[HN Gopher] Hayao Miyazaki's How Do You Live is a beautiful reli...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Hayao Miyazaki's How Do You Live is a beautiful relic - and the end
       of an era
        
       Author : DemiGuru
       Score  : 161 points
       Date   : 2023-07-17 16:42 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
        
       | gwern wrote:
       | It'll be interesting to see how the box office does. It's been a
       | while since _The Wind Rises_ and Miyazaki is more beloved than
       | ever and all 3 reviews I've read thus far seem highly positive
       | (and certainly more positive than _The Wind Rises_), but there's
       | also an extraordinarily low level of discussion. I was shocked
       | when I clicked on the first review and realized it was a review -
       | "oh, huh, when did it come out?"
       | 
       | The justification offered about 'people being tired of marketing'
       | sounds absurd, and more like they are finding excuses to skip
       | work because they are old & exhausted, and another step in
       | winding down Ghibli. I expect lower box office than it deserves;
       | even Hayao Miyazaki can't release a movie with zero marketing and
       | expect no effect...
        
         | yardie wrote:
         | I learned about it a few weeks ago because the cinema and anime
         | blogs were posting about a new Miyazaki project that had zero
         | marketing, which is a kind of brilliant marketing in itself.
         | So, here we are discussing marketing strategy about a film that
         | wasn't marketed.
        
         | numpad0 wrote:
         | Haven't watched yet but words I have seen used to describe so
         | far are it's a concentrate, a funeral, those kinds. And there's
         | absolutely no trailer for this movie; there's the poster, a
         | "quock quock quock" tweet from Ghibli's Twitter account, that's
         | all that are out of theaters on this matter.
         | 
         | Now that I'm mildly spoiled by Verge I have to go watch it.
         | damn. Hopefully they don't mandate suit and a tie.
        
         | coldtea wrote:
         | > _even Hayao Miyazaki can 't release a movie with zero
         | marketing and expect no effect..._
         | 
         | But, but Hayao Miyazaki could not give less fucks about the
         | effect...
        
         | franciscop wrote:
         | > even Hayao Miyazaki can't release a movie with zero marketing
         | and expect no effect
         | 
         | At Hayao Miyazaki level, having no marketing IS a very clear PR
         | move. The article states it clearly, it's adding mystery to the
         | movie. Everyone knows that it's not going to be a bad movie
         | since it's a Ghibli one, but also no one knows what it is about
         | so everyone is impatient to go watch it and discover all that
         | mystery.
         | 
         | Since the opposite is true, I've lost interest in movies when
         | the trailer revealed way too much, I can see this as a clear
         | move in the opposite direction.
        
         | WastingMyTime89 wrote:
         | > but there's also an extraordinarily low level of discussion.
         | I was shocked when I clicked on the first review and realized
         | it was a review - "oh, huh, when did it come out?"
         | 
         | You are commenting on an article in the Verge for a movie which
         | has only been released in Japan and won't be out in the USA for
         | months. This article is one of many in most western
         | publications. A lot can be said about this movie but having a
         | low level of discussion is definitely not one of them.
         | 
         | What's the point of a marketing campaign when you have so much
         | organic reach?
        
           | jvican wrote:
           | You seem to assume @gwern isn't a Japanese speaker. His
           | comments about low volume of reviews might very well apply to
           | just Japan.
        
             | flakiness wrote:
             | Japanese speaker here. It does. The review volume is low
             | (apparently no preview for media?), and these people aren't
             | very excited, it seems.)
        
             | WastingMyTime89 wrote:
             | I don't need to assume anything. Gwern isn't an anonymous
             | poster. His bio is in his profile and he is indeed
             | American.
             | 
             | First results are in by the way. Second highest results for
             | the opening weekend of a Ghibli movie. I think they will
             | survive the lack of marketing.
        
