Danica Davidson
October 4, 2021 
Japanese paper The Mainichi interviewed Goro Miyazaki about his movie Earwig and the Witch, computer-generated animation, and the future of Studio Ghibli.
“With 3DCG, you try to handle the characters like dolls,” Miyazaki said. “But if you make it look too much like a doll animation, it strays from the hand-drawn anime style people are so familiar with. We were looking for the space between that.”
Allegedly his father Hayao remarked, “This country, too, has now been able to make a film to match Pixar.”
The younger Miyazaki wasn’t quite too keen on this description. “It’s like saying we worked so hard to win just once against the U.S. military. I thought, we have to find a production method unique to a small organization.”
He continued, “Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshiyuki Tomino, are, in a manner of speaking, the first generation of those who experienced the war, who saw a radical change in values. Their opposition to authority and violence began from a certain kind of resistance, and they came together to make something, to start building something new. I think it’s a kind of revolutionary mindset. But it’s not possible for those of us who were born amid the period of economic development to possess that. The answer I’ve come to now, which made me think while making movies, is found in Earwig.”
Talking about using CG again at Ghibli, he commented, “If I say I want to keep doing CG, then we’ll probably continue to do it. It’s not like it has to be CG, but I found some things I want to try.”
The possibility of a sequel to Earwig and the Witch was also brought up, seeing as how it ends with a good setup for another movie. “I feel inside myself that it’s over,” Miyazaki said. “My producer also told me because we made such good characters, there are many people who want to see a sequel, and that I should make one.”
Source: The Mainichi
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
