Celebrate the artistry of visionary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki with the official art book The Art of the Boy and the Heron. In Studio Ghibli’s Academy Award®–winning fantasy adventure film, The Boy and the Heron, young Mahito loses his mother and is plunged into a journey of discovery led by a mischievous gray heron. This gorgeous art book is filled with hundreds of pieces of concept art, storyboards, character designs, backgrounds, key animation, and more that illuminate the inventive vision of acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki. This book features commentary and interviews from the incredible team that shaped this film and past Studio Ghibli masterpieces. Readers will gain insight into the extensive production process and the painstaking work that went into the creation of this film from supervising animator Takeshi Honda, art director Yoji Takeshige, background artist Noboru Yoshida, and many more. The book also includes the director’s original memos proposing the creation of the film, the full script, and many other intriguing details.
Author
宮崎 駿 Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tokyo on January 5, 1941. He started his career in 1963 as an animator at the studio Toei Douga, and was subsequently involved in many early classics of Japanese animation. From the beginning, he commanded attention with his incredible ability to draw, and the seemingly-endless stream of movie ideas he proposed. In 1971, he moved to A Pro with Isao Takahata, then to Nippon Animation in 1973, where he was heavily involved in the World Masterpiece Theater TV animation series for the next five years. In 1978, he directed his first TV series, Conan, The Boy in Future, then moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first movie, the classic Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. In 1984, he released Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, based on the manga (comic) of the same title which he had started two years before. The success of the film led to the establishment of a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli, at which Miyazaki has since written, directed, and produced many other films with Takahata. All of these films enjoyed critical and box office successes. In particular, Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke received the Japan Academy Award for Best Film and was the highest-grossing (about US$150 million) domestic film in Japan's history until it was taken over by another Miyazaki work, Spirited Away. In addition to animation, Miyazaki also draws manga. His major work was the Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind manga, an epic tale he worked on intermittently from 1982 to 1994 while he was busy making animated films. Another manga, Hikoutei Jidai, was later evolved into his film Porco Rosso.