         | anigbrowl wrote:
         | There were long lines snaking out of theaters to see it despite
         | the almost complete lack of marketing. Maybe people are sick of
         | being marketed to, I certainly am. I'm not reading this review
         | because I don't want to know anything about the movie before I
         | see it. Even the international title is a disappointing
         | concession to the retailing of art as entertainment product.
        
           | wk_end wrote:
           | I'm not sure how I'd title it if I were the American
           | distributor, to be honest.
           | 
           | It's not an adaptation, but Jun tachihadouSheng kiruka is the
           | name of a book for young adults that the Japanese audience
           | might be familiar with; the reference will be lost on an
           | English-speaking audience, draining it of some of its meaning
           | and nostalgia. Imagine a film called "The Little Prince" or
           | something...but of course, The Little Prince isn't the same
           | book, with the same themes, as Jun tachihadouSheng kiruka.
           | And even if there were a book which the reference mapped onto
           | well, it still feels like referencing a different title in
           | the translation would be egregious.
           | 
           | In that sense, I'm somewhat fond of "The Boy and the Heron",
           | though I acknowledge it isn't ideal and, as someone who
           | prefers more literal translations, wouldn't necessarily be
           | the route I'd take. Without injecting any specific (and thus
           | wrong) reference, it evokes the nostalgic feeling of English
           | childhood fables and aphorisms - and it lends it their
           | feeling of moral weight, too, just as the Japanese title
           | does. It's a good and evocative title.
           | 
           | The literal translation everyone's using, "How Do You Live?",
           | also isn't ideal. There's a couple of grammatical mismatches
           | between the two languages; whereas the "you" in English can
           | be both singular and plural, the Japanese is explicitly
           | plural; and Japanese doesn't explicitly differentiate present
           | and future tense, and here the meaning is actually likely
           | more future tense. But the big problem is that, to my ears,
           | it sounds deeply accusatory in English, along the lines of
           | "How do you live with yourself?" - and given Miyazaki's views
           | and temperament that wouldn't have surprised me! But in truth
           | the intended Japanese meaning is more inquisitive and
           | philosophical. The original title, in the original novel, is
           | from a book inside of the book, left as a question to the
           | reader. In prose I might translate it as, "How will you,
           | readers, choose to live your lives?", but there's countless
           | variations I've considered; none of them are quite right, and
           | to be honest none quite have the original's punch of a good
           | title!
           | 
           | (disclaimer: I'm a reasonably advanced student of the
           | Japanese language but not a native speaker. Apologies if I've
           | gotten anything wrong.)
        
         | momonotoro wrote:
         | What's the over-under that Miyazaki cares one whit about how it
         | does at the box office, though?
         | 
         | Based on his past work, he doesn't seem like the sort of person
         | who sees money as a way of keeping score. And this isn't the
         | first time that he's retired and come back to make one last
         | film.
         | 
         | Maybe he just wanted to tell another story, and didn't feel
         | like bothering with the whole palaver of drumming up interest
         | and courting the press?
        
         | isykt wrote:
         | > Hayao Miyazaki can't release a movie with zero marketing and
         | expect no effect...
         | 
         | He doesn't care. He won an Oscar and didn't show up. The Oscar
         | is still at Disney.
        
         | soupfordummies wrote:
         | Seriously! I had no idea this even EXISTED and I actually sat
         | down and looked over all the upcoming movies recently--
         | multiple times!
        
         | arkitaip wrote:
         | I feel the same about all movies hitting theaters these days.
         | The marketing and the social discussions just aren't there
         | anymore.
        
         | giraffe_lady wrote:
         | This only makes sense if you value "box office numbers" for
         | their own sake which this signals very clearly that they do
         | not. As the article points out it's not the first time he's
         | said he thinks his career has run its course, but there's also
         | no reason to think he wasn't sincere any of those times.
         | 
         | He knows he's famous and it will do very well without
         | marketing. Why optimize a metric you don't care about? I don't
         | find the cynical laziness explanation as convincing as the
         | stated motivation tbh.
        
