Hayao Miyazaki’s films transport us into richly imagined worlds where humans, spirits, animals, and landscapes are deeply intertwined. In these stories, healing often begins with attention to small, overlooked relationships—between children and forest spirits, polluted rivers and forgotten gods, or farmers and wind. His work challenges dominant narratives of control, conquest, and extraction, offering instead a vision of regeneration through humility, empathy, and reverence for the natural world. As a model for this course, Miyazaki’s storytelling invites us to imagine not only different futures, but different ways of living more responsibly and imaginatively in the present.

Throughout the course, we will draw inspiration from the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki as models for ecological and place-based storytelling. Miyazaki’s work offers powerful examples of how narrative can shift our relationship to the natural world. His films often center on small, intimate connections—between people, animals, spirits, and landscapes—that ripple outward to transform entire ecosystems and societies.

Rather than framing nature as something to be conquered or controlled, Miyazaki imagines worlds where healing, balance, and renewal come through humility, empathy, and imagination. His stories challenge extractive narratives and invite us to reimagine what it means to live in right relationship with place, memory, and the more-than-human world.

As we explore Maine’s living landscapes and design our own digital stories, we will use Miyazaki’s approach as a guide for crafting narratives that move from disconnection to co-evolution, from damage to restoration.