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A Rightful Balance
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The ‘kodama’ tree spirits from “Princess Mononoke” (1997). © 1997 Studio Ghibli – ND / Gkids
Experiences

A Rightful Balance

Environmentalism in the Films of Studio Ghibli
Ren Scateni, Serena Scateni
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time 12 minutes
Ren Scateni:
is a freelance critic and writer based in Edinburgh. They mostly write about East Asian cinema, with a focus on Japan and animation, but are also interested in queer narratives and female-directed films.
Serena Scateni:
a writer, curator, and programmer. She mainly focuses on the cinema of East Asian countries.

A fluffy and huggable Totoro and a wealth of other lively, cute spirits are the characters most readily associated with Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation film studio. Yet behind this soft-power asset of commercialized icons lies a deep concern over environmental issues. 

Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata – the two animators who founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 – are known for having not only quite different personalities but also different ways of approaching their subjects. In her Frames of Anime, Tze-Yue G. Hu points at Takahata’s directorial debut, The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968), as the film where their interest in the themes of ecology and community living first manifested. Later on, these same themes started to ooze from many other titles in both Miyazaki’s and Takahata’s filmographies. Their environmental sensibilities are also enriched by their different modes of storytelling. Whereas Miyazaki often pitches his concerns against fantastical worlds (although ripe with historical influences and a mash-up aesthetic combining the West and East) and leaves the endings of his films open to interpretation, Takahata seems to have a predilection for stories rooted in realism and mostly carrying a more direct message.

Studio Ghibli film collage. Source: Netflix

So where did this concern about the environment originate from? An easy answer would promptly marry Miyazaki’s ecological sensibility with the Japanese religion of Shinto, which still plays an important role in Ghibli films. Essentially animistic, Shinto looks at living things as if they are imbued with sentience, hence prompting reverence towards nature. In such a spiritual ecosystem, the kodama – the timid and playful spirits living in the trees – of Princess Mononoke (1997) together with all the

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Ren Scateni:
is a freelance critic and writer based in Edinburgh. They mostly write about East Asian cinema, with a focus on Japan and animation, but are also interested in queer narratives and female-directed films.
Serena Scateni:
a writer, curator, and programmer. She mainly focuses on the cinema of East Asian countries.
Publish date: 19.06.2020

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"Great egret" by John James Audubon. Courtesy of John James Audubon Center
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Agnieszka Drotkiewicz:

is a writer. She has published several novels (“Paris London Dachau”, “Dla mnie to samo”, “Teraz”, “Nieszpory”) and collected interviews (two conducted along with Anna Dziewit: “Głośniej! Rozmowy z pisarkami” and “Teoria trutnia i inne”; and two by herself: “Jeszcze dzisiaj nie usiadłam” and “Piano rysuje sufit”). Agnieszka also published “Dusza światowa” – an extended interview with Dorota Masłowska. Together with Ewa Kuryluk, she wrote a book in the form of a conversation (“Manhattan i Mała Wenecja”), for which they received the Warsaw Literary Premiere Award.

Business wasn’t his strong suit, so his wife provided for the family. Thanks to her, Audubon could devote his life to watching and painting birds. His book The Birds of America is one of the most expensive publications in the world.

While there are many portraits of John James Audubon, the most famous is probably the one painted by John Syme. Audubon is shown wearing a fur coat with an unbuttoned white shirt underneath. His long hair falls on his shoulders in loose curls, and he is holding a shotgun. The image reflects Audubon’s charisma and the spirit of the era: an American pioneer exploring the Wild West; a Byronic hero. Ornithologist, naturalist, painter, autodidact, traveller – John James Audubon represented romantic heroes and enlightened diligence, a passion for empirical learning and describing the world.

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