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Singer-Songwriter Kenshi Yonezu Talks About Working With Boy and The Heron Director Hayao Miyazaki

Kenshi Yonezu became popular as a Vocaloid music creator over a decade ago. In the years since, he has written and/or sung numerous popular songs—culminating in "Chikyugi," the theme song for the newest Studio Ghibli film, The Boy and the Heron. This week on his YouTube channel, he published an hour-long audio recording of himself talking about the creation of the song and his encounters with the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki.

One such story covers their first meeting in 2018 when Yonezu was invited to tour the studio for the first time.

"I happened to be there when Mr. Miyazaki was there—and I saw a scene that I had seen many times in documentaries and such. [...] I saw Mr. Miyazaki at the desk by the window, and [my guide] asked me if I would like to say hello to him, which was terrifying. I was so scared, I felt the need to run away, but he was so cheerful meeting me, a young man in his 20s, whom he didn't know anywhere. He was just this warm old man who stood around and talked with me. I was 27 years old, and it's something that I'll never forget.”

In another Miyazaki-related story, Yonezu commented on why he was chosen to write “Chikyugi” for The Boy and the Heron. It all had to do with one of his previous songs, "Paprika," which he had written as a kind of cheer song for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics—a song written to appeal to all ages and created with Studio Ghibli music as its inspiration. Yet, even then, it was unexpected when Ghibli contacted him.

"I was astonished when I was asked if I would be interested in singing the theme song for the next Ghibli movie, The Boy and the Heron. The first thing that came to my mind was, 'Why was I chosen?' [...] Apparently, the children at Ghibli's nursery school sang and danced to “Paprika,” and Miyazaki, who was there watching, sang along as well. Producer Toshio Suzuki, whom I had interacted with several times before, told me he remembered that scene when he heard "Paprika" on the radio [...] and that was how it all started.”

At one point, Yonezu recalls meeting Miyazaki shortly after receiving the storyboards for the film when he was in the initial stages of writing the song.

“I was only able to talk with four people [at Ghibli] in total [when writing the song]. But the very first time I reached out, Miyazaki took the opportunity to explain the film to me. However, there were no detailed explanations about the film itself, such as what the film was about—what happened in this film he was making with all his might. [...] According to him, this film opens the door to who he is. He said that there are various backward or dirty parts of him that he has been hiding throughout his life and that he has been making films with the door fully closed.” […] He talked about the philosophy behind making this film, which was to express all the aspects of himself that had not been expressed until now—which he had not talked about before."

Years later, when the prototype recording of the song was completed, Yonezu personally reached out to Miyazaki.

“I asked Miyazaki to listen to a demo made from the source files. As Miyazaki only listens to music on CDs, I burned the demo onto a CD and went to him with it in my hand. I was so nervous I could have died. He was facing me as he listened to it. He was crying, tears flowing, as he took the card with the lyrics written on it. I won't say there wasn't any joy in his expression, but the face he showed me in that moment… it was probably the most memorable experience of my five years working with Miyazaki on this song for the film.”

During the hour-long recording, Yonezu also details his experiences of seeing Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away as a kid and talks much more about the process of creating “Chikyugi”—as well as sharing a few more Miyazaki-related anecdotes. If you speak Japanese and have the time, you can listen to the whole thing on Yonezu's YouTube channel—it's worth it.