Miyazaki attended Toyotama High School. In his third year there, he saw the film Hakujaden, described as “the first-ever Japanese feature length color anime”, and began to take an interest in animation. In order to become an animator, he had to learn to draw the human figure, because his work until that time had been limited to drawing airplanes and battleships.

After high school, Miyazaki attended Gakushuin University, graduating in 1963 with degrees in political science and economics. He was a member of the “children’s literature research club,” said to be “the closest thing to a comics club in those days”.

In April 1963, Miyazaki got a job at Toei Animation, working as an in-between artist on the anime Watchdog Bow Wow (Wanwan Chushingura). He was a leader in a labor dispute soon after his arrival, and he became chief secretary of Toei’s labor union in 1964.

In October 1965, he married fellow animator Akemi Ota, who later left work to raise their two sons, Gorō and Keisuke. Goro is now an animator and filmmaker, and has directed Tales from Earthsea at Studio Ghibli. Keisuke is a wood artist who has created pieces for the Ghibli Museum and who made the wood engraving shown in the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart.

Miyazaki first gained recognition while working as an in-between artist on the Toei production of Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon (Garibā no Uchuu Ryokou, 1965). He thought the original ending in the script was unsatisfactory, and pitched his own idea, which became the ending used in the final film.

Miyazaki then played an important role as chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer on Hols: Prince of the Sun (1968), a landmark animated film directed by Isao Takahata, with whom he continued to collaborate for the next three decades. In Kimio Yabuki’s Puss in Boots (1969), Miyazaki again provided key animation as well as designs, storyboards, and story ideas for key scenes in the film, including the climactic chase scene. Shortly thereafter, Miyazaki proposed scenes in the screenplay for The Flying Ghost Ship, in which military tanks would roll into downtown Tokyo and cause mass hysteria, and was hired to storyboard and animate those scenes. In 1971, Miyazaki played a decisive role developing structure, characters, and designs for Animal Treasure Island and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, earning credit for idea construction and organization for the two films respectively, as well as storyboarding and key animating of pivotal scenes in both.

Miyazaki left Toei in 1971 for A Pro, where he co-directed six episodes of the first Lupin III series with Isao Takahata. He and Takahata then began pre-production on a Pippi Longstockings series and drew extensive story boards for it. However, after traveling to Sweden to conduct research for the film, and meet the original author, Astrid Lindgren, they were denied permission to complete the project, and it was cancelled.

Instead of Pippi Longstockings, Miyazaki conceived, wrote, designed, and animated two Panda! Go, Panda! shorts which were directed by Takahata. Miyazaki’s first film as a director was The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), a Lupin III adventure film.

Miyazaki’s next film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika, 1984), was an adventure film that introduced many of themes which recur in later films: a concern with ecology, a fascination with aircraft, and morally ambiguous characterizations, especially among villains. This was the first film both written and directed by Miyazaki. He adapted it from his manga series of the same title, which he began writing and illustrating two years earlier, but did not complete until after the film’s release.