30 Magical Miyazaki Memes To Make You Feel Like the Main Character of An Animated Movie

Ely Bulnes • Writer and Editor

Jun 10, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

Hey fans and stans, no doubt you're reading this as you scroll on your phone during some down-time. Maybe you're commuting to work on a bus, maybe you're waiting for your friend on a bench in a park, maybe you're eating lunch at your desk, or maybe you're doing a little anxious scroll as you wait for your name to be called by the secretary at the dentist's office. We tend to reach for our phones in times like these— liminal, transitory moments, lapses in the narratives of our lives. If you're a Miyazaki fan, you'll notice that these very moments are really important to his films. Moments where characters take the time to cook, leisurely enjoy a meal, gaze off at a body of water, or observe the slow-moving natural world around them— small moments like these, which have no obvious significance to the plot, are held to the same importance as scenes that directly drive the narrative.

That's because Miyazaki takes immense influence from the Japanese concept of "Ma" or emptiness, negative space. "Ma," can be defined as the silence between claps or notes of music. The term is sometimes used to refer not to the actual space and emptiness itself, but the perception of a gap. That is to say, that these empty intervals are actually an integral part of the whole picture.

So, after you check out these Studiou Ghibli-inspired memes, let them motivate you to take a little break from your phone and enjoy the "Ma" of your life.