I pretended to be my middle-aged history teacher in high school online. Had online friends and everything, where I would talk about details of his own life as though I were experiencing them. Kept up with faculty gossip and would like off-handedly mention it in PMs. I kept this charade up to ward away what I thought were omnipresent creeps on the internet.
It was only years later that I realized how weird this was.
“[pitching the proposal for Mononoke-hime (1997)] There cannot be a happy ending to the fight between the raging gods and humans. However, eveninthemiddleofhatredandkillings,therearethingsworthlivingfor. A wonderful meeting, or a beautiful thing can exist. We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation. What we should depict is, how the boy understands the girl, and the process in which the girl opens her heart to the boy. At the end, the girl will say to the boy, “I love you, Ashitaka. But I cannot forgive humans.” Smiling, the boy should say, “That is fine. Live with me.” ― Hayao Miyazaki
