“For this radio drama I am not facing any challenges. [laughs] After all, this is just my hobby. […] I think radio dramas deserve more acknowledgement than they get. To me they are the best. When I am reading books and considering whether they would make good films, I find many that would make great radio dramas.
But the images and imagination stimulated by the radio dramas turn flat when projected as film images. The images are restricted to the specific picture one draws. But if we say “a woman of celestial beauty” in a radio drama, she will be “a woman of celestial beauty” for each of us! After all, we are calling her a woman of celestial beauty. Hearing this, the listener imagines a combination of all the women of “celestial beauty.” This is quite breathtaking. For this reason, too, it would be a shame if radio dramas were to disappear from the air. I love the blank space that radio dramas provide.
[…]
For example, The Strange Tale of Panorama Island (Panoramatō kitan) becomes tacky when made into a film, as it comes off as a cheap theme park ride. But when the story is told in an evocative manner, something very deep comes through. This depth can only be revealed in a radio drama. When you listen to it alone… As a child I felt chills hearing the voice on the radio talk about the rasping sound of the clothing worn by a woman of celestial beauty.
But they didn’t provide that sound effect. The narrator Musei Tokugawa said “the rasping sound of her clothing” [laughs] What is the rasping sound of clothing? As a boy, I would wonder and feel shivers of anticipation. And now, when I am working later with the radio on and come across a radio drama, I feel lucky.”
- Hayao Miyazaki, Starting Point: 1979-1996, “My Random Thoughts Notebook Is My Hobby”, Animage, December 1995.
