The Films of Hayao Miyazaki: From Early Work to The Boy and the Heron

A roundup of the director's films that shaped his signature style and recurring themes.

Kyiv is currently hosting the 'Miyazaki Day 2026' festival, dedicated to director Hayao Miyazaki's work. The event brings together fans of Studio Ghibli and cosplay, with organizers recreating the atmosphere of the director's films through themed zones and workshops.

The DeTalks team has put together a roundup of the director's work — from his earliest projects to his more familiar films.

Getting to Know Hayao Miyazaki

Miyazaki is a Japanese director, screenwriter, and animator. He has a signature style that blends hand-drawn animation with richly detailed worlds. The director also explores themes of childhood, war, technology, and humanity's relationship with nature.

Hayao Miyazaki's career began in the 1960s at Toei Animation. During this period, he worked on series and feature films as an animator, gradually moving into directing.

In 1985, Miyazaki, together with Isao Takahata, founded Studio Ghibli. The studio specializes in auteur animation and produces feature films with a distinctive visual style. Its name comes from the Italian word 'ghibli,' meaning a hot desert wind.

Studio Ghibli carved out its own niche in the global animation industry, releasing films that have gone on to win international awards. Spirited Away, for instance, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

The Director's First Solo Work

Miyazaki's first solo directing experience took shape in 1972, while working on the pilot episode of an adaptation of Tetsuya Chiba's manga Yuki's Sun. The project never got a full series order, but it shaped the director's future approach to storytelling.

The story follows Yuki, a girl who loses her parents in childhood and sets out on a journey to discover her origins. The events take place on Hokkaido island and blend a road story with self-discovery. Researchers note that this narrative structure would later become characteristic of the director's work.

Despite never getting a TV follow-up, the project laid the groundwork for Miyazaki's signature style. The story, in particular, contains traits that would later appear in Studio Ghibli films — a strong female protagonist, attention to nature, and a journey as a means of character growth.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

The film is set in a Japanese village in 1957. A father and his two daughters move closer to the hospital where their mother is being treated. In their new house, the sisters discover the soot sprites and gradually uncover the world of forest spirits.

The younger daughter befriends Totoro — a forest spirit who becomes the story's central symbol. The older sister is drawn into these events through shared scenes — meeting him in the rain at a bus stop, receiving a gift of seeds, and a nighttime scene where trees grow before their eyes.

The plot revolves around the family's worry over the mother's condition. The climax comes when the younger sister gets lost on her way to the hospital, and Totoro helps find her.

Porco Rosso (1992)

The film is set between the First and Second World Wars on the Adriatic coast. The main character, pilot Marco, loses his faith in people after the war and takes the form of a pig. He adopts the name Porco Rosso and works as an air pirate hunter, refusing to collaborate with the fascist regime.

The plot centers on his rivalry with an American pilot hired by the pirates. After a crash, the hero repairs his plane with the help of a young mechanic and returns to the fight. Alongside this, the story reveals his past, tied to the war and the loss of his comrades.

The finale centers on a duel that shifts from an aerial battle into a physical confrontation. The story leaves the question of the hero's transformation open, hinting at the possibility of change.

Spirited Away (2001)

The story follows ten-year-old Chihiro, who is moving with her parents to a new home in Japan. The family accidentally wanders into the spirit world, where Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs after eating food from another realm.

Chihiro finds herself in a realm ruled by the witch Yubaba and is forced to work at a bathhouse for spirits to survive and find a way to bring her parents back. She's given a new name, Sen, and gradually adapts to the rules of this world, where names determine identity.

Along the way, the girl meets various spirits, including a polluted river god and No-Face, and helps save the dragon Haku.

The finale centers on Chihiro choosing and recognizing her parents among the pigs, allowing her to return to the human world.

The Wind Rises (2013)

This is the story of Japanese aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi, who works on designing planes in early 20th-century Japan. He gives up his dream of becoming a pilot due to health problems and focuses on aircraft design instead.

The story weaves together personal and historical threads. Jiro's path takes him from his studies to a career in the aviation industry, where he strives to design the perfect aircraft. Alongside this, his relationship with Naoko unfolds, complicated by her illness and the era's broader context.

The film is set against the backdrop of the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, economic instability, and Japan's growing militarization. This creates tension between the hero's personal dream and the military consequences of realizing it.

The finale centers on coming to terms with the cost of creation and the losses that come with realizing an engineering ideal.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

A boy named Mahito loses his mother in a fire and moves with his father and new stepmother to a countryside estate, away from the fighting. In his new surroundings, he encounters a grey heron that leads him to a mysterious tower.

After the move, Mahito struggles to adjust and faces conflicts at school. The plot kicks into motion after his stepmother disappears, forcing the boy to enter the tower. There, he finds himself in another world, where he meets beings that exist between life and rebirth.

In this realm, Mahito interacts with a heron-turned-man, spirits, and inhabitants of different worlds. He journeys through a space that blends reality with symbolic images of loss, memory, and choice.

The finale centers on the hero's decision to return to the real world with his family, despite the possibility of staying in the alternate realm.