Oedipus Complex in Hayao Miyazaki's Animated Works

She gave birth to him, loved him, and took care of him. And he, in turn, poured his love onto her to the point where he couldn't escape her and live alone, truly loving another woman.

"Son and Lover"

If you have appreciated most of Hayao Miyazaki's animated works, it is not difficult to find that there are mainly three main themes in his work design: people and war, people and nature, and people and people.

The artist's works often reflect the emotional connections deep within their hearts, which are often closely related to their upbringing. In Miyazaki's creations, the depiction of people and war can be traced back to his experiences growing up during the post-war reconstruction period and the influence of his family's operation of an aircraft component factory; the theme of people and nature embodies the pure natural environment he bathed in during the Showa era and the profound impression of the Japanese people's worship of nature in Shintoism. This article will focus on exploring the theme of "people and people" in Miyazaki's works, especially Miyazaki's Oedipus complex (motherly love).

These three themes run through many of Miyazaki's works, and sometimes a film covers multiple themes. Therefore, this classification is relatively subjective and aims to highlight the main focus of each work. The relationship between people and people, as a universally existing theme, runs through all of Miyazaki's works, especially when exploring the emotional interactions between characters.

To analyze the interpersonal relationships in Miyazaki's works, we must first focus on the various forms of characters he creates, including children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. It is worth noting that the female characters in his works often play the role of the protagonist or important characters, rather than males. The artist's character creation in his works often reflects projections of his own life. In Miyazaki's creations, the most prominent self-projection is his connection with the image of his mother, which is deeply reflected in his works.

Hayao Miyazaki's Two Emotions Towards His Mother#

When Hayao Miyazaki was six years old, his mother fell ill and passed away while he was immersed in creating "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". Due to this experience, his animated works often reflect some of his deep-seated emotions. In the character of Sophie, we can also analyze his Oedipus complex.

Hayao Miyazaki himself mentioned in an interview that he has complex feelings towards his mother, Miyazaki Miko, and therefore he constantly brings his mother "back to life" in his films - living as a cute girl, a strong woman, and a kind old lady. In contrast, he himself sometimes becomes a child and sometimes a teenager.

The two projections of Miyazaki's mother in his works can be summarized into two types of emotions towards his mother: one is the attachment of a child to his mother, and the other is the admiration of a man for a woman. The former is widely accepted by society, while the latter is considered "incestuous" and is frowned upon by most people in terms of conventional ethics. According to Freud's theory, men more or less have some Oedipus complex, and they always have extraordinary feelings towards the first woman they have an intimate relationship with in their lives. This kind of feeling directly affects their views and opinions of women.

Self-Character Projection in Hayao Miyazaki's Films#

Many of Hayao Miyazaki's films project his own personality traits onto the main characters, most of which originate from his experiences from his youth to adulthood:

Hayao Miyazaki was weak and sickly as a child, with poor athletic ability, introverted and self-deprecating, sensitive, and always full of fantasies.
Hayao Miyazaki had a deep attachment to his mother and also did not hide his feminist tendencies as he grew older. However, due to his busy work in the animation industry, he was unable to provide sufficient care for his mother during her long illness.
Hayao Miyazaki aspired to make a name for himself in the manga industry when he was young, but he could not escape the shadow of his predecessors' works and eventually "abandoned manga for animation" and embarked on the path of animation production.

These experiences projected into the animation can form three types of images:

Immature children in need of growth or care. For example, in "Spirited Away," the character Chihiro Ogino is an ordinary girl in urgent need of growth.
Male figures who protect women. For example, in "Ponyo," the young boy Sosuke is determined to protect Ponyo and eventually falls in love with her.
Young figures who pursue ideals persistently. For example, Jiro Horikoshi, who designs and manufactures airplanes on his own in "The Wind Rises."

