Princess Mononoke Hayao Miyazaki Interview – Animerica – December 1999

Closing out the decade with Princess Mononoke and an interview with Hayao Miyazaki.
I like this first part of the interview:

“But, Miyazaki admitted, he had not yet see the English version of the movie.

“Basically, I assumed that the staff at Miramax would do a good job.” he said. “If couldn’t make the assumption, I would have had to do the whole thing myself.”

This single statement describes the core of the deal between Miyazaki’s Japanese release company Tokuma Shoten and Disney’s Buena Vista. The legendary director’s work is protected from cuts or alterations, but otherwise, the films are, as Miyazaki is concerned, in good hands.

“Bringing this kind of movie to America is a gamble for Miramax,” he said. “Well, a small one, but still- the deal from the beginning was that there would be no cuts, so involving myself with it beyond that would make things more complicated for everybody.”

I had to include a scan of the spotlight of Kia Asamiya’s Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace manga adaptation.

“the secrecy of the film was so extreme, they wouldn’t let me see the movie.” Asamiya remembers. “The only thing I had to go on was them explaining to me what the story was about. They wouldn’t give me visuals. They did show me photographs, but a lot of the photos were before the special effects were dropped in, so there was a lot of blue screen.”

Now I am tempted to find a copy at an anime con or on ebay.

Highlights:

• This month’s Anime That Time Forgot: WildCardz, Gestalt, Nazca
• Anime fan art theme this month is football. Pikachu is a halfback.
• How many copies of Cosplay Encyclopedia sold for Media Blasters.
• Bandai Entertainment ad is announcing English dub versions for Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket and 0083 Stardust Memory. I remember watching those on Toonami.
• Gundam Wing article announces the show will be on Cartoon Network in March 2000.

A volume release of Ranma 1/2 was titled “Buns of Steel”