Miyazaki has every right to be critical if he wants; the man has created some great art and knows his stuff. (But of course you don't have to listen to him if you don't want to.)
To offer a counterpoint, try not to think of his statement as merely a criticism of technology and gadgets.
In Japan, really great anime and manga is dying. It's not that there aren't great writers and great artists (and not just in Japan), but in the world of business, all of their work is being outsourced to cheaper laborers elsewhere.
Artists like Miyazaki spend their lives in photography, studying horticulture, understanding how the eye perceives motion through blurring, developing concepts of proportion/field of view/framing/perspective, etc.
Take a look at the end credits of any recent serial anime, or recent episode of Family Guy, Simpsons, or Futurama: the animation is done by cheap artists in Korea. No offense to them -- they get the job done for what those shows need -- but they're just tracing shapes and have no real experience in developing art (or at least no opportunity to demonstrate any experience they
do have).
Faced with those odds, truly great artists like Miyazaki and the countless other great artists are struggling just to stay afloat. People all over the world love the anime and manga they create, but they barely break even. The only people who
really make money are the publishers who send work off to the cheapest artists to increase their profit margins.
I know it sounds counterintuitive to say this all revolves around money (shouldn't art be created for the sake of art?), but that's the cold hard truth. Without money, artists can't invest in training and discover hidden talents. There are a lot of young artists out there with incredible potential, but they are discouraged from becoming an artist because of how impossible it is to make a living. (Did you know the inventor of Pac-Man has seen basically no profit from the success of his own invention? He still lives a simple life and holds a mundane office job.) As it is, no matter how good you are, you will never earn more money than your outsourced counterparts; and if you give in and accept a job tracing shapes, then you are no artist.
I don't believe Miyazaki was out to simply take a jab at iPad users. The generation has changed, and for anime and manga, not for the better. Miyazaki isn't talking about the basic idea of consumerism (capitalism): what we're moving towards is
impulse-driven consumption (instant downloads; shows that don't add anything substantive to an anime, but are there just to increase content or spur sales of goods; people who follow brands just to be fashionable; etc). It's not that Miyazaki has had a particularly hard life, but everything he stands for is up against this new type of consumerism. Just like how American Idol is incredibly popular, and yet comparatively few people bother going to the opera and seeing
real artists. In this world of on-demand instant gratification, there is no room for people like Miyazaki.
The iPad just happens to be a convenient way to put a face on this problem. No one
really needs an iPad; even if you get one, you probably won't do anything special with it; and anyone who has an iPad will probably use it in a way that wastes time when they could be out, experiencing the beauty of this world with the short time they have on earth. (Yes, it's their time to waste,
but the point is that it's a shame to waste that time, and yet we all do it willfully.)
Sure, we will still have anime and manga for years to come, but the likelihood of any of it becoming iconic is steadily diminishing. Most shows will live to see one or two runs, and their artists will get a brief taste of success (but I guarantee their publishers will take all their money), and then will be quickly forgotten (as already happens). The only shows that will last are the ones that can push sales of goods, like Pokemon and Dragonball (stories which really offer nothing special, and only get more and more bizzare as writers grasp at straws to keep the show going).
So no, you don't have to listen to him. But if he's right, great art dies in our own hands.
For anyone who wants additional reading for another way to qualify the arguments I made, I suggest this article from Cracked discussing some behavioral science in relation to video games -- pay attention to reason #1 on Page 2. (Yes, I know it's Cracked, but they do their research and put it into easily digestible terms.)
Code:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html
And for the record, I don't mind if you want an iPad or absolutely love American Idol. Everyone is entitled to do with their lives as they wish. I just hope we don't end up as a generation that buys gadgets and spends countless hours in front of the idiot box, simply letting others fill a void for us in exchange for our wallets, when we could be out filling that void ourselves with something more meaningful.
Also, anyone who thinks Ghibli Studio just makes anime for kids doesn't know what they're talking about. There, I said it.
lease:
