There’s not a bomb big enough in this world. . ..

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The new Studio Ghibli film, Gedo Senki/Tales from Earthsea, is directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki. I can only imagine the pressure he feels as the world gets ready to compare him to his father–who’s considered the greatest living animation director. This is also Goro’s directorial debut–which makes it all the more daunting. He actually keeps a blog, which has been translated here, and it documents the thoughts that went through his head during the making of the film. This is totally unexpected because it’s not a very Japanese thing to do. I’m sure it took a lot of guts, and I wish him luck on opening day. What’s even more interesting is that the blog begins with Goro stating that his father was against him directing the film, but he doesn’t tell you why and urges you to keep reading the blog to find out. I think his approach has the potential to catch on, because he mentioned that when filtered through the media (interviews, articles, commercials..etc), a lot of times the messages are misinterpreted or lost, and the blog is an experiment for direct communication without the filtering of the media. I hope he at least has a publicist who reads his entries before they go live, as to prevent unintentional jamming of his foot in his mouth. But then again, people often say what they shouldn’t during interviews anyway, and some interviewers are real bastards as they try to trick information out of you. At least with a blog, no one is there to trip you over unless you trip over yourself.

According to Goro’s blog, he had no prior experience in animation, and knew nearly nothing about the process–whether about animation, being a director, or just a storyteller in general. I don’t know if that’s him being a humble Japanese, or if it’s really the case. If that really was his first time, then I have to wonder how it was decided that he had what it takes? Shouldn’t they have him make a short film first? What about let him be an assistant director for a bit? I guess when you’re the son of the greatest animation director on the planet, you don’t have to pay your dues–you just “learn by doing on the job” as he says. Am I a tiny bit envious? You bet your ass. So are the hundreds and thousands of aspiring writer/directors out there who don’t have a world-famous director father that’s got his own production company for his son to use. Man, the number of people I’d kill to get to write/direct my own animated feature film done by a world-class studio–there’s not a bomb big enough in this world.