Anime director Kenji Itoso spoke to Business Journal regarding his experiences studying under Studio Ghibli‘s Hayao Miyazaki from his teenage years. The conversation stemmed from a resurfaced image of a controversial sign hung in Toshio Suzuki’s room, setting out seven types of employees who should leave the company:
- Employees who are not smart
- Employees who cannot do things unless they are told
- Employees who are quick to rely on others
- Employees who are quick to shift the blame
- Employees who are not motivated
- Employees who are quick to complain
- Employees who often take time off and are often late
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Numerous Japanese outlets reached out to Ghibli, including Business Journal, and received the following response:
“This is still hanging in Producer Suzuki’s office, but it is not a company motto or anything like that. When he went to Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture to shoot Shiki-Jitsu (directed by Hideaki Anno), which was released in 2000, Producer Suzuki found it in a trash can of a building, found it interesting, picked it up and brought it back with him. Dwango founder Nobuo Kawakami, who was once an apprentice producer at our company, also liked it and apparently had it hanging up in his own company.
At our company, we never read these 7 Commandments at morning meetings, nor do we make employees read them. We never use this to pressure employees into quitting their jobs.“
Wanting to see if there was anything more to the story, Business Journal reached out to anime director Kenji Itoso, whose anime credits include:
- Aquarion: Myth of Emotions (director)
- Santa Company (chief director, producer, planner, co-scriptwriter)
- Fire Force Season 2 Cour 1 (ending director)
- Fruits Basket Season 2 Cour 1 (ending director)
- Attack on Titan Live-Action (opening animation scene, under his Kenji Studio)
Itoso had studied under Miyazaki at Ghibli’s Higashi-Koganei Village School, revealing the tale of how he was accepted via Oricon in 2019. He was invited for a group interview, and Miyazaki asked them what films they had seen recently. A female applicant said, “I saw My Neighbor Totoro. I’ve loved it since I was little. I even collect its merchandise.” Miyazaki replied, “Oh really? I’m glad you said that, but I don’t think Totoro is cute. It’s a frightening creature. It’s a carnivore, and the only reason it didn’t eat Satsuki and Mei is because it wasn’t hungry.” Miyazaki then probed each applicant for their thoughts on that, with the others simply going along with what Miyazaki said.
Itoso was last, and remembered that Totoro had molars characteristic of herbivores, developed to grind up grass. “He can’t be a carnivore! There’s no way he could eat Satsuki and Mei!” Itoso recounted saying. “He’s a herbivore, right?” Miyazaki was impressed, and Itoso was the only one who passed the interview. When Itoso asked why he would ask such a question, Miyazaki replied:
“It’s important for people who work in entertainment to think, not just accept what people say.“
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Regarding Suzuki’s controversial sign, Itoso said, “This is only my imagination, but considering what I know about Suzuki-san’s character, I don’t think he would put up anything he completely disagrees with, so in all honesty, so isn’t he ‘open’ (lol) to it? Still, it could be interpreted as him thinking ‘I agree,’ or conversely, it could be interpreted as him putting it up in a negative way, thinking, ‘If I put up things like this in an arrogant manner, no one will follow me.’” Itoso empathized with those seven rules, not wanting to work with people who rely on others and those who fail to inspire him, but added that he didn’t want to force that way of thinking onto others. Itoso then shared what he learned under Miyazaki:
“I was once fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study under Director Miyazaki, so it is true that I have been strongly influenced by his way of working and thinking. For example, when thinking about the direction of a single scene, there are countless ways to do it, such as camera work and acting.
When you come up with an interesting idea, rather than immediately adopting it, you should discard as many ideas as possible and keep coming up with new ideas, even if it may be difficult, as long as time allows, and draw out all possible ways to achieve it, gradually getting as close as possible to a perfect result. I think that this is the natural way of thinking for Director Miyazaki.“
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“Let me tell you a story that I actually experienced. When we were planning a short film to be shown at the Ghibli Museum, we discussed whether we could make a movie based on a certain girl’s manga, and when we were discussing and expanding the story, Director Miyazaki said ‘It’s not so good’ to the story idea I presented. I had become somewhat accustomed to interacting with Director Miyazaki, so I said something like ‘I’m sorry to say this, but this is definitely interesting.’
That was cheeky, wasn’t it? Then, about a week later, Director Miyazaki drew the story I told him on a storyboard and showed it to me. Since it was a storyboard drawn by Director Miyazaki, it was a great story from the perspective of directing, but it was certainly not very interesting as an animated story. Director Miyazaki thought hard about how he could realize what an aspiring director said and how he could learn the most from it, and he took the initiative himself.
Seeing that attitude, I really respected him, and I felt that he believes that it is natural to always do your best for everyone. I was so excited that Director Miyazaki (who I was a huge fan of) made a storyboard for my story, to the point that I couldn’t concentrate on what Director Miyazaki was saying from the moment I received said storyboard. Of course, I still treasure it to this day.
By the way, regarding tardiness mentioned in the 7 rules, I remember that Director Miyazaki was extremely strict about it. I’ve heard as a half-joking story from a person who was rejected that they were late for an interview and failed without being asked a single question. That person is now very successful, though…“
Source: Business Journal
© 2023 Shoji Kawamori, Satelight/Project AQUARION MOE © 1988 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli
