Miyazaki: iPad Users “Nothing But Chronic Masturbators”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Jul 13, 2010 16:42 JST
- Tags: Apple, Chikan, Hayao Miyazaki, iPhone, Onanism, Studio Ghibli, Technology
Hayao Miyazaki, of Studio Ghibli fame, has launched into one of his trademark rambling tirades against the ills of technology, likening “iWhatever” users to “chronic onanists.”
The remarks came in the context of an interview with Miyazaki published in “Neppu,” an in-house Ghibli rag, which had been covering the iPad.
Upon being confronted by an interviewer fiddling with his iPad, Miyazaki let loose:
“That thing that looks like a gaming device in your hand, along with that strange stroking movement you make with your hands is by no means attractive to me, nor am I at all impressed by it. I feel a sense of revulsion for it, in fact.
I’m sure in short time there will be an increase in people on trains making those strange masturbatory strokes. It was the same when everyone started reading manga on trains, and when it became cellphones – I’m fed up with it.”
That was merely his initial statement.
The interviewer went on the defensive, describing how he thought the iPad a good tool for research, and something to buy books on and look up information with.
This only aggravated Miyazaki further however:
“It may seem like I am ignoring your human rights to say this, but you can’t research any of that. Why? Because you have no way of knowing what it’s like to be on an old trireme, or having empathy with the men on board, covered in sweat as they labour at their oars.
You go out into the world without enriching your imagination. You are merely grasping the iWhatever as a skimming tool you use to stroke yourself.
I’m sure there are many people who want to become omnipotent by getting their hands on this iWhatever. I’ll tell you sir, there were once a bunch of people who wore radio cassette players (those bulky things) wherever they went in the sixties. They wore it like a priceless emblem.
They’re mostly probably living off of pension funds now, but you and them are the same. You jump at the newest gadgets, and all you do is relish the pride in owning one as some consumer.
You must not become a consumer. You must become someone that creates.”
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I stand with Miyazaki in this. Consumer slavery kills creativity.
Way ahead of Hayao, I never consumes his not-actual-disney creations.
lol
So many people dickriding Miyazaki because he made a few of their precious animoos
"Because you have no way of knowing what it’s like to be on an old trireme, or having empathy with the men on board, covered in sweat as they labour at their oars."
And I bet you have. You're actually 2600 years old and Greek. You spent your life as an oarsman on an Athenian ship before you became immortal then you moved to Japan and... oh my god, the Sean Connery character from Highlander was bassed off Miyazaki! And Steve Jobs is another Immortal. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
But seriously, what is he talking about?
I like his work. but I kinda have to Disagree what Miyazaki Said
Wihout consumer, there is no Creator. Without Creator, There is no Consumer.
Ipad is something we call NEW. and NEW is something we should be happy. furthermore, Ipad is Created by a Human.... They are Creators.
It totally seems like he is ignoring human rights, indeed...
So, easy access to information is bad?
While I agree with most of the interpretations of Miyazaki's words regarding mindless consumerism, I think he is still putting too much blame on mere tools.
The iWhatever may be tightly closed, censored and restricted; but I bet you can at least use it to watch one of his movies. Now, is that such a bad use?
He thinks watching his movies is a bad idea. He once said that children should only be allowed to watch one film a year, lest they be spoiled.
And I bet I know which films hed like children to watch. Hint, its not made by his competitors.
I thought what he said was fucking awesome and I agree with him in a way.
This isn't just an old man in him speaking. Miyazaki was always known for his remarkably rebellious and anti-establishment views. This is very rare amongst Japanese, who are taught to conform from an early age. When he was young, I heard he even played a hand in radical communist circles, but that's beside the point. He says it like it is. Today we live in a culture of consumer totalitarianism. We always need to buy the newest and the latest stuff in order to conform to peer pressure and impress our friends.
Seriously what good is an Iphone? It's just another piece of useless electronic garbage that will get replaced by some "next" generation gizmo in a few years, and people will fork out another 300-400 dollars to buy it. This has nothing to do with actual progress of technology. He rails against society's shallowness, it's obsession with material wealth and expensive electronic baubles.
His message is controversial which lot of people don't like. But I can understand perfectly where he, as a creator, is coming from. He spent his entire life giving us these movies he labored so hard on. Much to his chagrin, they're always treated as consumer products. I bet at the end of the day, he feels no different than a starter of a chain of house cleaning products. Is he really happy about the fact that his works essentially launched a wave of superflat mania in the country? I don't think he intended his artistic creations to serve as a basis for a hypersexualized subculture. Of course it all makes him shocked and bitter. To him, every new bit of technology is just a tool for satisfying the public's base desires.
You got "iTroll'd".
Yoshiyuki Tomino said something similar about gamers. These old guys just don't get it, do they?
i salute you miyazaki :)
Can some one tell me why this site always uses words like onanist and pantsu? Its just odd to me since the rest of it is in total English then these words are thrown in out of the blue.
Does pantsu mean anything more than just panties that i don't get?
I call it iPed
wise words by the master ( as I read this webpage on my iPad...)
Word can't describe how happy i am after reading this.
After becoming Ghibli fans , now he comes to this statement which has 100% similarity for what i am thinking all this time.
Of course, many retarded ass sucking apple fans only knows to lick and buy everything Steve Jobs spew at.
You just a tool, add with consumerism mindless moron mental attitude.
And i'm really speechless to some people here who pointing the problem as Miyazaki wants us to watch his anime instead buying apple products.
Thats not the point dumbass.
He wants us to THINK, not to consume anything cause its new trend and dandy.
While Miyazaki provides us with anime to enriching our imagination, and how it relates to the current world, steve jobs provides us with product to make us less like lazy social parasite arrogant human being.
Wake up moron.
Reading on public transit: perfectly fine, be it books or manga
Using laptops (and iPads, portable consoles etc) on public transit: fine unless they are disturbing others, with sound for instance
Listening to music with headphones: also fine unless it's really loud
Using a cell phone: Annoying but won't go away
If you're not overtly loud and disturb others it's no big deal, just like normal conversations face to face
Actually, Japan is pretty anal about people doing anything in a train or subway car besides looking bored, staring straight ahead, or sleeping. They even put up signs telling people to not read newspapers and discouraging women from applying makeup while taking public transit. Hell, this social disapproval has shamed people to such an extent that they "brown bag" their manga and novels - covering them in a brown, neutral dust jacket - so that no one can figure out what they're reading.
lol, even though the iWhatever is such an innocent thing. iot doesn't take your virginity away.
He's sorta right, for the wrong reasons. People are stupid regardless of whether they own an iPad or not. Technology itself signifies the progress of the human race. The thing is that technology makes it easier to have instant gratification. Enjoying ourselves is not new; using an iPad is just as mastabatory as reading a book or playing sport.
So I guess the point is to stop enjoying ourselves so much and work so that others can enjoy themselves.
Miyazaki owns, sorry if the truth hurts you guys.
iSucks
I'm still waiting for the day some company just overpowers them and show them how is done right. Maybe Google will be next on the line of successors
Miyazaki is saying people who mindlessly consume lead ignorant, unproductive lives that ultimate amount to nothing and that observing this phenomenon infuriates him.
When told that technology like the iPad enriches people's lives, Miyazaki rebukes that by saying the guy has no concept of hard work nor the skills it fosters; he goes onto express that novel innovations in technology will never substitute it.
His closing line harks back to a day when practically every person had productive skills: cooking, carpentry, machinery, etc.
You can't learn a language from a computer program, at some point you'll have to go communicate with another human being for any meaningful gain.
This is why I think his rant was great until his line about everyone as a creator. Were the engineers behind the iPad and its subcomponents just a bunch of mooks?
Him and his ilk all too readily forget that behind every gadget they despise is real human passion and creativity.
Which is more than offset by the sheep consuming said technology, turning the "creators" into technocratic dictators, whether these "creators" like it or not.
oh i hate the ipad fanboys too, do i get an article?
Totoro would agree...
I love how old people whine, whine, whine and die. HA!
Miyazaki is the man. Agree 100% with him here.
"This man makes things I like, I must agree with him 100%, no matter what shit he manages to shove out of his mouth!"
Hey guy, I believe the words Miyazaki used isnt as simply as it means there are hidden messages within ...although it may sound crude but that's still pretty cool, still my guess is that maybe he just wants to express his concern about more and more people now are being "enslaved" to apple
so true five stars im tired of the ijunkies
miyazaki is a boring idiot, as moralists tend to be.
Old people are so adorable! xD
everybody missunderstood his point, wich is that technology that is supposed to bring thw world closer is actually separating individuals from each other, and that buying and "iwhatever" is not actually buying the product but the social status it represents
That's up to how the people use it.
Don't blame the technology itself.
normaly i would say what the hell but then again it is fucking miyazaki i think he knows somethign we dont
You'd think Miyazaki would be a little more classy than that. I didn't see this kind of comment coming from a man who has made some of my most cherished movies.
With all due respect Miyazaki san, you're starting to show your age.
It's not about likings or biased products, but about the will to create something.
I wonder if Miyazaki realizes that there are more creators than ever these days, its just, their not GOOD creators (look at youtube).
even if you don't like it...
even with the gay subcontext...
even if you hate his stuff...
he is right! people have fallen to the system, humanity has fallen into a pit hole
nothing is worth anything anymore, why bother with anything ?
i mean i would prefer if instead of having all this cool devices, we had a cure for Cancer, Aids, if we hadn't started spoiling the sea in our greed for that devil's shit called oil, but instead we can settle for being ugly fat and masturbate to our lovely 2d lolis while the world burns outside.
Miyazaki's only positive technological memories come from his days as an ancient Greek sailor.
I can see the logic and it's not an unreasonable thing to say.
I stand behind Miyazaki's point of view 100%
I say 80
Miyazaki has spoken! iPads are unnecessary and are just another product of Apple's masturbation. WE MUST CREATE! Like why surf the web and masturbate, when you can sit down with a pen and paper and maybe write the next Howl's.
... or the next rape novel?
Miyazaki has just lost cool points with me.
-10
He just gained cool points with me... above 9000.
Nobody cares about your opinion, fatass. Now go back to the kitchen and make me some sammiches.
He's right, though. Why do people find the iPad so amazing? It's no different than other similar touchscreen computers or whatever. The whole thing about books is also a pathetic excuse, as well (books have infinite battery lifespans). The whole idea of it is lame.
But I have to admit, his whole masturbation and "stroking" bit made me ROFLMAO.
We need consumers, but how else does consumerism flourish if there aren't others who try to increase comptetion with much better and more convenient products others will buy? Making too much of the same product will get no business anywhere far.
I never liked this person...
A fellow iPad haeter he is. I approve, except to say this: thinkers -> creators -> consumers.
The more creators you have with an adequate amount of thinkers, all's right (theoretically). Consumers are radical variables.
lol I stand behind what he was saying yeah but the way he put it across made it seem like a bitter old man rejecting technology ...I mean ....to have something against cassete players lol
This man is a Real Life Troll.
Just look at all those people that jerk off behind their cellphones on a train!
There's logic in what Miyazaki says: "you should go out more to experience the world and absorb what you learn to create, instead of being a consumer latching onto another person's invention and do all the exploring from a monitor."
While I am impressed by his statement, not everybody wants to be like him ; I do love to indulge... but I do my routine traveling for inspirations for my drawings as well
Yeah the screen recognizes the finger, but penxs?
LMAO Hayao Miyazaki trolling hardcore
So, uh.
I like his films. Anyone else willing to agree?
angry old dudes kick ass...
damn straight
So he is saying get "Get a Job you losers!"?
Old Hayo is seeing his country, the world economies and himself decomposing right before him. Of course like any rotting old thing, they have a tendency to rant about all them youngins' and their remote electro talkie things! It's a right for getting more dead then anyone else and I believe its to be appreciated~ for the humor!
With the iPad and my masturbation strokes, I create semen. Mr. Miyazaki, will that suffice?
ipads are designed for sheeple...
he sees this ...
he is advising you to be something other than a sheep...
is this old fuck actually saying everyone who listens to music is pathetic?
is anyone to take him serioualy?
i get the hate for iwhatevers, especially the ipad, for very basis reasons.
i dont like gestures, i like tactical feel when im using something. i dont like not pressing a button to press a button.
when ever ipad figures out a way to make the screen expand so you can feel the button is when this tech is truly ready, but until than i would much prefer something with real physical buttons, for watching video for listening to music, and sure as fuck for using the internet or typing.
may be it's you young fuck
you will get old and became old fuck
and someday says thing like an old fuck said
yea, when i say that the only reason someone has an mp3, a walkman, or anything to hear music with is more or less, pathetic because they cant make the music themselves, kill me.
I think he means masturbating as something like "closing yourself in", in the sense of not caring for others while being stuck in some iWhatever parallel dimension of pleasure that doesn't let you create, IMO most of us who visit this page are like that, but who really cares...
Miyazaki, STFU and stick to making movies. Leave the technology to the people who appreciate it.
People who actually know anything about technology laugh at ipads. Only faggots use that garbage.
you ppl are morons...miyazaki is not saying that every piece of technology is bad, or that buying things is bad...he saying that all these ipad fanatics are morons who jump at the newest item everychange they get like a dog chasing the nearest car!
hes saying stop being a follower and attempt to lead the pack for once! even if its not "POPULAR"...
FRUITCAKES NEED TO LEARN A THING OR TOO...
*insert relevant The Onion video criticizing Apple fans*
i get what hes saying entirely, its pretty simple. lol to niggers who think trireme's are trains.
without true experience, your information, perhaps all of your knowledge is meaningless.
