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 from 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 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 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 single film may cover 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, it is necessary to focus on the various forms of characters he creates, including children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. It is worth noting that female characters often play the lead or important roles in his works, 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 Hime, we can also analyze his Oedipus complex.

Hayao Miyazaki himself mentioned in an interview that he had 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 filled with fantasies.
Hayao Miyazaki had a deep attachment to his mother and later did not hide his feminist tendencies. However, due to his busy work in the animation industry, he was unable to provide sufficient care for his mother when she was bedridden due to illness.
Hayao Miyazaki aspired to make a name for himself in the manga industry when he was young, but he had to give up drawing manga and transition to animation production because he couldn't escape the shadow of his predecessors' works.

These experiences projected onto the characters in his animations can form three types of images:

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

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, he observed 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 Manato and Hime meet again, they hug each other. This is a difference between him and 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 society underwent significant changes, and society began to admire strong and capable women. Miyazaki's impression of his mother perfectly fits this image of women. The thoughts and values of an individual during their childhood and adolescence have a huge impact on their own thoughts and values. 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 may 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 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 images. For example, Nausicaä in "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" is strong, kind, and generous, and Hime in "Aosora and the Boy" is also a strong and kind character.

Women at different stages can reflect the excellent qualities of women in Hayao Miyazaki's values. In addition to kindness, many 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 (Kiri in "Aosora and the Boy"), and strong maternal traits (Sophie in "Howl's Moving Castle").

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 her back to life in his works, embodying her as a young girl, a strong woman, and a kind old lady. And he himself constantly integrates into his works, becoming a child or a teenager, sometimes being spoiled and sometimes being protective. He realizes dreams in his works that can never be achieved in reality.

Many artists spend their entire lives telling one story. Just as the image of Stephen Chow in his films smiling through tears is 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 tough woman, powerful, domineering, and persistent. Sometimes she becomes an old lady, sharp-tongued but kind-hearted. She is the straightforward Dola, the gentle and sickly Mother Mei, the resolute Eboshi, the eccentric and kind-hearted Zeniba, the stern-looking but kind-hearted Yubaba, the gentle and persistent Hilda, the prematurely deceased Naoko Satomi, the motherly Nausicaä, the strong and kind San, the resilient and loving Sophie...

In 1983, Hayao Miyazaki's important work "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" was not yet completed when his mother passed away. Hayao Miyazaki did not have the opportunity to be with his mother at that time, and he never received the hug he longed for. At that time, he had black hair, while his mother had already turned gray.

In 2023, Hayao Miyazaki's final film "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 has white hair like snow, but his mother remains forever young in his heart.

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