Hirokatsu Kihara, a figure in the early years of Studio Ghibli, was at the Angoulême comic book festival last January. He told BFMTV his memories of Miyazaki’s debut.
Hirokatsu Kihara is a figure in the shadows of Japanese animation. Former production manager for Studio Ghibli, where he worked between 1985 and 1989, he was a privileged witness to the beginnings of one of the biggest animation studios in the world and of Hayao Miyazaki, of whom he was close. collaborater.
Assistant producer on The castle in the Sky (1986), then promoted to production manager on Mon Voisin Totoro (1988) et Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), he followed each step in the development of these great cinema classics.
Former collaborator of the Topcraft studio, which had participated in the creation of Horus, prince of the sun (1968) of Isao Takahata and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) by Hayao Miyazaki, Hirokatsu Kihara remembers the atmosphere of Studio Ghibli in its early days. There were then only about twenty people:
“It was a bit empty,” he laughs. “People then came in little by little. Miyazaki immediately tried to establish a good relationship with the team. He wanted to have a good relationship with the animators, because they were young, and they didn’t have lots of experience in the industry.”
“He was never convinced”
Hayao Miyazaki, then in his late forties, is actually under pressure. He has already signed two films, Cagliostro Castlefrom a famous Monkey Punch manga, et Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, inspired by a manga he imagined. And then embarks on a colossal challenge: to found a new studio to produce original productions, not inspired by manga or existing licenses.
It is in this context that Hirokatsu Kihara arrives in Ghibli. “The production of castle in the sky had just started,” he recalls. “Miyazaki was drawing the storyboards. It was such a complex and detailed work… He drew and then stopped. He was never convinced of what he was doing. Since it was his first original film, he was a little stressed. He drew, re-drew, re-re-drew everything.”
Dissatisfaction related to the specific constraints of this project: The castle in the Sky is the only film for which Miyazaki wrote a screenplay. “Usually, Miyazaki does not write scripts for his films. Most often, he draws. Until the end of the storyboard, no one knows the story, no one can know how it will end”, specifies Hirokatsu Kihara. “The castle in the Sky is the last film where he wrote a screenplay.”
The inspiration of the Chat Bus
Came to Europe with the preparatory sketches of the castle in the sky, Hirokatsu Kihara shows how much the main characters, including the heroine Sheeta, changed in appearance during this creative process. The idea of making her an outfit with stripes was abandoned during production for planning reasons: “It was difficult to animate the stripes”, justifies Hirokatsu Kihara.
An atypical personality, recognizable by his blond hair and his big mischievous smile, which gives him a very feline face, Hirokatsu Kihara also inspired the physical appearance of the famous Cat Bus from I could do Totoro. “The Chat Bus was created in 1975, long before the founding of the Ghibli studio”, he recalls, before detailing:
“But Miyazaki had no ideas for his body. That’s why in I could do Totoro, when the Cat Bus meets Satsuki and Mei, we just see his smiling face. In other scenes, the Cat Bus is still smiling a lot – and that’s what my face is inspired by.”
A demanding man
Hayao Miyazaki has always had the reputation of a demanding man. Hirokatsu Kihara confirms the rumours, while adding precision: “It’s true that he is demanding, but that’s not a bad reason”, he insists. “He does this so that his teams give their best and that they are happy with their work.” An edifying anecdote that occurred during the filming of Totoro comes to mind:
“In Totoro, there is a scene where a friend of Satsuki calls her. She comes down. The animator must have drawn this scene at least eight times. He threw in the trash what he was doing. He couldn’t. He didn’t understand what was wrong with it. Then he added a little gesture in character. And Miyazaki approved the scene.”
Working with Miyazaki “can be difficult”, he adds, but “he was a pioneer”. However, he finds that what set him apart from other animation directors has eroded a bit over the years. “Over 35 years ago, he was good at explaining to his teams what he had in mind, to share his imagination with them.” But after Kiki’s Delivery Serviceaccording to him, “he lost interest”: “we no longer find his style.”
And Hirokatsu Kihara concludes, with a touch of disappointment: “(With his first films), he made people want to have fun, to go out. When we watched his films, we wanted to go out to have fun! very appreciated by the children. This spirit was a little lost. I was very sad, after my departure, when the management changed. Nothing was like before.”
