"Why must fireflies die so young?" The Picturesque of Caution in the Works of Studio Ghibli

Samragngi Roy

doi:10.21900/j.jams.v3.963

Authors

Samragngi Roy Jadavpur University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jams.v3.963

Keywords:

picturesque, Studio ghibli, Anime, William gilpin, war ruins

Abstract

As opposed to most contemporary usage of the word “picturesque” – which is generally taken to mean visually attractive in a quaint or charming way, or else something that resembles a picture – William Gilpin introduced this term to the English cultural debate in 1792. Gilpin used “picturesque” to typify an aesthetic ideal wherein roughness, raggedness, and ruins would be privileged over smoothness, symmetry and perfection. Over time, his conceptualization of “the picturesque” led to a celebration of disorder, decay, and ruin, a kind of glorification of violence also familiar to the Gothic romances of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, following the unimaginable havoc and mass destruction caused by the two world wars, ruins and images of ruins started to be viewed very differently. This paper seeks to explore how the picturesque mode has been used as an instrument of caution in the works of Studio Ghibli, spearheaded by two creative artists and directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata Isao, who have experienced the horrors of WWII firsthand in their own childhoods. This paper specifically looks at two famous anime feature films produced by Studio Ghibli – Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) – that deal with the impacts of war and convey strong anti-war messages by uniquely employing the picturesque mode of representation.

References

Daisuke, Akimoto. (2014). "Peace education through the animated film “Grave of the Fireflies” physical, psychological, and structural violence of war" Political Science, 2014.

Arakawa, Kaku (director) (March 30, 2019). "Drawing What's Real". 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki. Episode 2 (in Japanese). Japan: NHK.

Auerbach, Jeffrey. (2004). “The picturesque and the homogenisation of Empire”, The British Art Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 47-54. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41614516 (Accessed on 26th March, 2022)

Burke, Edmund, and Abraham Mills. (1844). A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful; With an Introductory Discourse Concerning Taste. New York, Harper, 1844.

Cavallaro, Dani. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: 2006, pp: 3.

Daisuke, Akimoto. (2014). "Peace education through the animated film “Grave of the Fireflies” Physical, psychological, and structural violence of war", Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, Volume 33, 2014, pp: 41.

Fairclough, Mary. (2011). “John Thelwall and the Politics of the Picturesque”, Romantic Circles. https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/thelwall/HTML/praxis.2011.fairclough.html (Accessed 5th April, 2022)

Ferri, Sabrina. (2014). “Time in Ruins: Melancholy and Modernity in the Pre-Romantic Natural Picturesque” Italian Studies, 69:2, 204-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/0075163414Z.00000000068 (Accessed 8th April, 2022) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0075163414Z.00000000068

Gilpin, William. (1792). Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, London, 1792.

Gilpin, William. (1792). Three Essays: On Picturesque Beauty; On Picturesque Travel; and on Sketching Landscape: to which is Added a Poem, On Landscape Painting, London, 1792.

Goldberg, Wendy. (2009). "Transcending the Victim’s History: Takahata Isao’s Grave of the Fireflies", University of Minnesota Press, Mechademia, Volume 4, 2009, pp. 39-52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mec.0.0030

Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata, produced by Toru Hara, Studio Ghibli Inc, 1988. Telegram.

Han, Karen (May 20, 2020). "Watch the 4-hour documentary that unravels Hayao Miyazaki's obsessions". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2021.

Howl’s Moving Castle, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli Inc, 2004. Netflix.

Ito, Masami (2015). “Isao’s Takahata’s stark world of reality” The Japan Times. September 12, 2015.https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/09/12/films/isao-takahatas-stark-world-reality/ (Accessed 27th March, 2022)

Jones, Dianne Wynne.: Howl’s Moving Castle. Great Britain, HarperCollins (2009) p. 316

Jones, Jonathan. (2001). “Things Fall Apart.” The Guardian, 11 October, 2001 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/oct/11/artsfeatures.arts (Accessed 30th March, 2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4023747

Lamarre, Thomas. (2009). The anime machine. A media theory of animation. University of Minnesota Press, pp-87.

Lenburg, Jeff (2012). Hayao Miyazaki: Japan's Premier Anime Storyteller. New York City: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60413-841-2.

Fairclough, Mary Caroline Louisa. (2011). John Thelwall and the Politics of the Picturesque. Romantic Circles Praxis Series, 9, 1-15. http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/thelwall/HTML/abstracts.html#FaircloughAbstract DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00741.x

McCarthy, Helen (1999). Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation (2002 ed.). Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-880656-41-9.

Miyazaki, Hayao (1996). Starting Point, 1979–1996. Translated by Cary, Beth; Schodt, Frederik L. (2009 ed.). San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 978-1-4215-0594-7.

Miyazaki, Hayao (May 22, 1988). Takeuchi, Masatoshi (ed.). "The Animation of Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Studio Ghibli". Kinema Junpo (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kinema Junpo (published July 16, 1995) (1166): 57–58.

My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by Toru Hara, Studio Ghibli Inc, 1988. Netflix.

Napier, Susan J. (2005). ANIME from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 2005.

Odell, Collin and Le Blanc, Michelle (2009). Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Kamera Books (2009) p. 127.

Sharp, Jasper (2018). “Isao Takahata obituary” The Guardian. 8 April, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/apr/08/isao-takahata-obituary (Accessed 27th March, 2022)

Smith, Lindsay (2011) "War, Wizards and Words: Transformative Adaptation and Transformed Meanings in Howl’s Moving Castle", The Projector; Bowling Green Vol. 11, Iss. 1, (Spring 2011): 36-56.

Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli Inc, 2001. Netflix.

Takahata, Isao and Akiyuki Nosaka. 2013. ‘Isao Takahata x Akiyuki Nosaka (A Dialogue between Isao Takahata and Akiyuki Nosaka). In Studio Ghibli and Bunshun Bunko, eds. 2013. Ghibli no Kyokasho 4: Hotaru no Haka (Textbook of Studio Ghibli Volume 4: Grave of the Fireflies). Tokyo: Bungeishunju, pp. 63-77.

Talbot, Margaret (January 17, 2005). "The Auteur of Anime". The New Yorker. Vol. 80, no. 43. New York City: Condé Nast. pp. 64–75.

Tjus, Einar Schipperges. (2018). “A Voice Against War Pacifism in the animated films of Miyazaki Hayao”, Stockholm University Stockholm, Sweden: 2018, pp: 4.

Vieira, Catarina and Kunz, Sahra. (2018). "Howl’s Moving Castle: Perspectives from Literature to Film", Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/27562 (Accessed 29th July, 2022)

“William Gilpin and the Picturesque.” https://sway.office.com/o3qPrnIVixT0Q9Re?ref=Link (Accessed on 1st April, 2022).