Forum - View topicAnswerman - What Will Become Of Takahata's Legacy?
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2703 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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As Justin said, the reveal of Takahata being the way he was when it came to making anime isn't really all that shocking when you think about it. Simply put, & sadly, you don't get a catalog of work as iconic & influential as Takahata's by being a nice guy. That only comes from someone who's willing to do whatever it takes to achieve the vision that was intended, and sometimes that results in the person treating others in rough, if not monstrous, ways.
Orson Welles is generally considered one of the greatest directors, & even actors, of all time, but there is no end to the stories of him being downright tyrannical when it came to actually making his movies; hell, he was even blunt & insulting when he was simply the actor doing a job (even if it was simply voice over for a commercial about frozen peas!). Others like Hitchcock, Kubrick, & Polanski are similarly celebrated for their movies, but they were not saints by any means, either. Sure, there are people, like Steven Spielberg, who are known to be extremely talented visionaries that actually tend to be a joy to work with, but I think those people are the exceptions, more often than not. For some, the idea of "blood, sweat, & tears" might be taken a little too far, & it seems like even Takahata may have realized he had gone way too far with Yoshifumi Kondo after he had passed away, but sometimes getting the best out of people means having to push them more than they want to be pushed. |
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Caramichael
Posts: 114 |
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I don't want to do victim blaming, but a lot of the abuse in the system also comes down to the fact that people weather it without doing anything. Like Justin said, in the end Kondo was the one who stayed in the environment that led to his death. He could have left Ghibli like many others before and after him, he, and many other animators, could have said stop to Takahata if not for themselves for their co-workers, but in the end they didn't.
As a French, this seems crazy, I'm from a country where people fought against those abuse throughout the later half of the 20th century, and that's the point, our parents fought for it. Some were laid out, other lost entire salaries through their strikes, and some might even argue that those advantages are now too much in the age of globalization, but in the end we know that those abuse are as much the result from the management than from the acceptance of the workforce. And it's all the more insane when we now that the Japanese animation landscape suffers from a chronic lack of animators, these are the times where they have the opportunity to lever employers for increased salaries and advantage, but things don't change because they just accept it and shut up. Animators even complained when Toei introduced a work time limit! It's just bonkers. |
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andyos
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 270 |
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Thanks for an excellent column, Justin.
I wanted to bring up the specific issue of Suzuki linking Takahata to the early death of Yoshifumi Kondo. afaics, Kondo's last work with Takahata was as an animator on Pom Poko, released in 1994. Following that, Kondo directed Whisper, released in 95, surely a huge job. Kondo then worked as an animation supervisor and character designer - another presumably massively intense stint - on Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, which was released the year Kondo died. Just from these facts, I'm not sure how plausible or fair it is to blame Kondo's death on his experience with Takahata, though I believe Suzuki's comments that it was hideous. Perhaps someone with more medical knowledge can comment further, but it's not as if Kondo was avoiding stress or massively hard work after he parted ways with Takahata. It may also be worth reading Miyazaki's public eulogy for Kondo, translated into English at http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/kondo/eulogy-miyazaki.html . It's hardly surprising that Miyazaki doesn't criticise Takahata in the eulogy, but it may be notable that the end of the speech _could_ be read as Miyazaki suggesting he had a part in the tragedy himself. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Exactly: Miyazaki was his own worst public enemy, but we could separate him from his work. (Except for watching "Wind Rises", thinking "Yep, again with the planes, Hayao..." and realizing the studio had to cut back on most of the anti-war preaching.) I don't know about everyone else, but I was never familiar with Takahata from the beginning, since he was always "typecast" as the Fireflies and Only Yesterday director, the latter of which I was afraid to even watch on reputation before the GKids dub. IMO, the infamous Totoro/Fireflies double feature pretty much summed up the Miyazaki vs. Takahata dichotomy at the studio: Takahata always seemed as the "artsy" director buried in noble ambition, while Miyazaki still had at least one foot in an imaginative premise. If it wasn't for Princess Kaguya and My Neighbors the Yamadas, I probably never would have looked up any film Isao did.[/list] |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5517 Location: Iscandar |
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Ultimately I love Takahata movies for what I see on the screen not because of the personalities of its creators. Treating workers like crap is a very, very bad thing, but I believe it is unfair to blame one person for the death of another. Takahata was part of a very harsh and demanding anime industry that has contributed to the untimely deaths of people like Yoshifumi Kondo and Satohi Kon.
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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Miyazaki was actually one of those guys, being a union leader while at Toei Animation in the 1960s. It'll be interesting to see how overtime reforms the government was finally able to pass last June work out when they come into effect in the next couple years. Last edited by Compelled to Reply on Thu Aug 16, 2018 1:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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I'm not a Ghibli fan, but I've never understood people conflating celebrities' work with their personal character. You like the work of art. That doesn't mean you have to like everything or even some things about the people behind it, and vice-versa.
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2360 |
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At this point his legacy is going to become a lot more complicated. Considering Suzuki's involvement with the company, I'm going to take him at his word. Yes, Takahata was of a different generation and a hard worker, but he still actively contributed to a poisonous environment that negatively impacted people. That is inexcusable and it makes it all the more clear why Ghibli has had a difficult time finding new talent. When you bolster the old at the expense of the young that shows why animation production is having difficulties.
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DRosencraft
Posts: 675 |
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The problem as I see it, evidenced in part by some of the few comments we've already seen here, is that people can who mistreat their employees tend to think they can get away with it because they're talented, or the end product is or will be celebrated. They have no pressure or incentive to change.
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2360 |
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I've never seen Whisper of the Heart, but I have a hard time believing it could've been worth Kondo's life.
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5517 Location: Iscandar |
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Welcome to how the anime industry (or any other entertainment business really) works. Are we not supposed to like and appreciate art in entertainment because of the nastiness that happens behind the scenes? |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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In the light of a slew of auteurs and visionaries proving to be privately reprehensible, there is a growing sentiment that if the cost of protecting workers from abusive creators is their acts of public genius never coming to be, then so be it. I accept it is somewhat decadent to defend someone's misdeeds by virtue of their consequent contributions to the arts, especially if we are not the ones to suffer the former, so I would err towards supporting a standard like this. Indeed, for all we know, those who are deterred outright from toxic working environments may well compensate for the loss of output of those who toxify them. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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If you stop watching movies from taskmaster directors, you'll find your collection dwindling.
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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Exactly. We can see where this attitude got Ghibli. The article tries to soften a lot of things about the situation, and it even goes out of its way to mention how people were eager to work at Ghibli. But look at where those people are now, and where Ghibli is now. They didn't put effort into actually nurturing new talent, to actually teaching the new generation. ("Shut up and learn" is not equal to teaching and nurturing.) They have a legacy, sure, but the company is as good as gone, and even before that they were sort of in their own bubble, not really managing to, or even wanting to, keep up with the changing times. |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5517 Location: Iscandar |
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Why single out Ghibli. I assume all anime studio are guilty of mistreating employees. It is a problem across the anime industry. |
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