest joys was finding the French dub of Anne (oddly no English dub was made for Canada despite the source). Of course back then I had no idea it would be my first exposure to Takahata’s work.
Thanks for this kind and very thoughtful comment! You make a lot of excellent points.
The gap between Remi and Takahata's shows is something that Takahata mentioned himself at the time -- in a few articles/interviews, he specifically cited Remi as an example of what he wasn't doing. Dezaki used his style to make fascinating projects (we like Aim for the Ace: The Movie quite a bit), but it's a whole different approach than the one in Heidi and the Takahata/Miyazaki projects that followed.
And it's very true that Ghibli's work and WMT had similar approaches to character design -- just look at stuff like My Annette, Pollyanna and Tales of Little Women in the '80s! Both Ghibli and WMT took a lot of influence from the designs that people like Yoichi Kotabe and Yasuji Mori were doing for early WMT/Calpis. Not to mention the direct crossover that designers like Yoshifumi Kondo had: Anne and Little Women, but also Grave and Only Yesterday. There's a huge amount of shared DNA between WMT and Ghibli, including their focus on stories aimed at girls and women, as seen in Ghibli projects like Kiki and Whisper of the Heart (among others).
Anyway, thanks again for the awesome comment!
Thank you for your kind reply! I was a bit embarrassed at how long and unruly my reply to you was, so it's much appreciated.
You're completely right about the Ghibli and WMT and it's a very good point to mention people like Kotabe and Mori and their involvement (Kondo especially)--I have a tendency, mostly due to lack of knowledge, to not give all these collaborators their due for what we think of as the "Ghibli" (or WMT) style.
The point I didn't make clearly is I remember as a teenager discovering these works, back when I could only get most Ghibli films as fansub videos, and Romeo's Blue Skies had just aired as the most recent WMT--in those early days of internet online fandom (mostly email groups) when most English speaking fans still knew nothing about WMT's history for example, there was so much confusion from people saying "Well surely Ghibli must be involved" etc. But of course they were unaware of the mutual heritage...
I didn't realize Kondo was particularly involved in the Little Women WMT (as well as Pollyanna it looks like--) I did grow up with Little Women in French as well, and liked it a lot but it made less of an impact on me than Anne.
But speaking of Kondo, and Dezaki, Kondo was one of the most important animators on Dezaki's charming and underappreciated 1975 series Ganba no Bouken.
I'll have to try to find Takahata's comments on Dezaki's Remi. I've more just read some comments from Miyazaki (perhaps misquoted) about why in the 70s he didn't not like Dezaki's approach to animation. Takahata and Dezaki are my two all time favourite anime directors, so it fascinates me to no end how their work and style both "connect" to me on such an emotional level even though they are almost at extreme different ends. I know that with Remi (and Treasure Island) TMS/NTV were inspired by the success Nippon Animation/FujiTV had alreayd been having with their children's literature adaptations. (It's ironic that the series that ended the original run of WMT in 1996 was their own adaptation of Remi, but with a girl lead character...)
Thanks again for your wonderful posts and thoughtful reply!
I was so surprised when I recently found out that Anne of Green Gables, a cartoon I briefly watched as a kid, was made by Takahata. I remember finding it kind of depressing haha, maybe it was because of his pursuit of naturalism as you explained. Need to go and rewatch it!
This kind of thing was easy to miss! Shows like Heidi and Anne aired all around the world, and we've heard that many viewers weren't even aware they were Japanese: they assumed they'd been made in their own countries. All that said, Anne is a fascinating show and well worth trying again -- Takahata designed it so that people would perceive it differently at different ages, so you might have a totally new experience this time.
I loved it in French as a kid but it really does focus on the mundane a lot. Doing daily kitchen chores is shown with at least as much emphasis as the Anne moments any kid who knows the books or Canadian miniseries remembers (like Anne breaking a writing tablet on Gilbert’s head when he teases her about her red hair or Anne inadvertently serving her friend booze and getting her drunk)
So I can see why that wouldn’t appeal to all kids. (The current tv anime adaptation, Anne Shirley which is done with much love and some obvious nods to the Takahata series, tellingly has no time for all those daily chores—but they also are getting through adapting the first three Anne books in half as many episodes as Takahata had to adapt just the first 😉)
Incredible insight. I look forward to your newsletter every week!
Wonderful to hear this -- thank you so much! Glad you're enjoying the articles.
This is damn ingenious. Thank you. The dialectic that led two. creatives to succeed fabulously then draw apart. A wonderful story of the evolution of the creative mind(s). Wonderful.
This is extremely kind! Thank you so, so much -- it means a ton to hear.
Another brilliant deep dive, I always love how you weave process, pressure, and artistry.
Thanks, Jon! Tying different contexts together like this is something we love, especially when it's about artists chasing their goals/philosophies in a world where they have to navigate time, budget and other forces. It's always intriguing to study.
Thanks for writing this
Very glad you enjoyed it! A lot of time went into this one, and we're thrilled that it paid off.
It shows🙏
That was very interesting to read, thank you very much! I liked how Miyazaki said he’s “the kind of person who wants to lie a lot”! Anyway, I hope you write about the making of Sherlock Hound, it’s my favorite series by Miyazaki, very rich and enjoyable.
Really glad you liked it! Thanks for the kind comment. Believe it or not, we were actually planning to return with a piece on Sherlock Hound, but switched gears because we discovered an Italian source we needed to import for Sherlock. That came in a few days ago, so we *should* be able to write about it sometime in the next few months. We'll see what time allows!
Wow! I’ll be waiting that one!
such a thoughtful article, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind comment.
What a comeback! Thank you, once again, for making me smile and dream while learning so much!
Really appreciate this! It was our hope to do something ambitious for the first issue back and we're very happy you enjoyed -- it was a ton of work!
Great stuff, it's great to see this synthesized and narrativized. Anyone interested in this might want to investigate the connection between Tomino and Takahata, considering their work history. I watched some Turn A Gundam some time ago, and those Ghibli comments were not just fluff!
Thanks very much! It was definitely a challenge to bring all these details together in a cohesive way (and there's a lot more that could be written about these shows). Will keep that in mind about Turn A Gundam!
Great post! Recently I watched Horus and a little of Anne, it's neat to learn that Takahata and co. Were learning and testing other ideas in between as well.
Thanks very much! This was definitely a long, slow process of development from Horus onward, in terms of how Takahata, Miyazaki, Kotabe and their friends worked. And it continued from the point where this article stops -- Takahata moved away from naturalism, and Miyazaki's throwback cartooniness vanished in Nausicaä. Hoping to write more about all that eventually!
Good point. Early 80s projects by Takahata like Gauche the Cellist and Chie the Brat were probably his most cartoony works (until The Yamadas) which surprised me to discover as I assumed the increased realism in works like Anne led directly to two of the most highly “realistic” anime films ever, Grave of the Fireflies and (the present day scenes in) Only Yesterday, so great to point out it wasn’t such a clear progression in just one direction!
Thanks so much for the shout out, guys! Stay tough, everyone. -Emily "Li'l Toughy"
Happy to send a few people your way! Best of luck with the newsletter.
I grew up watching these shows on Portuguese national television. Future Boy Conan was by far my favourite. These shows were seminal on building my love for illustration and animation.
The influence these had worldwide was off the charts. We're hoping one day to write in more detail about how they spread outside Japan and their impact! It's a really fascinating subject.
高田勋远比宫崎骏伟大，宫崎骏只学到他的皮毛