Way back all the way in July, you might recall, I made the idiotic choice to have an open poll for the director who’d get a retrospective next. Things got unscientific awfully fast, with supporters for both Alan Pakula and Miyazaki Hayao unabashedly cheating to inflate the numbers for their candidate (seven months later, and I still can’t understand where the Pakula fanbase came from). Anyway, my Solomonic wisdom drove me to announce Pakula the winner (he was in the lead when the really heavy-duty ballot-stuffing kicked in), and that I’d launch into a Miyazaki retrospective just as soon as I had some free time. And that time has now finally come.
Therefore: Antagony & Ecstasy is proud to announce our fourth Director Retrospective, dedicated to the work of one of the most beloved animation auteurs in world history. Following the lead of a friend, I toyed with the idea of calling it Hiyo, Miyazaki! A Look Back at the Master of Anime, but I’m not sure if I’m quite that terrible.
The fun starts tomorrow, with a consideration of the 1978 series Future Boy Conan.