       | AlbertCory wrote:
       | Now here's some argument-bait:
       | 
       | I prefer Miyazaki movies dubbed in English, rather than as
       | subtitled Japanese.
       | 
       | This is not true for ANY other non-English movie, where I always
       | prefer the original language with subtitles.
       | 
       | Why? Well, it's anime and the characters aren't "really" speaking
       | Japanese anyway, so there's less lip-mismatch. And apparently the
       | Man himself doesn't mind them.
       | 
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/ghibli/comments/7jef8m/miyazakis_vi...
        
         | lxe wrote:
         | I asked a frAInd what famous actors dubbed miyzazki movies:
         | 
         | "Spirited Away" (2001) - Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden, and
         | Susan Egan.
         | 
         | "Princess Mononoke" (1997) - Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Minnie
         | Driver, and Billy Bob Thornton.
         | 
         | "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) - Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning.
         | 
         | "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004) - Christian Bale, Emily Mortimer,
         | Jean Simmons, and Billy Crystal.
         | 
         | "Ponyo" (2008) - Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, and Liam
         | Neeson.
         | 
         | "The Wind Rises" (2013) - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt,
         | and Stanley Tucci.
         | 
         | "Porco Rosso" (1992) - Michael Keaton and Cary Elwes.
         | 
         | "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989) - Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman,
         | and Janeane Garofalo.
        
           | canadiantim wrote:
           | What about Nausicaa?
        
         | jefurii wrote:
         | Miyazaki movies are the ONLY anime where the English dub is
         | _anywhere_ close to good enough. Most anime dubs are done by
         | either A) people who can 't act their way out of a paper bag,
         | or B) competent actors who don't bother to pronounce Japanese
         | names properly. Miyazaki movies don't fall into A but do have
         | some major B clinkers. At least with the subtitles I get to
         | work on my Japanese a bit.
        
         | gambiting wrote:
         | I don't think that's particularily controversial, maybe except
         | among the most hardcore fans. Watch films(and other media) in
         | the way you enjoy them, and don't let others tell you what's
         | the "right" way.
        
         | seanc wrote:
         | Fun fact, on Princess Mononoke, Steve Alpert and the director
         | of the English dub had to fight Miramax executives who kept
         | trying to screw up Neil Gaiman's English script.
        
         | Blackthorn wrote:
         | The English dubs are also just really good. Even when the voice
         | actors aren't known for, well, voice acting. Daisy Ridley is
         | not known for her voice acting and yet her performance in Only
         | Yesterday was exceptional.
        
           | the_af wrote:
           | > _Only Yesterday_
           | 
           | Only Yesterday is a very good movie. A true anime for adults,
           | not one that mistakes "adultness" for "naked people and/or
           | gore".
           | 
           | Re: dubs. I haven't watched the English dub of too many
           | Ghibli movies, mostly because if I watch a dub, I watch it in
           | Spanish. Judging by the only one I've seen in English too --
           | Princess Mononoke -- I'd rate the English dub the _worst_ ,
           | with flatter and less inspired voice acting. The Spanish
           | version of Mononoke is actually tied in quality with the
           | Japanese version in my mind.
           | 
           | I used to believe I could only detect bad acting in my native
           | Spanish. Mononoke taught me that no, I can spot bad acting in
           | English too! I don't know what the hell Billy Crudup, Claire
           | Danes, Minnie Driver and all those well known actors were
           | doing...
        
         | saltcured wrote:
         | I don't have thoughts about anime, but generally dislike movie
         | dubs as they distance me further from the original intent. I
         | don't want another team's reinterpretation of the movie to
         | completely replace the original expression.
         | 
         | So, I'd only really like a dub if it was a multilingual sound
         | track produced by an original, multilingual team. That should
         | include the original director, writers, and (preferably) actors
         | and producers. To me, the original creative team needs enough
         | fluency to review the alternate language work and keep it from
         | diverging. Otherwise, it's about as satisfying as reading a
         | Cliff's Notes summary of a novel instead of the actual novel.
         | 
         | I'd also often prefer subtitle translations if they try to hew
         | closer to the original language including temporality. I'd
         | rather read slightly tortured English subtitles to deliver
         | translated parts of speech in roughly the same order they are
         | being spoken in the original language, exposing a bit of the
         | original language's grammar and remaining correlated with the
         | actor's tone and timing.
        
