Does Miyazaki think women artists signal the end of anime?

Josh Bytes

They say it’s over for animation in Japan. When we look for new hires only women respond, and I get the feeling that we’re done for. In our last hurrah we borrow from outside staff (i.e. outsource), but soon we won’t be able to do that forever.

Is the Bamboo Curtain More Treacherous Than the Glass Ceiling?

KapitänTim

Do they have lots of bears in Japan?

Omnutia

I think the word "only" is what's important here. Having only one gender wanting to work in a field is usually a bad sign.

Sail

Miyazaki certainly isn't sexist based on his work. Almost everything he's done has a strong, female heroine as the main character. Reading the article though, I'm not really sure what he means overall. There might just be something that was lost in translation, or a point that was lost in the brevity of these tweets.

gomidog

I feel like Miyazaki is often very old fashioned/conservative. I doubt, however, that he's merely saying that women should not be in animation, but more that there seems to be a loss of interest in the job. He does seem like a naive old man (women not working in the cotton mills? They've ALWAYS worked in the cotton mills, even at the turn of the century), but it might be that if only women are applying to a job, it is seen as a less serious/desirable job by Japanese.

Omnutia

Part 1:
They say it’s over for animation in Japan. When we look for new hires only women respond, and I get the feeling that we’re done for. In our last hurrah we’ll borrow from outside staff, to lend a hand but we can’t do that forever.

Part 2:
These are not reasons for me to take production to China. I don’t want to deplete Japan in that way. So, what do we do?

Part 3:
(Ghibli Studios) has been resolved to rowing the boat altogether as a team and giving it our all, while everyone around us is jet-propelled with new technology and running at full-speed. We still illustrate with pen and paper. I say we continue to give this our all, together.

Part 4:
I counter the point some make that we’re in an age where you’ll find women driving buses by asking if it’s ok to have women all over cotton mills. (LOL)

Part 5:
I think it would be great to see a female animation director, but as far as Ghibli’s concerned, I can’t think of a single one for us. So what about newcomers? Well, I believe women are incredibly fast-learners and self-starters. If you look at men, even today, they develop much slower.