Motherly Character Projection in Hayao Miyazaki's Films#

Hayao Miyazaki's projection of the "mother" character in his animations mainly stems from his own experiences and feelings:

As a child, his observation of his own mother. As mentioned earlier, when Hayao Miyazaki was six years old, his mother fell seriously ill and was bedridden for a long time. After being bullied at school, he tried to hug his mother when he returned home, but she refused because she couldn't turn over. Deep in his heart, Hayao Miyazaki always longed for love and embrace from his mother. Because of this, he uses a lot of hugs to express emotions and love in his works - just like in the third act of his latest film "Aosora and the Boy," when Man and Sophie meet again, they hug each other - this is a difference from the traditional Japanese culture that would use "the moon is beautiful" to express emotions implicitly.
As a man, his observations and interactions with women. Hayao Miyazaki was born in 1941 and experienced the shadows of war and post-war reconstruction. After the war, Japan was in ruins and in need of reconstruction. The requirements for women in the country underwent significant changes, and society began to admire strong and capable women. Miyazaki's impression of his mother precisely fits this image of women. A person's thoughts and values during their childhood and adolescence have a great influence on their views. The excellent qualities of women in that era directly influenced Hayao Miyazaki's aesthetic view of women. Therefore, in his works, although the ages of the characters vary, they all possess independent and strong characteristics.

Specifically, projected into Hayao Miyazaki's animated works, these two types of images are formed:

Cheerful, strong, and externally tough but internally gentle middle-aged and elderly women. For example, Dola, the pirate grandmother in "Castle in the Sky," is straightforward, brave, and bold, with a stern appearance but a kind and gentle heart.
Kind, independent, and gun-wielding young girl figures. For example, Nausicaä in "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" is strong, kind, and generous, and Sophie in "Howl's Moving Castle" is also portrayed in this way.

Women at different stages can reflect the excellent qualities of women in Hayao Miyazaki's values. In addition to kindness, a large number of female characters also possess strong combat abilities (Dola in "Castle in the Sky"), diligent work abilities (Zeniba in "Spirited Away"), great love for people and the world (Kaya in "Aosora and the Boy"), and strong maternal traits (Sophie in "Aosora and the Boy").

Conclusion#

Artists are undertakers. They bury their sorrows, despair, and trauma over and over again; then dig them up and bury them again.

Graham Greene

To commemorate his mother, Hayao Miyazaki repeatedly brings his mother back to life in his works, incarnating her as a young girl, a strong woman, and a kind old lady. And he himself constantly integrates into his works, becoming a child, a teenager, sometimes being spoiled, and sometimes being protective. He realizes in his animations what can never be achieved in reality.

Many artists only tell one thing in their lifetime. Just as the image of Stephen Chow in his films smiling with tears is always a reflection of himself, there may only be two main characters in Hayao Miyazaki's works: one is himself, and the other is his mother.

Sometimes he is a child in need of growth, companionship, and love. Sometimes he becomes a teenager in need of dreams, love, and protection. He is Mei frolicking in the forest, Qi Qi venturing out from home, Chihiro searching for herself, the brave Pazu, the determined Ashitaka, the kind-hearted Sosuke, the persistent Seita, the dream-chasing Jiro Horikoshi...

His mother is sometimes an innocent girl, kind, strong, and independent. Sometimes she is a strong woman, powerful, domineering, and persistent. Sometimes she becomes an old lady, sharp-tongued but kind-hearted. She is the straightforward Dola, the weak and gentle Mother Mei, the resolute Eboshi, the eccentric and kind-hearted Zeniba, the stern but kind-hearted Yubaba, the gentle and persistent Hilda, the prematurely deceased Nahoko, the motherly Nausicaä, the strong and kind San, the determined Sophie...

In 1983, Hayao Miyazaki's important work "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" was not yet completed when Miyazaki Miko passed away. Hayao Miyazaki was not by her side when she passed away, and he never received the embrace he lacked. At that time, he had black hair, but his mother already had white hair.

In 2023, Hayao Miyazaki's final work "Aosora and the Boy" was released, and he announced his retirement thereafter. In order to seek the embrace of his mother, he spent a whole forty years and finally found his mother in his own works. At this moment, he already has white hair, but his mother remains young in his heart.

This article is synchronized and updated to xLog by Mix Space.
The original link is https://nishikori.tech/posts/review/2024-04-11