         | the_doctah wrote:
         | I would never watch Princess Mononoke without the English dub.
        
         | woodruffw wrote:
         | Miyazaki is pretty well known for having "world-class" dubs; I
         | don't think liking them is considered controversial. Liking the
         | Akira dub or the dub on a Satoshi Kon film, on the other hand
         | :-)
        
           | ryandrake wrote:
           | The English dub of Castle In The Sky was famously very
           | poor[1]. Most notably, much of the movie's quiet parts got
           | crammed with music and extra dialog because Disney felt
           | Americans' attention span could not handle long stretches of
           | silence and simple ambient environment sounds.
           | 
           | Granted this was one of the earlier Ghibli films and Miyazaki
           | reportedly clamped down on these shenanigans on future dubs.
           | 
           | 1: https://screenrant.com/studio-ghibli-castle-in-the-sky-
           | engli...
        
             | woodruffw wrote:
             | This listicle is hard to follow: it seems to be confounding
             | the 1988 dub (hilariously bad) with the 1998 dub (which was
             | done by Disney and is, IMO, pretty good). In particular,
             | the items about Sheeta's recharacterization and removed
             | silences don't apply to the 1998 dub.
             | 
             | Miyazaki has had his fair share of bad dubs (including one
             | of the Castle of Cagliostro ones), but I think it's fair to
             | say that he's fared the best of any major Japanese anime
             | director.
        
             | the_af wrote:
             | Much was said about Mononoke's English dub, but I find it
             | terrible and flat. In contrast, the Spanish dub was top
             | notch!
        
           | erulabs wrote:
           | "Ponyo" had Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Tiny Fey, and Matt
           | Daemon as voice actors, as an example of not skimping on the
           | english dubs.
        
       | grogenaut wrote:
       | Why does he need to market. I know about this movie because of
       | all of the "not being marketed" news posts. Media is giving them
       | a free marketing coupon it seem. He's playing it well.
       | 
       | That said I rarely see movie marketing anymore. Only movies I
       | know are out are barbie and Oppenheimer due to the meme and my
       | friend insisting we go to both.
       | 
       | I just don't see ads much anymore.
        
       | djmips wrote:
       | Article ends with "And let's not forget the monster 2020 success
       | of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, whose 40 billion yen domestic gross
       | demolished Spirited Away's record of the highest-grossing film of
       | all time in Japan."
       | 
       | Nitpick:
       | 
       | From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-
       | grossing_Japan... - it shows Demon Slayer at Y=40,430,000,000
       | (2020) and Spirited Away at Y=31,680,000,0000 (2001). This is
       | like comparing $220 million to $290 million so it's not exactly
       | 'demolishing' IMO.
        
         | azmodeus wrote:
         | If you factor in 19 years of inflation, I wonder who is the
         | winner.
        
           | ketzo wrote:
           | Coincidentally, Japan has spent the last 20 years in an
           | extremely low-inflation, or even deflationary, environment.
           | 
           | 31 yen in 2001 -> 32 yen in 2020
        
       | NikkiA wrote:
       | This is the second post in as many days about this 'no
       | advertising' movie...
        
         | ketzo wrote:
         | I mean, it's the final film from a legendary director being
         | released with a total lack of a traditional marketing. Do you
         | want people to _not_ talk about that?
         | 
         | Not everything on the internet is astroturfing or whatever.
        
