June is still early summer, but the weather was already extremely hot.
In the woods, the chirping of cicadas rose and fell, chirping away vigorously.
Fortunately, the park behind Studio Ghibli was lush with green grass and clusters of trees, making it much cooler.
Aoki Haruhi and Toshio Suzuki walked in the shade, not feeling the heat.
However, they still broke out in a sweat on their necks.
Honestly, this was the first time Aoki Haruhi had ever strolled through a park like this with another man.
He felt like something was a bit off.
But he couldn't put his finger on it.
This walk was proposed by Toshio Suzuki; he must have wanted to discuss something important, right?
It was something that couldn't be heard by Hayao Miyazaki, so they had purposely stepped out.
But the more he thought about it, the more uneasy Aoki Haruhi felt.
Toshio Suzuki is the president of Ghibli, after all. Good grief, could it be that he feels there's an issue with the collaboration between us and Miyazaki-senpai, and he wants to terminate the agreement?
We have a signed contract, after all.
Besides, Pokeni has provided Hayao Miyazaki with sufficient compensation; to be precise, it's a win-win situation for both parties. Surely, Producer Suzuki wouldn't cross the river and burn the bridge at a time like this, right?
Wait...
That's not right.
Aoki Haruhi thought about it carefully. Aside from a few important original drawings for LL that hadn't been completed yet, Hayao Miyazaki had basically pushed all other aspects to near completion.
Aoki himself was extremely satisfied with the current art style and character designs.
If they were to breach the contract at this point, wouldn't it really be Ghibli that stands to lose?
You've already come this far, with 90% of the work finished—would you really just throw it all away?
"President Aoki, why don't we sit here for a moment?"
Just then, Toshio Suzuki led Aoki Haruhi to a wooden bench in the park and asked.
"Yes, okay." Aoki nodded, suppressing the confusion and anxiety in his heart, and sat down side-by-side with Toshio Suzuki.
"Hmm..."
Aoki Haruhi frowned slightly, feeling like something was a bit off.
"Aoki-san," Toshio Suzuki began, "I've actually already read the scripts for your company's LL and CL."
"Oh?" Aoki looked up slightly.
"They're two very well-written scripts. Although CL has multiple story arcs with different endings corresponding to different heroines..." Suzuki paused for a moment before continuing, "but the true main storyline is the Nagisa Furukawa one, isn't it?"
"Yes," Aoki nodded. This was also the main storyline adapted into the anime, and it was the one most talked about by players and viewers alike.
But for Jun Maeda?
Was Nagisa Furukawa truly the undisputed heroine in his mind?
Perhaps not necessarily.
Based on interviews with Jun Maeda from his previous life, Tomoyo in CL was another heroine into whom Maeda had poured a considerable amount of effort, one could even say she was crafted to be quite perfect.
For this reason, Maeda even specifically released the fan-oriented Tomoyo After later on. Although it was criticized heavily by players, it at least goes to show that Maeda was quite fond of the character Tomoyo.
But none of this is important.
What is important is the route that Aoki Haruhi truly wanted to create seriously: the Nagisa Furukawa route.
So, anyone who has read the script can see it very clearly.
"Hmm, it's quite warm," Toshio Suzuki remarked with a sigh.
However, recalling the ending, he suddenly apologized as if he had just realized something.
"Ah, I didn't mean the ending was warm. I meant the significance of family."
"Mm," Aoki Haruhi nodded. He didn't deny it, wanting to hear more.
"The core of both CL and LL is family, right?" Suzuki asked.
Seeing that Aoki Haruhi remained silent, taking it as an admission, he continued, "That guy Miyazaki is a genius when it comes to drawing, and he loves to create stories filled with magical fantasies. When he travels or reads on his own, he thinks about a lot of things.
But many of them are about humanity itself, the meaning of human existence, historical value, war...
In short, very profound topics."
"Mm," Aoki Haruhi agreed wholeheartedly. "Miyazaki-senpai's level of thought is truly beyond reach."
"No, no, no." Toshio Suzuki let out a dumbfounded laugh and waved his hands repeatedly. "I didn't mean to praise that guy Miyazaki."
Aoki Haruhi clicked his tongue in surprise.
"In this world, you're probably the only one who dares to call Miyazaki-senpai 'that guy', Suzuki-san."
"No, no~" Suzuki shook his head with a smile, then leaned in close to Aoki's ear, acting mysterious as he whispered, "Actually, the one who calls him that the most is Miyazaki's eldest son."
