Some of the most captivating and imaginative animations stem from Studio Ghibli, the animation studio that brought you films like “Spirited Away” “My Neighbor Totoro” and my personal favorite “Howl’s Moving Castle”. These films used to play on Cartoon Network all the time and are still highly regarded in the animation world for their creativity and beauty. However this past week Studio Ghibli has come under some backlash after comments from the former executive producer discussed the lack of female directors in the company.
Former executive producer Yoshiaki Nishimura was asked in an interview with The Guardian if there would ever be a female director employed at Ghibli, his response received quite a bit or criticism even earning the title for The Guardian’s article on the interview. His response stated,
“Women tend to be more realistic and manage day-to-day lives very well. Men on the other hand tend to be more idealistic—and fantasy films need that idealistic approach. I don’t think it’s a coincidence men are picked.”
This week Nishimura issued an apology stating,
“I would like to apologize for making everyone who loves Ghibli feel unpleasant due to the misunderstanding that this was representative of Ghibli’s thinking. Secondly, as for the comment that men tend to be more idealistic and women tend to be more idealistic, that is a discriminatory, one-sided point of view, and I most certainly had that”.
Nishimura left Ghibli in 2014 to found his company Studio Ponoc but was producer of Ghibli’s latest film When Marnie Was There and The Tale of Princess Kaguya both nominated for Oscars.
Now personally I think this entire interview comment was more along the lines of making a mountain out of a molehill. While Nishimura’s comment was one sided, I don’t think he meant it in a derogatory way and The Guardian helped stir the pot on the comment. The interview was titled with just the portion on men being idealistic and totally ignored talking what the interview was about to begin with, which was how they are dealing after Miyazaki, the founder, retired. Along with this, I think we need to look at Ghibli’s past works and how they involve women. Ghibli movies always have a strong empowering female presence that resonates with both male and female alike, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke. The strong female presence is one of the things that, for me, seems to set Ghibli apart from other studios and always makes their movies so memorable. You don’t watch the characters compete but rather both genders work in harmony. While Nishimura’s comment shows a very male dominated field type mentality, I think his statement apologizing helps show that perhaps it was blown out of context, either way he realized his mistake and we need to not hold it against the company. Perhaps Nishimaru could benefit from watching his previous employer’s movies, it might do him good to see how women are portrayed in the Ghibli world.
