DIRECTOR · BORN 1941
Hayao Miyazaki
- Born
- 5 January 1941, Tokyo, Japan
- Known for
- The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013), Mei and the Kittenbus (2002), Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2017), Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo (2012)
37 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
18 Facts From Hayao Miyazaki's Career
- #009
Hayao Miyazaki wanted to be a manga artist but found he could not draw people, so for several years he drew planes, tanks and battleships instead; he was influenced by manga artists including Tetsuji Fukushima, Soji Yamakawa and Osamu Tezuka, and destroyed much of his early work because he believed copying Tezuka's style was "bad form" and held back his own development.
- #010
Hayao Miyazaki's interest in animation began during his third and final year at Toyotama High School, when he saw The White Snake Enchantress (1958), Japan's first feature-length color animated film, after sneaking out instead of studying for entrance exams.
- #013
Hayao Miyazaki joined Toei Doga in 1963, the final year in which the company hired regularly, and rented a four-and-a-half tatami apartment in Nerima, Tokyo, near the studio for ¥6,000 a month while earning ¥19,500 at Toei.
- #016
Hayao Miyazaki advanced from inbetween art to key animation during the production of the anime series Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru, which ran from 1964 to 1965.
- #017
Hayao Miyazaki worked as a key animator on two episodes of Sally the Witch and on several episodes of Hustle Punch and Rainbow Sentai Robin.
- #018
In 1964, Hayao Miyazaki volunteered to work on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun, serving as key animator, concept artist, and scene designer, the last of which earned him a credit.
- #019
On The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun, Hayao Miyazaki collaborated closely with his mentor Yasuo Ōtsuka, whose animation approach deeply shaped Miyazaki's own work.
- #020
Hayao Miyazaki supplied key animation for The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (1969), directed by Kimio Yabuki, and wrote a 12-chapter manga tie-in that ran in the Sunday edition of Tokyo Shimbun from January to March 1969.
- #021
For Flying Phantom Ship (1969), Hayao Miyazaki proposed screenplay scenes in which military tanks cause mass hysteria in downtown Tokyo, and he was hired to storyboard and animate those scenes.
- #022
Hayao Miyazaki left Toei Animation in August 1971, dissatisfied with the lack of creative prospects and autonomy and with confrontations with management over The Great Adventure of Horus.
- #023
Hayao Miyazaki made his directorial debut on Lupin the Third Part I, directing or co-directing 17 of its 23 episodes with Isao Takahata after following Takahata and Yōichi Kotabe to A-Pro; the series was originally intended as a movie project.
- #026
Hayao Miyazaki drew storyboards for the first episode of The Gutsy Frog in 1971, although they were not used.
- #027
In June 1973, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata moved from A-Pro to Zuiyō Eizō, where they worked on World Masterpiece Theater, including the series Heidi, Girl of the Alps; Miyazaki traveled to Switzerland to research and sketch for the production.
- #028
After Zuiyō Eizō split in July 1975, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's branch became Nippon Animation; they briefly worked on Dog of Flanders in 1975 before moving to 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother in 1976, for which Miyazaki traveled to Argentina and Italy as research.
- #029
Hayao Miyazaki was chosen in 1977 to direct his first animated television series, Future Boy Conan, and he directed 24 of its 26 episodes, which were broadcast in 1978.
- #035
Hayao Miyazaki served as chief animation instructor for new employees at Telecom Animation Film, a Tokyo Movie Shinsha subsidiary, where he helped train the company's second wave of employees.
- #036
Under the pseudonym Teruki Tsutomu, which can be read as "employee of Telecom", Hayao Miyazaki directed two episodes of Lupin the Third Part II.
- #037
Hayao Miyazaki directed six episodes of Sherlock Hound in 1981, but legal issues with Arthur Conan Doyle's estate halted production; by the time they were resolved he was occupied with other projects, and Kyôsuke Mikuriya directed the remaining episodes, broadcast from November 1984 to May 1985. This was Miyazaki's final television work.
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Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Hayao Miyazaki — Wikipedia
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