       | dvt wrote:
       | Is this a bug or something[1]? Or is The Verge seriously
       | expecting me to read an entire article in black-on-red? This has
       | got to be some kind of cruel joke, my eyes hurt after about 5
       | seconds.
       | 
       | Who came up with this atrocious design language? Ironically, the
       | polar opposite of Miyazaki.
       | 
       | [1] https://i.imgur.com/f0E4br6.png
        
         | lostgame wrote:
         | It is not black on red besides the title? Did you not scroll
         | anywhere past the title bit? :/
         | 
         | https://ibb.co/Fm0zz35
        
           | dvt wrote:
           | The whole thing is red for me (the screenshot I took is from
           | below the title). I use Brave, but I also checked it out on
           | Edge and Chrome, and there it's only the title (so I do think
           | it's a bug on Brave). To be fair, even the title being black
           | on red is absolute garbage-tier design.
        
             | Santosh83 wrote:
             | Yeah the article body is black on red for me too, on
             | Firefox. Must be some glitch.
        
               | mholt wrote:
               | Huh, I'm on Firefox too and it's only red at the title.
        
       | jfax wrote:
       | >titled How Do You Live in Japan and renamed The Boy and the
       | Heron for the international market
       | 
       | This might sound pedantic, but neither of those statements are
       | quite right. It's not called "How Do You Live" in Japan, it's
       | called Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka. And it wasn't "renamed" for the
       | "international" market, it was given an English name that it
       | didn't have until then.
       | 
       | I'm irked by this because this is something I've been constantly
       | correcting people with, mainly to indirectly challenge English-
       | language exceptionalism (anything not Japanese is English - we
       | don't know the French or German titles yet), but also a reminder
       | that any publication worth its salt up have emphasised that "How
       | Do You Live" was a tentative title.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | chimeracoder wrote:
         | > I'm irked by this because this is something I've been
         | constantly correcting people with, mainly to indirectly
         | challenge English-language exceptionalism (anything not
         | Japanese is English - we don't know the French or German titles
         | yet),
         | 
         | This is needlessly pedantic. By that logic, your use of Romaji
         | is "incorrect" and Euro-centric exceptionalism, because the
         | official original movie poster uses Hanji/Katakana. (And in
         | fact, it'd be "incorrect" to say it was released in Japan,
         | because in Japan, they'd say it was released in Nippon.)
         | 
         | It's an English-language article about a Japanese movie. Saying
         | "titled Jun tachihadouSheng kiruka and renamed The Boy and the
         | Heron for the international market" would make no sense because
         | the audience of English readers won't be able to make sense of
         | it.
         | 
         | It's not "English-language exceptionalism" to provide
         | information in English when writing for an English-speaking
         | audience, especially when it's clear in context that the
         | information is a translation.
        
           | titanomachy wrote:
           | > This is needlessly pedantic
           | 
           | Needlessly pedantic?? This... is... Hacker News!
        
             | chimeracoder wrote:
             | > Needlessly pedantic?? This... is... Hacker News!
             | 
             | I stand corrected.
        
           | zerocrates wrote:
           | While we're being pedantic: there's no katakana in the title
           | on the original poster.
        
             | chimeracoder wrote:
             | > While we're being pedantic: there's no katakana in the
             | title on the original poster.
             | 
             | I think you're right. My Japanese is very rusty at this
             | point, but I was taught that titles were always written in
             | katakana, similar to how titles in English are always
             | written in title case. But u is hiragana, for example.
             | 
             | I'm curious if anyone has an answer for this.
        
         | QuesnayJr wrote:
         | Who is this "correction" for? Is there an actual existing
         | person who thought the title of the movie was in English, and
         | not a Japanese phrase that translates as "How Do You Live?"
        
