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Sharing a Home with the Never Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli (free to read on archive.org)
Was busily downloading a bunch of animation books last week from this person's uploads (gold mine there), and i ran across this one again years later. Without meaning to (it was late, past midnight), started reading and it was two hours before I finally put it down, saying "sheesh i need to actually buy the paperback and actually finish it there."
* the long and short of it is that very early on, Ghibli's parent company, while expanding, figured they needed at least one main english-speaking guy to handle international press, to be an advisor on translating their films, to also be a senior translator that could hold his own in high-profile interviews, and in general being a "handler" that knows the nuances of western culture as well as their own. that's this dude, and he basically covers his whole fifteen years of service back when their films were an unknown all the way to being a bona fide international cultural icon.
(I say "handler" since everyone in corporate who's seen enough suits know that for the top 3 bigwigs, there's some kind of invisible person that is around to steer them into making the right decisions or not making a bad PR scene. there's a real skill in being able to tell your boss with an inflated ego to shut up, without actually saying the words.)
* this dude is funny. genuinely talented at writing; you can tell he's a peerless translator with his genuine love for words. loves words, knows how to put them together skillfully to get a bark laugh out of a whimsical story of a conference room meeting with disney execs and cultural flubs. (he's also not afraid to give the unvarnished truth of how many flubs those same execs made; there's a sense of honesty to his relayed experiences I've never gotten in any western-approved book about pixar & co).
* this is a great example of the humor that had me irl loling, when he was describing a VIP tour of Disney's animation studios:
Was busily downloading a bunch of animation books last week from this person's uploads (gold mine there), and i ran across this one again years later. Without meaning to (it was late, past midnight), started reading and it was two hours before I finally put it down, saying "sheesh i need to actually buy the paperback and actually finish it there."
* the long and short of it is that very early on, Ghibli's parent company, while expanding, figured they needed at least one main english-speaking guy to handle international press, to be an advisor on translating their films, to also be a senior translator that could hold his own in high-profile interviews, and in general being a "handler" that knows the nuances of western culture as well as their own. that's this dude, and he basically covers his whole fifteen years of service back when their films were an unknown all the way to being a bona fide international cultural icon.
(I say "handler" since everyone in corporate who's seen enough suits know that for the top 3 bigwigs, there's some kind of invisible person that is around to steer them into making the right decisions or not making a bad PR scene. there's a real skill in being able to tell your boss with an inflated ego to shut up, without actually saying the words.)
* this dude is funny. genuinely talented at writing; you can tell he's a peerless translator with his genuine love for words. loves words, knows how to put them together skillfully to get a bark laugh out of a whimsical story of a conference room meeting with disney execs and cultural flubs. (he's also not afraid to give the unvarnished truth of how many flubs those same execs made; there's a sense of honesty to his relayed experiences I've never gotten in any western-approved book about pixar & co).
* this is a great example of the humor that had me irl loling, when he was describing a VIP tour of Disney's animation studios:
"I needed to beg to get Disney to allow the documentary film crew to join the visit inside Disney's feature-animation building, commonly referred to as "The Hat" (from the outside, the building is designed to resemble that Mickey wears in The Sorcerer's Apprentice). This was where all Disney's top-secret feature films were being hatched and developed and then produced. I had promised on my life that the film crew would absolutely never ever even dream of pointing their cameras at the art on the walls or tat the animators at work. If they did, I was given to understand that I would forfeit every penny I owned and my eldest son. They really took security at Disney Feature Animation seriously.
Once we got inside The Hat, I learned a lesson that I now understand very well: documentary cameramen do not give a damn about anything other than getting the shots they want. They don't care who has promised what or what they themselves promised in order to get permission to film. Once they start filming, they loose track of all that. To be fair, getting good documentary footage is probably not an easy thing, and their art and livelihood depend on it. Maybe when they are out in the wild filming animals, nature finds a way to balance intrusive harm with expositional value. If the wild lions being filmed take exception to the camera being trained on their cubs, the cameramen will suffer the consenquences directly and individually. Lions don't have lawyers who will take it out on the producers."
* the author takes a real interest in untwining the cultural quirks that make the meat of this story, so much so that it's almost half a lively anthropology observation by a gajin in an unique setting and time. he doesn't insert himself needlessly in the story, but you do see how his foreigner background would help (or hinder) certian moments. he also doesn't mince words on certian culture clashes that might make some folks wince, but there's a playful humor to it that softens those explanations.
* you know the famous "no cuts" story? it's even better when you know the specifics of it; i won't spoil it, but it's in here as well, as well as many other anecdotes I'm surprised don't get mentioned more in trivia articles.
anyway! burned through the rest of this book in less than a day - which doesn't happen as often these days, I'm impressed. absolutely a keeper that'll stay in my library, and an easy recommendation to the Ghibli fanatic or newcomer. 5/5, just a fun, fun nonfiction romp that's not too light or too heavy.
Once we got inside The Hat, I learned a lesson that I now understand very well: documentary cameramen do not give a damn about anything other than getting the shots they want. They don't care who has promised what or what they themselves promised in order to get permission to film. Once they start filming, they loose track of all that. To be fair, getting good documentary footage is probably not an easy thing, and their art and livelihood depend on it. Maybe when they are out in the wild filming animals, nature finds a way to balance intrusive harm with expositional value. If the wild lions being filmed take exception to the camera being trained on their cubs, the cameramen will suffer the consenquences directly and individually. Lions don't have lawyers who will take it out on the producers."
* the author takes a real interest in untwining the cultural quirks that make the meat of this story, so much so that it's almost half a lively anthropology observation by a gajin in an unique setting and time. he doesn't insert himself needlessly in the story, but you do see how his foreigner background would help (or hinder) certian moments. he also doesn't mince words on certian culture clashes that might make some folks wince, but there's a playful humor to it that softens those explanations.
* you know the famous "no cuts" story? it's even better when you know the specifics of it; i won't spoil it, but it's in here as well, as well as many other anecdotes I'm surprised don't get mentioned more in trivia articles.
anyway! burned through the rest of this book in less than a day - which doesn't happen as often these days, I'm impressed. absolutely a keeper that'll stay in my library, and an easy recommendation to the Ghibli fanatic or newcomer. 5/5, just a fun, fun nonfiction romp that's not too light or too heavy.