Don't feed the Miyazaki
I would give him a hug.
"People are using new technology now? Godamnit, I need to do something!!"
The next Shoko Asahara...?
Yeah, except Miyazaki isn't a religious maniac with a messiah complex.
You wouldn't know...
...heheheheheh.... you sure? :P
I agree with An Otaku's Opiate.
Think twice okay?
I'm a chronic onanist and I don't use the iPad!
I use my casette player to this day. Classmates tend to laugh at me because they think I'm poor and that they own iPods and other posh stuff. Idiots.
Can they put casette tapes in their iPods? NO.
Can you play a good old vinyl disc in your cassette player? NO.
Can you play a good ol private band on your vinyl disc? NO, but then you wouldn't need to because they are already there!
Also, http://lifehacker.com/222394/alpha-geek-how-to-digitize-cassette-tapes.
Point remains, you can't put a vinyl disc into an iPod either!
Yeah, you can. You just have to push harder.
Cut off the edges and it goes in just fine. Same for CDs, DVDs and BRs. ^_^
Miyazaki is miyazaki,is just as plain as that.
And as angry somewhat as it sounds,thats his way of black humor.
Besides that he is actually right as far creation and consumerism.
Well the old man is right in a way.
I don't totally disagree.
I am guilty of this though!
Going out and getting the newest gaming system for super graphics and stuff, but I'll still play classics like FF8 and Crash Bandicoot.
I don't have a super tiny cell phone that can do everything, or a dumb ipad that is just a flat computer.
That's just a waste of money if you ask me.
You play games and say computers are useless? I'm a major game player too but come on. lol
Miyazaki always seems to have hypocritical views, and ironically he understands that. He doesn't like people, especially children, wasting their time on cheap things such as manga or video games, yet he makes manga and anime.
There's also the paradox of if everyone is a creator, and no one consumes, no one can survive in an economy. Maybe that's his point. He wants people to create not for money, but for passion.
Even if I don't understand or agree with him, I respect the fire in his belly, and love his work.
He...He doesn't make manga or anime. Studio Ghibli has only ever made feature films, and Miyazaki is known for rejecting many industry production standards (like hiring underpaid seiyuu from seiyuu production companies). Just because the films are anime films doesn't make them categorically similar to anime.
Many other people have talked about what he meant, I'm not going to beat a dead horse.
He, himself, admits to creating anime and manga. He doesn't sugar coat his work just because it's universally praised or because it's so exotic compared to other anime.
He wants children to be out in nature, using their imagination, and being a part of the world, and not fantasy and manufactured worlds.
Great point. Honestly, I'm a bit tired of creators coming out and preaching like that, but I guess it comes with the territory of being a celebrity. I know he wants to be seen as a steady, non-mainstream, down to earth figure, but he's jumped that shark decades ago. He's not fooling anyone.
Aww, grandpa Mia is cranky :3
What a cranky old man indeed...
When a person reaches certain hights in what he does, recognized by co-professionals, and starts to think he can teach people how to live, well, that's blunt arrogance and ignorance.
Anyway, it's just a waste of breath to argue about such things: every person goes crazy in his/her way, that's life, it's his problem.
I do believe you missed alot of the points made in your fit of anger. While it is peoples choice in what they do, hes trying to point out that its bad to buy products in succession just because its the current fad, thats what we call mindless consumerism. If you have something old that works and gets the job done just as good as what you can go out and buy, why waste the money on buying it?
You are wrong about the 'anger': as I've said, everyone goes crazy in his own way and it's pointless to become angry about it.
As for the 'mindless consumerism': on one hand, there is a sanity limit to everything, and if a person buys .. let's say a new cell phone one day, gets bored with it and buys another new model in a week or a month - yes, it's silly, but on the other hand the person earned his/her money and has a right to spend them as he/she likes. And neither you, nor me, nor anyone else should restrain his/her freedom of choice to do so. If you don't like it - raise your children the way you believe is 'right'.
Restrain your rights? What the fuck is this bullshit?
What authority does he have to "restrain" your rights?
Where did he say he wanted to "restrain" your rights?
What about his rights? Does he not have the right to free speech? To voice his opinion on consumerism?
Do notice that this was not in a comment to the main article but already in a trailing post to the ongoing discussion. "Restraining" view was clearly in Kei-chan1's message "if you have an old model which is working - don't buy a new one of the same class because it's a waste of money".
And nobody was trying to silence the initial orator, I don not know why you suddenly came up with protecting his freedom of speech - there is not a single word that he must shut up and stay quite, there are only remarks that his view should not be considered as indisputable truth.