"Revenge," George Orwell once wrote, "is bitter," but it can also be sweet, can't it?
When Studio Ghibli asked Mamoru Hosoda, an up-and-coming animator at Toei Animation, to direct a new feature, "Howl no Ugoku Shiro" ("Howl's Moving Castle," 2004), it was as if the Imperial family had allowed a commoner to marry one of its members. Then, when Hayao Miyazaki — Ghibli's emperor — decided to take over the film, Hosoda was cast outside of the palace gates.
Rather than cry in his futon over the injustice of it all, Hosoda directed the SF anime "Toki o Kakeru Shojo" ("The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," 2006) for the Madhouse studio. Featuring a sensitive teenage heroine and a time-traveling storyline, with animation that vividly expressed both emotional nuances and imaginative flights, "Toki" was a surprise hit, as well as a winner of many prizes and festival invitations. Meanwhile, its Ghibli box-office rival, "Gedo Senki" ("Tales from Earthsea," 2006), directed by Miyazaki's son Goro, was bashed by critics (including this one, who found it a compendium of cliches) and did, for a Ghibli film, mediocre business.