         | BalinKing wrote:
         | Maybe I'm misunderstanding the context you're coming from, but
         | I've always presumed that international titles are implicitly
         | translated into English in English-language material. For the
         | benefit of other readers: To my beginner Japanese-learning ear,
         | "How Do You Live" is a pretty straightforward translation of
         | "kimitachi ha do ikiru ka". I don't think there's any subtext
         | of English-language exceptionalism, here or in general,
         | especially since this translation is so straightforward (except
         | for maybe an English translation losing the nuance of
         | "kimitachi").
         | 
         | Again though, I readily concede that your online interactions
         | may be very different from mine--just wanted to add my 2C/ :-)
        
           | BalinKing wrote:
           | A further observation, to add onto my reply: The article
           | prominently displays the Japanese poster with Jun
           | tachihadouSheng kiruka on it. I agree that they probably
           | should've given the Japanese title in the body text for
           | clarity, but I assume including the poster goes some way
           | towards indicating the presence of an implicit translation.
        
           | astrange wrote:
           | The movie is based on a book which was released under the
           | name "How Do You Live" in English. So this may be partly
           | because they didn't want to license the name, since the movie
           | ended up containing 0% of the content of the book.
           | 
           | But yes, it wasn't renamed. It just has another name.
           | Nobody's hiding the original name from you.
        
             | morelisp wrote:
             | AFAIK the book wasn't translated into English until after
             | the film was announced, and was pitched as "the book
             | Miyazaki's next film is based on."
             | 
             | (I agree the OP's comment is ridiculous.)
        
           | manuelmoreale wrote:
           | Maybe his point is that "How do you live" is already a
           | translation and not the actual name of the movie. The actual
           | name is the Japanese version.
           | 
           | Kinda like saying that Rome is not the actual name of the
           | city. It's Roma because that's how it's called in Italian and
           | the city is in Italy so that's the actual name.
        
             | BalinKing wrote:
             | > Kinda like saying that Rome is not the actual name of the
             | city.
             | 
             | To be honest, I'd probably disagree with this too--the way
             | I see it, in English, Rome _is_ the actual name of the
             | city. (It 's not the "native" name, of course, but English
             | isn't the native language of the city, so that's not
             | relevant either way.)
        
               | manuelmoreale wrote:
               | I mean, by the same logic you could also change the name
               | of people? If your name is Michael should I call you
               | Michele because that's how it translates in Italian? I
               | say no because that's stupid.
               | 
               | Still, even if the parent post is indeed technically
               | correct I don't think it really matters the same way it
               | doesn't really matter if you call Roma Rome or Milano
               | Milan or Venezia Venice.
        
             | ronsor wrote:
             | Printing Jun tachihadouSheng kiruka is meaningless to
             | anyone who speaks only English, and a transliterated
             | version technically isn't the Japanese title either.
        
               | manuelmoreale wrote:
               | I agree with you. But I also personally don't really care
               | if they translate the movie title or rename it.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | mananaysiempre wrote:
         | kimi-tachi     wa    dou iki-ru       ka       you-and.others
         | TOPIC how live-NONPAST QUESTION
         | 
         | "How do you live?" seems like an OK out-of-context translation?
         | 
         | Those are always fraught for cinema--the Russian release of
         | _Inception_ was titled Nachalo _nacalo_ "beginning", which of
         | course wasn't the translation of the titular concept during the
         | film itself (that was vnedrenie _vnedrenie_ "integration,
         | infiltration")--but if you have to give something to an
         | English-speaking audience, it's probably as good as it gets.
         | (Specifying the translation is on shaky ground would be good
         | journalistic practice, of course.)
        
           | ericol wrote:
           | The comment above _is_ pedantic. It's stating that the name
           | of the movie IS Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka, that could be
           | roughly translated to "How do you live?"
           | 
           | Any other post about this movie, in any other language, is
           | going to make the same "mistake".
        
         | raincole wrote:
         | Just in case you are not aware, _How Do You Live_ (the film) is
         | based on a book, _How Do You Live_. The book was translated and
         | its English name is just _How Do You Live_.
         | 
         | https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54110592
        
           | dfxm12 wrote:
           | When something has an editorialized name change between
           | regions, the first thing I wonder is if some media already
           | has that name [0]. I wouldn't be surprised if the movie
           | distributors fear copyright issues with whoever released the
           | book under that title in their market(s), or perhaps they
           | don't want to give them such obvious free marketing.
           | 
           | 0 - Like how the Japanese videogame titled "It's a Wonderful
           | World" had to have its named change to "The World Ends with
           | You" in some (all?) regions because of copyright issues.
           | https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/04/17/breaking-the-
           | languag...
        
       | HellDunkel wrote:
       | Interesting how the verge has fully rolled back its site redesign
       | step by step.
        
       | tehnub wrote:
       | They say we don't see movies like this being made anymore, but
       | when did we ever see movies like Miyazaki's being made at any
       | time by anyone other than Miyazaki?
        
         | CobaltFire wrote:
         | Mamoru Oshii is excellent, in the USA he's probably best known
         | for "Ghost in the Shell" but I think some of his other work is
         | easily as good. "Uresei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer" is
         | amazing, as is "Patlabor 2".
        
         | jeffchien wrote:
         | Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame has been talking about doing
         | something with Nausicaa for a while. He worked on the original
         | movie (which is only 1/4th of the source manga) with Miyazaki
         | and became close friends with him, and Miyazaki said he could
         | do it, so that might be interesting if it ever happens.
        
         | jasonlotito wrote:
         | Look into Makoto Shinkai. Specifically, Your Name and Children
         | Who Chase Lost Voices.
        
           | sn9 wrote:
           | His last two movies were also phenomenal.
           | 
           | Just watch them in order of release!
        
         | Avicebron wrote:
         | There's obviously no one-to-one, Miyazaki being a legend for a
         | reason. But I've founded the work by Satoshi Kon to give me a
         | blending of fiction and reality and depth of storytelling makes
         | me think a little of what Miyazaki does.
        
           | dragontamer wrote:
           | > Satoshi Kon
           | 
           | In particular, Tokyo Godfathers hits in a way that not even
           | Miyazaki can replicate IMO. Satoshi Kon probably wasn't as
           | consistent as Miyazaki. But damn, the good Satoshi Kon movies
           | were just beyond excellent.
           | 
           | Mamoru Hosoda is also pretty good. Wolf Children is one of
           | the most "hits you in the real feels" movie that I've seen,
           | despite its surface-level fantasy premise. A true
           | masterpiece, though other movies from Hosoda aren't quite as
           | good IMO. Still, his Digimon and Summer Wars are fun watches.
           | 
           | -----------
           | 
           | There's that off-branch of Ghibli, Studio Ponac too. I've
           | only seen their collection of 3x short films: Modest Heroes
           | (one about a crab family, one about an egg allergy, and one
           | about an invisible guy), but its extremely "Ghibli-like".
           | 
           | Modest Heroes is that mix of fantasy but very much down-to-
           | earth storytelling that reflects upon life, in a child-
           | friendly storytelling style. "Ghibli-style" as people might
           | say.
        
             | tehnub wrote:
             | >Satoshi Kon probably wasn't as consistent as Miyazaki.
             | 
             | Well, aside from a few small projects, he only made four
             | movies and one show, and in my estimation they're all
             | excellent. Paranoia Agent I would say is deliberately
             | uneven, being assembled from various unused ideas from past
             | projects, and is quite effective in that way.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | windowshopping wrote:
             | I was a huge fan of _The Girl Who Leapt Through Time_ and
             | _Wolf Children_ , and started watching everything he made,
             | only to find that he was no longer able to produce movies
             | of that quality. The last 3 - _The Boy and the Beast_ ,
             | _Mirai_ , and _Belle_ - have been mediocre at best with
             | stories and characters that were very poorly assembled. I
             | continue to have some hope for future films, but frankly my
             | expectations are very low at this point. Not many directors
             | have produced 3 duds in a row in the prime of their career
             | and then recovered with incredible stories later.
        
               | tehnub wrote:
               | Haven't seen the others, but I thought Mirai was
               | excellent.
        
               | sn9 wrote:
               | I have to wonder if anyone who doesn't like _Mirai_ knows
               | anyone with kids.
        
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