Goro Miyazaki Talks Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter

Studio Ghibli is among the world’s most iconic animation studios. The home of legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, who co-founded the outfit in the mid-1980s, Studio Ghibli has been behind some of history’s most critically acclaimed animated films, including the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. A revered institution, Studio Ghibli has even inspired a museum, in Tokyo, showcasing exhibits based on its films and a number of shorts.

For almost three decades, Studio Ghibli, unlike so many animation houses in Japan, stayed solely within the feature-film space. It finally crossed into the television sphere, working with Polygon Pictures on Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter. The show had a successful run on NHK at home, landed a U.S. slot on Amazon Prime, notched up a host of sales courtesy of distributor Serious Lunch and won an International Emmy Kids Award for best kids’ animation in 2016.

The series was directed by Goro Miyazaki, who had initially envisioned Ronja—which is based on a novel by Astrid Lindgren—as a feature film, “but that plan didn’t work out,” he says. “When I was asked to create a new TV series for kids, I thought it an excellent chance to finally create Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter, a perfect work for kids that is really appropriate for NHK’s animated series for children.”

The series features CGI characters against 2D hand-drawn backdrops in what Miyazaki calls the “‘toon look’ to match the characters appropriately to the style of the background art. We adopted this style because it is ideal for expressing the rich seasonal beauty of nature. Also, Japanese audiences like and are familiar with 2D animation.”

Miyazaki also tapped into his love for landscaping and agriculture, which he had studied at university, initially reluctant to follow in his esteemed father’s footsteps. “Many scenes in Ronja were based on my experience as a landscape architect, including the forest scenes,” Miyazaki says.

What drew him to the novel, meanwhile, was its cross-generational appeal to parents and children; something he hopes the 26-episode series also has. The book, he notes, “describes what happens between parents and children as the children grow up. I first read it as an adult after I started making films.”

Miyazaki’s first feature was also based on a literary property. Tales from Earthsea, released in 2006, was inspired by books in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. Next came From Up on Polly Hill, based on a 1980 Japanese comic, with a script penned by his father. His experience directing films taught him that “you should never compromise on what you think is important, while you should also listen to the opinions of others.”

On moving from film to television, Miyazaki says that while the length of the final product may be different, the “creative philosophy and approach are exactly the same.”