Eh?
Aoki's ear tickled from the breath, but with an elder sitting next to him, he didn't dare to overreact.
Upon hearing that Goro Miyazaki was so disrespectful to his own father, Aoki let out an exclamation.
"Goro Miyazaki?"
"Yes."
Toshio Suzuki straightened up, turned his head, and looked ahead.
At the same time, in the park, a young father in the distance was playing baseball with his young son.
Or, to be precise, practicing catch.
"That's what I'm talking about," Toshio Suzuki said. "That guy Miyazaki has a very high reputation and is also very talented; he's quite remarkable in his career, but there is one thing he does very poorly—
That is family."
"Miyazaki is like many traditional Japanese men, particularly chauvinistic, almost never caring for his family or expressing his feelings toward them.
So Goro once gave his father a score at school, and he gave him a zero."
"Eh? Really?" Aoki was completely shocked.
"It's true," Toshio Suzuki nodded seriously. "To Goro, Hayao Miyazaki is a master to others, but he almost never saw his own father; in his upbringing, Miyazaki was the absent one.
But, you can't say he hated him either.
Because they never spent any proper time together, Goro said he could only give him a zero.
Not a positive score, nor a negative one."
Saying this, Toshio Suzuki turned to look at Aoki, "So do you understand now?"
"Huh?" Aoki was confused, "Understand what?"
This...
Could you please not speak in riddles?
"As for Miyazaki himself, he didn't have such strong positive feelings toward his father either. Since he couldn't learn how to be a good father from his own father, naturally, he couldn't become a good father himself. Do you get what I mean?"
Toshio Suzuki asked without turning his head.
Aoki Haruhi was slightly taken aback. "And so?"
Hayao Miyazaki's father was a "despicable realist" who publicly declared he didn't want to go to war, yet grew rich from it. He used his children as an excuse to avoid military service while running a munitions factory that produced Zero Fighters and military aircraft parts.
As a child, Hayao Miyazaki would hear his father and his friends talking at home about their victories in China. His father often boasted about the factory: "The people are innocent, and I am one of the people."
The family and the era forced Hayao Miyazaki to immerse himself in reflections on war and a sense of guilt regarding aviation, causing him to grow into a sensitive and somewhat timid boy. He once felt ashamed, thinking, "Why am I Japanese? How embarrassing!"
The son of a munitions factory owner, Hayao Miyazaki grew up to be a staunch anti-war activist.
Yet, having been steeped in it since childhood, he also possessed a loyal love for fighter planes, incorporating this element, so closely linked to war, into his works wherever he could.
This contradiction and duality exist within him at every moment: it's just like how, despite his gentle and kind appearance, he can be more stubborn and hot-tempered than anyone, and while he is resolutely anti-war, he also loves weapons.
He both admires his father and feels deep disgust for the things his father did.
"In other words, from the very beginning, Miyazaki was never suited to be the character designer for LL.
To expect him to draw a heroine's feelings about her father from his own perspective—that's almost an impossible task.
Because when it comes to family, Miyazaki gets a score of zero."
Ah, this...
Aoki Haruhi gave a wry smile.
"Then... what should we do? The game is already in its final stages now, and it's just these few drawings away from completion. We can't just abandon Miyazaki-senpai at this point, can we?"
No sooner had Aoki Haruhi finished speaking than Toshio Suzuki blinked slyly.
Chirp, chirp...
In the woods, the cicadas were buzzing merrily.
Two seconds passed before it finally dawned on Aoki Haruhi, and his eyes widened in shock.
"Eh?! You've got to be kidding, right?"
***
Meanwhile, in the woods, the cicadas were chirping merrily.
Two seconds passed before Aoki Haruhi reacted, his eyes widening in shock.
"Eh?! No way, right?"
***
The sky was turning pale, and sunlight filtered through the layers of leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
To the unimaginably vast universe, light seems like an insignificant thing.
Vibration. A faint vibration.
Aoki Haruhi had received nine years of compulsory education and knew that light possesses wave-particle duality.
And as long as there is vibration, there must be sound.
It's just that the frequency is beyond the range of human hearing, which is why people think light is silent.
It is impossible for light to be heard, yet at this moment, Aoki Haruhi seemed to hear it.
The whole world had become completely different.
Yes, that was exactly the feeling at this very moment.
How many game studios have tried to get Hayao Miyazaki to serve as animation director, often without success? And yet, even though Toshio Suzuki is the president of Studio Ghibli, he actually suggested that he replace Miyazaki.
