Hayao Miyazaki is a co-founder of Studio Ghibli, the production team behind films like Princess Mononoke. The Japanese director is known for his controversial opinions. Although he works in the anime industry, he believes it harms children.
Why is he not a fan of animes? Although Studio Ghibli has produced numerous good films, the franchise is not the highest-grossing anime universe. Pokémon is in first place and should be known to everyone. However, Miyazaki reveals that he cannot relate to anime (and others) at all:
I know almost nothing about other animated films coming from Japan because they do not interest me. It is true that a good friend of mine designed Pokémon, and I know many of the people who worked on it, but I have certainly never seen it.
Hayao Miyazaki, via Briandanacamp
Even though he has many acquaintances in the animation team of Pokémon, he has never seen the anime. He believes that animes make entire generations dumber. That could be the reason why he hardly engages with other series outside of Studio Ghibli.
You can watch a masterpiece from Ghibli here:
Miyazaki is concerned about children’s anime habits
Why is he concerned about children? Miyazaki thinks that animes take too much time in children’s lives. In another interview, he expressed concern that children have fallen too much into the rising consumption, which is why he can no longer reach them with his films.
I am only speaking about Japan and not specifically about Pokémon, but I think that animated films in general – from a market perspective – devour children for breakfast and rob them of their time and freedom far too much.
That is why Miyazaki believes that children need to reduce their anime consumption. He even provides a recommendation for how many animes children should watch per year. And this number just happens to fit perfectly with his work.
How many animes are recommended per year? According to Miyazaki, “one great animated film per year” is more than sufficient for children. Coincidentally, this aligns with the release schedules of Studio Ghibli at that time. From 1986 to 2016, the animation studio released a new film either annually or every two years.
Only from 2016 to 2020 was there a longer break with “Earwig and the Witch”. Also, the latest film, “The Boy and the Heron,” was released with a gap of 4 years. You can read about how the film was received by audiences in Christoph Waldboth’s review: The new Ghibli film is a mysterious masterpiece that no anime fan should miss
