The literary era since 1979

Koganei City, a suburb of Tokyo.

Fangyan and Hashimoto Yui got out of the car and came to an inconspicuous gray building, which is where the Ghibli Studio is located.

Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the founder of Tokuma Shoten, is not only a major shareholder of Studio Ghibli, but also a benefactor of Hayao Miyazaki and others. He is also an active promoter of friendship between the two countries and has facilitated many cultural exchange projects, including the commemorative event for the 30th anniversary of cultural exchange last year.

It was also at this 30th anniversary event that Fangyan met Yasuyoshi Tokuma, who enabled him to easily make an appointment in advance through the Tokuma Shoten staff to meet with Hayao Miyazaki, Takahata Isao and other founders of Studio Ghibli.

"Ding dong."

Yui Hashimoto rang the doorbell.

Soon, a middle-aged man with black hair and beard, wearing a pair of large black-framed glasses and beige overalls, walked out of the house.

Fangyan recognized at a glance that the person coming was the legend in the animation industry, Hayao Miyazaki.

Miyazaki Hayao greeted with a smile, "Fangyan-kun, I was so happy to hear from the phone that you were coming today."

"me too."

Fangyan simply introduced herself on behalf of Yui Hashimoto.

Miyazaki Hayao also introduced his favorite disciple Kondo Yoshifumi, and then led everyone into the studio.

The first floor is mainly used for the introduction of the studio’s founder, behind-the-scenes stories, and a wall of movie posters.

Fangyan looked around for a while and saw posters of movies such as "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" and "Castle in the Sky" on the wall.

Miyazaki Hayao explained as he walked, saying that Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was first serialized in Animage, a magazine published by Tokuma Shoten, and later it was adapted into an animation with the support of Tokuma Yasuyoshi, Takahata Isao and others, which made him a success and famous.

At that time, in order to celebrate the popularity of "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", Tokuma Shoten funded himself, Takahata Isao and others to travel to China. They visited Yanjing, Datong, Shancheng, Jiangcheng, and Shanghai successively. The Shanghai Art Film Studio was one of the most important destinations of their trip.

They gave the complete film reel of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind that they carried with them to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio as a gift so that it could be shown in mainland China.

"Speaking of this, I did come here to make an unreasonable request."

Fangyan said seriously.

Miyazaki said: "Please speak."

Fangyan directly stated the purpose of his visit to Japan. He hoped to represent the Joint Publishing Company in Hong Kong and introduce excellent Japanese comics to Hong Kong for distribution and publication. In addition, he founded a children's magazine last year called "Fairy Tale World", which is affiliated with the editorial department of "Mystery World" and the editor-in-chief is Zheng Yuanjie. In fact, it is the same as "Fairy Tale King" in his previous life, with both sales share and share dividends.

However, Zheng Yuanjie can use the IPs such as "Pipilulu", "Lelouch", "Beta and Shuke" and so on for his own use.

"It turns out that Fangyanjun wants to bring Ghibli's works to China."

Miyazaki's smile grew even brighter.

"Besides, I have good relationships with many film companies in Hong Kong and the mainland, and I can help you promote your film in both places."

Fangyan pointed and said, "For example, this movie 'Castle in the Sky'."

"Have you seen the movie "Castle in the Sky"?"

“No, but judging from this poster alone, it looks like a story that combines elements of technology, adventure, and nature.”

"As expected of Mr. Fangyan, you really have a good eye."

Miyazaki briefly recounted the story outline of "Castle in the Sky" and specifically pointed out that "Castle in the Sky" is the debut work of Studio Ghibli. Since its release last year, it has attracted a total of 77 viewers and earned 5.8 million yen at the box office.

“This is a great start.”

Fangyan couldn't help but sigh.

“It’s really a good start.”

Miyazaki led them up the stairs and came to the office area on the second floor. They saw that all the workstations were occupied, and the painters were working hard with their heads down.

"This is?"

Yui Hashimoto was very curious.

Miyazaki explained that after the huge success of "Castle in the Sky", Ghibli was ready to build on its success, so he and Takahata Isao took the lead and organized the teams respectively, hoping to stimulate the two teams through mutual competition, thereby forcing out even better film works.

As a result, the entire studio tried its best, and everyone basically ate, drank, defecated and urinated in the company. They created when they woke up, and just went to sleep when they were sleepy.

“I wonder what these two projects are?”

Fangyan cast a questioning look.

"One theme is 'life' and the other theme is 'death'."

Miyazaki said that he was responsible for "life" and then created a work called "My Neighbor Totoro", while Takahata Isao took the lead in "death" and later became the producer of "Grave of the Fireflies". It was precisely because the animated film had reached the most critical juncture that he had no time to welcome the dialect.

"My Neighbor Totoro"?
"Grave of the Fireflies"?
Dialects raised their eyebrows, these two animated films are the best of the best.

Miyazaki took them to the third floor, which was the office area for the "My Neighbor Totoro" movie.

There were many round and cute Totoro stickers on the surrounding walls, which immediately attracted Yui Hashimoto's attention.

Hayao Miyazaki kindly introduced the plot of "My Neighbor Totoro":

"The core idea I want to express in it is, 'When life gets bad to a certain extent, it will get better because it can't get any worse. Only after working hard can you understand many things. If you persist, you will get through it.' This is also one of my views on 'life'."

"It's wonderful to hide such philosophy in such a pure, innocent, gentle and childlike dream."

Fangyan stood in front of a design drawing of a chinchilla and looked it up and down.

"Haha, thank you."

Miyazaki Hayao asked Fangyan in return, as a famous writer, I wonder what he thinks about the proposition of "life"?
Fangyan pondered for a moment, and said in a faint tone, "I think no matter who you are, you always walk alone on the road of life... A person's life is destined to be a lonely journey, and no matter who you are, you will only be a passer-by in your life..."

Miyazaki asked, "Why do you think that a person will walk alone throughout his life?"

“Isn’t a person a person at the end of the day?”

Fang Yan said, "And I'm always alone. But what's wrong with that? People always end up alone."

Hayao Miyazaki, Yui Hashimoto, Yoshifumi Kondo and others were shocked and kept chewing and savoring this sentence.

After all, the end of loneliness is the beauty of "mono no aware", which is exactly what the Japanese want!
"Pity."

Miyazaki sighed, "If I had met Fangyan earlier, I might have a different understanding of 'life' and would not have created My Neighbor Totoro. I might have created an animation work about 'loneliness in life'."

"Miyazaki-san, you don't have to feel sorry. On the contrary, I think the innocence and warmth of "My Neighbor Totoro" is much more positive and sunny than "The Lonely Life"!"

Fangyan waved his hand.

Seeing Miyazaki Hayao smile, Kondo Yoshifumi suggested: "Master, since Fangyan-san has such an opinion, why don't we find an opportunity in the future, Fangyan-san will write the script, and Ghibli will draw the pictures, and work together to create such a work, how about it?"

"No rudeness!"

Miyazaki Hayao frowned and scolded.

Fang Yan said: "It's okay, it's okay on my side, I wonder what Miyazaki-san thinks?"

Miyazaki Hayao pondered for a while, then happily agreed. He planned that after the release of "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Grave of the Fireflies", the next work of Ghibli would be a collaboration between the two parties to create an animated film with the script provided by Fangyan, and the theme would still be "life". (End of this chapter)