Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941, in Tokyo City, Japan. He is best known as a masterful animator, filmmaker, and manga artist, and as the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, where he served as honorary chairman. His path into comics and animation began early; he joined Toei Animation in 1963 as an inbetween artist and key animator, working on films such as *Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon* and *The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun*. He later co-directed *Lupin the Third Part I* with Isao Takahata and directed the television series *Future Boy Conan* before helming his first feature film, *The Castle of Cagliostro*. Miyazaki wrote and illustrated the manga *Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind* from 1982 to 1994, adapting it into a 1984 film produced by Topcraft. Co-founding Studio Ghibli in 1985, he wrote and directed signature works including *My Neighbor Totoro*, *Princess Mononoke*, and *Spirited Away*, the latter winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. His later films *Howl's Moving Castle*, *Ponyo*, and *The Wind Rises* also earned acclaim. After a brief retirement, he returned with *The Boy and the Heron*, which won another Oscar. Miyazaki’s works are widely studied for their recurring themes and visual artistry. He is credited on 66 issues in our catalog, primarily for the *Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind* series.