Takeshi Honda already had a good gig lined up. The veteran animator was slated to work on Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the next film in the sci-fi series that Honda had worked on in fits and starts over the last two decades. Before starting that job, he partnered with Studio Ghibliâs famed Hayao Miyazaki on Boro the Caterpillar, a short film that aired exclusively at the Ghibli Museum. But as Boro was winding down, Miyazaki came to Honda with a proposition: be the supervising animator on his next feature film.
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Hayao Miyazaki is very convincing
Takeshi Honda has worked on anime classics like Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion, and Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki was able to convince the animator to work on The Boy and the Heron.
âOf course I had already booked Evangelion, so I had to say to him âI need some time to talk with the other parties, and come to a decision.â I had to stall,â Honda said. âBut Miyazaki was in quite a rush and was very loud about this. He said âI donât have any more time. Nobody in the Miyazaki family has lived beyond 80. This is probably going to be my last film so you have to come on board.â And when Miyazaki says that to you, really thereâs no way to say no.â
That film would turn out to be The Boy and the Heron, which premiered in Japan earlier this year and is out in North America next month. Honda has worked on some of the most influential anime ever; not only Evangelion but also the likes of Ghost in the Shell and Bubblegum Crisis. But heâd always admired the work of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. This, coupled with the fact that heâd already spent a long time working on Evangelion, made the decision a little easier. âSince I had been working on the Evangelion series for more than 20 years,â says Honda, âI thought maybe itâs time to team up with Miyazaki.â
He didnât have much to go on at first. All Honda knew going in was that The Boy and the Heron would be a movie inspired in part by Miyazakiâs childhood. And once he started learning the details â itâs a film that features everything from warrior parakeets to a cosmic game of Jenga â things werenât any clearer. âWhen [Miyazaki] showed me the storyboard, and I read until the final scene, it sounded very confusing to me and I didnât quite understand it,â Honda says. It wasnât until he saw the movie in its completed form that everything fell into place. âI could sense the will and the determination and the commitment that [Miyazaki] put into this one, which was moving. Itâs something that I donât often feel with the films that I involve myself in.â
The Boy and the Heron was in the works for some time. It was initially announced in 2016, with Miyazaki coming out of retirement (again) to direct. Production began a year later. During that time, Honda says, his working relationship with the director was essentially split into two different periods, with Miyazaki becoming more trusting â and less hands on â as things progressed.
âThere was a lot I could do that wouldnât be allowed at other studios.â
âDuring the first one or two years of working on this project with Miyazaki, there was a lot of feedback from him,â Honda says. âHe would say to me âNo, the eyes should be drawn this wayâ or âThe nose should be like this.â So it was one or two years of him hammering his style into my work. And then after that I was kind of left to my own devices and I naturally reverted to my own style. I think Miyazaki knew, but was like âOh, whatever, just let him do his thing.â It wasnât a deliberate decision on my end, but I think it ended up being my own style anyway.â
Honda also found that relatively long gestation period for the film to be a positive, mostly because there was no fixed premiere date in place. This allowed the team to put more time into things without a deadline looming over them. âThere was no sense of exhaustion,â says Honda. âItâs much more exhausting when youâre working under time constraints. So with this one â I mean, Iâm sure the budget was quite high â there was a lot I could do that wouldnât be allowed at other studios.â
As an example, Honda cites the filmâs opening scenes, which involve a tragic and devastating fire. Itâs something the team worked on and tweaked for almost the entire length of production. âBecause itâs a first sequence, with other studios youâd probably gloss over it,â he says. âWhereas with this production we spent the entire six years mulling over this scene.â Likewise, the animators used âalmost no CGI,â instead focusing on hand-drawn animation, a process thatâs both time-consuming and expensive, putting it out of reach for most studios.
And while Honda has worked on a number of notable films and shows, The Boy and the Heron is one that comes with very particular and strong expectations. For the length of its production it was widely believed to be the final film from Miyazaki, a movie that would close out one of the most famed careers in cinematic history. âThere was that added pressure of âOh, this is really urgent.â But you really become accustomed to that pressure once the work starts,â says Honda,â and you start to think âOh, this is a long process indeed.ââ
The Boy and the Heron hits theaters in North America on December 8th, and itâs a strange and fascinating experience. One thatâs both quintessentially Ghibli and also largely unlike anything the studio has done before. However, despite the 82-year-old Miyazakiâs original pitch to Honda, it doesnât look like itâll be his last movie after all.
But it was still worth the time and effort, at least for Honda. He initially had to make a big choice about whether to work on the film at all. It felt like the correct choice and the time â and six years later thatâs still the case. âI think it was the right decision,â Honda says with a laugh.