The 96th Academy Awards have just happened, and among all the incredible winners, there’s one who decided not to show. Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t present for The Boy and the Heron’s big victory, spurring a lot of the same jokes on social media.
In fact, he’s never attended the Oscars any time he’s been nominated – and there have been a few times – leading fans to make the same observation over and over on X, formerly Twitter.
Studio Ghibli fans all made the same joke after Hayao Miyazaki didn’t attend the Oscars
Everyone essentially delivered memes about how Hayao sees Hollywood’s big ceremony. The most common meme involves Donald Duck being awoken in the night, looking sleepy and annoyed, before returning to slumber.
miyazaki after finding out he won an oscarpic.twitter.com/2atosOCvYs
This, to many onlookers, epitomizes Hayao’s perspective on American awards – a noisy distraction from his day-to-day life. Being nominated and winning is nice, but it’s a calamity he doesn’t seem to regard in much esteem whatsoever.
He wasn’t in attendance for nominations of Howl’s Moving Castle or The Wind Rises, either, but since they didn’t win, there was less attention placed on that. Perhaps he just doesn’t consider the Oscars a worthwhile ceremony to attend, since he’d have to fly internationally, taking time out of whatever other projects he has going on.
Whatever his reasons, I’m sure the second Oscar will sit just as prominently in his collection as the first. Have a look at our guides toDemon Slayer Season 4andMy Hero Academia Season 7for what anime is coming up.
Anthony McGlynn is a Senior Anime Writer on Dexerto’s UK team. An expert on animes like Demon Slayer, Solo Leveling and My Hero Academia, he also has over 10 years experience covering games and pop culture for outlets such as Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PCGamesN, PCGamer, The Digital Fix, and many more. You can contact him at: anthony.mcglynn@dexerto.com