This was even more unbelievable to Aoki Haruhi than hearing the light.
"But, after replacing Miyazaki-senpai, what should we do? Who should we find to produce the rest of it?"
Aoki Haruhi asked, looking extremely troubled.
"But if we replace Miyazaki-senpai, what are we supposed to do? Who can we find to produce the rest of the work?" Aoki Haruhi asked, looking incredibly distressed.
Suzuki-san couldn't be serious, could he?
At that moment, Toshio Suzuki, seemingly having anticipated Aoki's reaction and already prepared an answer, gave a crafty smile.
"Actually, I have a good candidate in mind."
"Eh? Really?" Aoki was overjoyed.
In this world, who could possibly be more suitable to complete Hayao Miyazaki's unfinished work than Miyazaki himself?
You wouldn't be suggesting Osamu Tezuka, would you?
But the God of Manga had already passed away a few years ago.
You couldn't exactly drag him out of his grave, could you?
Just then, the names of various Japanese artistic masters flashed rapidly through Aoki's mind: Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takahashi, Yoshihiro Togashi...
As for animation directors, Ghibli's Isao Takahata, or Miyazaki's direct disciple Hideaki Anno...
But none of them seemed like a suitable replacement for Miyazaki.
***
"Actually," Toshio Suzuki hesitated for a moment, then said, "Aoki-san, I would like to recommend Goro to finish these last few drawings."
"Eh?!" Aoi Haruhi's shock was even greater.
Goro?
Which Goro?
Miyazaki Goro?
But, Hayao Miyazaki's assessment of him was that the boy had no talent for drawing—is such a candidate really reliable?
Suzuki-san, you must be joking.
Although he didn't say it directly, Aoi Haruhi's eyes revealed exactly that message.
Toshio Suzuki laughed, the wrinkles on his face blooming like flowers. "Don't worry too much. This is just my personal thought for now; I haven't even communicated with Goro about it yet."
"In fact, don't be fooled by how strict Hayao Miyazaki is with Goro; deep down, he really hopes Goro will inherit his career."
"Besides, Goro has admired his father since he was a child. When he was little, he dreamed of becoming a master painter as excellent as Miyazaki, and it was only after Hayao Miyazaki's harsh criticism that he switched to architectural design. But in the end, it's still related to drawing and design."
Speaking of this, Toshio Suzuki couldn't help but smile bitterly. "Tell me, isn't that an awkward father-son pair? Their relationship is so stiff that they barely speak at home, acting like strangers. Yet, in reality, they both have expectations of each other."
"From my perspective, Goro Miyazaki is very well-suited to be the original character designer for these few illustrations in LL."
"I've read the script for LL. Goro's experiences give him a strong emotional resonance with the heroine, Narae. Having him draw the [father] character—not to mention whether Goro possesses the corresponding level of skill and talent—at the very least, from what I know of him, he is [suited] for this job."
Toshio Suzuki smiled slyly. "You could call this a win-win-win situation. You, Aoki-san, can get the game character designs you want from Goro; I can bring Goro back to Ghibli and help them, father and son, establish a new front. At the same time, it helps Ghibli find a successor. You know as well as I do that our group isn't getting any younger. If Ghibli doesn't have new, talented directors in the future, then the day Miyazaki and Takahata can no longer work will be the end of Ghibli."
Toshio Suzuki was telling the truth. With Hayao Miyazaki's foul temper, who could endure working at Ghibli?
Even Hideaki Anno was scolded away by him, and he stated that he would never work with Hayao Miyazaki again.
Among the younger generation at Ghibli, there really aren't many talented people.
Someone who is both talented and capable of enduring Hayao Miyazaki's foul temper, someone who can shoulder Ghibli—such a young person is probably very hard to find.
Goro Miyazaki at least counts as a relatively good candidate.
"Besides, even if Goro's work fails to meet Aoki-san's requirements, based on my understanding of that guy Miyazaki, he will definitely be able to complete what you need as promised after some time.
How about you make your choice then?"
Hmm...
Aoki Haruhi was rendered speechless.
Good grief, you, Toshio Suzuki, look like an unremarkable old man, I didn't expect you to be so devious?
However, judging from his proposal, Aoki Haruhi seems to have no reason to refuse.
Whether it's Goro Miyazaki or Hayao Miyazaki, they will both submit their work to the teacher.
Playing both sides.
Pokeni isn't losing out!
"Alright, then I'll leave the task of persuading Goro to you, Suzuki-senpai."
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