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Starting Point 1979-1996 By Hayao Miyazaki, translated by Beth Cary and Frederik L. Schodt, Viz Media, 461pp, $29.99. ISBN 9781421505947
This book collects nearly 80 talks, articles, sketches (written and drawn) and film outlines by Hayao Miyazaki. He's best known in the west as the director of Princess Mononoke (1 997) and Spirited Away (200t), but Starting Point cuts off in t996, before those films were released. It focuses instead on the first three decades of his cartoon career. In the 1 960s, he worked on cinema films in non-directing capacities; in the 1970s, he worked mostly in television; and in the 1 980s, he emerged as the director of masterpieces such as My Neighbour Totoro (1988) and Kiki's Delivery Serate (1989).
Readers unfamiliar with these ins and outs may...