New Report Reveals How Hayao Miyazaki Cleverly Vets Artists For Studio Ghibli

If you want to run with the big boys, you may need to jump through a few hoops. Studio Ghibli has always been one of the top animation studios in the world, creating such classic anime films as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle to name a few. Since the studio has continued creating some of the best anime films in the business, animators looking to join their ranks may need to answer some bizarre questions from Hayao Miyazaki himself.

SoraNews24 revealed the interview process that cut a good deal of animators from their potential stable:

The interview process had Hayao Miyazaki asking his would-be coworkers a series of questions that would throw any interviewee for a loop. Bringing up the Studio Ghibli classic, My Neighbor Totoro, one of the potential animators brought up the perfect platform for Miyazaki to test his new roster. Telling the room of candidates that he believed Totoro to be a “horrible creature that used his large jaws to eat meat”. While most of the candidates agreed with Miyazaki’s take, one of the animators challenged the thought.

“He’s an herbivore, isn’t he?” interviewee Itoso responded, causing him to immediately be given the job he was applying for. Totoro was in fact a vegeterian and didn’t eat meat, something that the other candidates weren’t able to catch, or were simply too scared to challenge Miyazaki on. Hayao stated this regarding the interview, “People who create entertainment shouldn’t just swallow whatever people are thinking. The thinking process is the important part.” Certainly, this is an “outside the box” method of choosing who is going to join your company, but it seems to be working for the prolific studio.

Originally created in 1985 to bring the adaptation of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind to life, Ghibli has continued to make high quality animation throughout its lifespan. Receiving an Academy Award for Spirited Away, the studio is even looking to open its own theme park in the heart of Japan in 2022. Itoso, the candidate who applied and got a position with Studio Ghibli, eventually formed his own animation studio, using what he learned to create animation of his own under the banner of “Kenji Studio”

What was your most difficult job interview? What do you think of the criteria necessary for joining the ranks of Studio Ghibli? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and terrible job interviews!