In 2006, Nausicaa.net reported on Hayao Miyazaki’s plans to direct his next film, as he has decided on its “mood.” Little was known about the story, except that it was rumored to be set in Kobe. Among areas Miyazaki’s team visited during pre-production were an old café run by an elderly couple, and the view of a city from high in the mountains. The exact location of these places is censored from Studio Ghibli’s production diaries. The studio has also announced that Miyazaki has begun creating storyboards for the film and that they are being produced in watercolor because the film will have an “unusual visual style.” Studio Ghibli anticipates a production time of 20 months with a planned release date of summer 2008.

On 2007-03-19, during edition of Japanese news program “NNN Newsリアルタイム”, the film’s title was announced as Gake no ue no Ponyo, literally “Ponyo on a Cliff.”. The release date remains summer 2008. A few scant details of the plot emerged. The story is said to revolve around a 5 year old boy, Sosuke, and the Princess goldfish, Ponyo, who wants to become human. Goro Miyazaki’s has been chosen as the model for the main character Sosuke and important subjects of the film are things like “father”, “mother” and “cliff”. In addition Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki mentioned “Almost 70 to 80% of the film takes stage on sea. It will be a director’s challenge on how they will express the sea and its waves with freehand drawing.” Also, the film will probably not contain any computer generated imagery, or CGI, in direct contrast to Miyazaki’s recent work such as Howl’s Moving Castle.

Miyazaki takes a leading role when creating his films, frequently taking the roles of both writer and director. Myazaki personally reviewed every frame used in his early films, though due to health concerns over the high workload he now delegates some of the workload to other Ghibli members. In a 1999 interview, Miyazaki said, “at this age, I cannot do the work I used to. If my staff can relieve me and I can concentrate on directing, there are still a number of movies I’d like to make.”

In contrast to American animation, the script and storyboards are created together, and animation begins before the story is finished and storyboards are developing. Stories are sometimes based on his manga.

Miyazaki uses traditional animation throughout the animation process. However, computer-generated imagery has been used since Princess Mononoke to give some sequences “a little boost of elegance with digital technology.” In an interview with the Financial Times, Miyazaki said “it’s very important for me to retain the right ratio between working by hand and computer. I have learnt that balance now, how to use both and still be able to call my films 2D.”[10] Digital paint was also used for the first time in parts of Princess Mononoke in order to meet release deadlines. It has been used as standard for subsequent films.

Miyazaki has strong views on environmentalism, a theme explored in a number of his films. In an interview with The New Yorker, Miyazaki claimed that much of modern culture is “thin and shallow and fake”, and “not entirely jokingly” looked forward to an apocalyptic age where “wild green grasses” take over.[11][12] This pessimisism does not transfer to his films, as Miyazaki suggests that adults should not “impose their vision of the world on children.”

Hayao Miyazaki is a perfectionist[Cite] and workaholic.[Cite] This dedication to his work impacted negatively on his role as a father, with his son Gorō giving him “zero Marks as a father, full marks as a director”.[13]

Most of Miyazaki’s characters have complex motivations, and while some can be better or worse than others, they are often capable of change. Many seemingly menacing characters are morally ambiguous, and while not necessarily protagonists, are not clearly defined as antagonists. The character Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke stands in opposition to