村上隆さんのインスタグラム写真 - (村上隆Instagram)「No.3 1) I thought the stance of this film in the history of Japanese animation is similar to that of "My Neighbor Totoro" when the latter appeared. The attitude of the filmmaker (Hayao-san) is to be honest with himself and to tell a story for the Japanese audience. And a very profound story at that. ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ Here’s my memory of my first viewing of "My Neighbor Totoro". At the time, I was enrolled in the Japanese painting department of the Tokyo University of the Arts, and was in despair because of my weakness and inability to enter the animation industry, while I couldn't give up my way of life as an artist, either. One day in April when I was 26 years old, I went to a movie theater next to an adult-content theater in Ueno, watched "Totoro" first, then "Grave of the Fireflies," and when I went outside, I felt like my head was cracked open. I was especially shocked by “Totoro” and sobbed to the heavens, thinking that it was imperative that Japanese people made stories about Japan... (Okay I lied about sobbing, but my heart was in fact crying.) An epochal work of Japanese storytelling for the year 2023 has emerged in Totoro-esque animation. I thought this was a Japanese landscape within Asia, tailored in the style of children's literature, but made into an artistic expression of the conservative mainstream. I myself have been absorbed in the art world since I was 26, and when I was young, until I was about 45, I used to grudgingly wonder why only old people visited museums. Now that I’m old myself, I saw authentic historical paintings at Museé d’Orsay the other day and was moved, realizing that are things that you simply don't understand until you become an old person. That is, you have to have accumulated a certain level of layered culture to be able to appreciate art. Even if you think you understand a concept, it is difficult for it actually make sense unless you have experienced it firsthand, and that is why appreciating art becomes more interesting as you get older.」9月11日 6時41分