i really enjoyed reading this book, it was a great memoir and I really enjoyed getting into working at Studio Ghibli.

During the past few years, I’ve become a fan of Studio Ghibli’s animated movies. I recently decided to learn more about the company and the people behind the films. I’ve read Susan Napier’s Miyazakiworld, which is more of an intellectual biography of Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki. Steve Alpert’s Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man is a peek into the corporate side of the studio, something which doesn’t get as much attention from scholars and fans.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Alpert worked for Studio Ghibli’s parent company, Tokuma Shoten, and handled foreign distribution for Ghibli’s films. This meant negotiating with Disney and other Hollywood executives for rights to distribute the films to American audiences. It also sometimes meant working with Hayao Miyazaki on English-language translations of the scripts, planning Miyazaki’s overseas trips, and even attending award ceremonies on behalf of Ghibli. Alpert shares some amusing anecdotes about Miyazaki that both confirm is curmudgeonly personality and his eclectic brilliance.

During his time with Tokuma, Alpert was an American living in Japan (a “gaijin“), so he’s well positioned to translate his experiences in Japan Inc for Western audiences. The book focuses on Alpert’s time at Ghibli, but it’s just as much about Japan’s corporate culture and the movie business. Alpert includes interesting insights, such as how Japanese business negotiations differ from American ones. While he’s clearly respectful of Japanese culture and lived in the country for decades, he’s also enough of an outsider to point out the humor in certain intercultural miscommunications.

Readers looking for a complete history of Studio Ghibli would probably be better off with Napier’s book; Alpert’s memoir only focuses on Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Fortunately, Alpert is a gifted storyteller, making the book a quick and enjoyable read. His anecdotes are often hilarious, sometimes insightful, and always entertaining.

[I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

I love watching Ghibli movies in Netflix especially My Neighbor Totoro. This is why reading a book about this animation company really feels fascinating for me.

There are many things I came to realize after reading this. It is not easy to create animation manually as Ghibli animators were doing all the time before they started to embrace new technology (at that time).

It is also amazing to know the business side of Ghibli as well as the personalities of the people who run the company especially Hayao Miyazaki.

The book also revealed some controversial attempts of Disney and Miramax to change things in movies like Princess Mononole and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Overall I find the book appealing for business literature enthusiast and Ghibli fan like me.

Titled after Kaku Arakawa’s NHK documentary about the Japanese anime visionary Hayao Miyazaki “Never-Ending Man”, Steve Alpert’s business memoir “Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man” tells the story of the famed anime studio from a different perspective, that of business.
In the middle of the nineties, the then-Disney employee Steve Alpert was scouted by Toshio Suzuki from Studio Ghibli to head the newly opened international division of the studio’s parent company, the conglomerate Tokuma Shoten. For the next fifteen years, he worked for the company, helping it grow and get numerous international deals. Together with that, he was also a member of the board of directors of the studio and the only non-Japanese at that, in the entire company. As such, Alpert had a unique position within the company. As a high-level insider, he had direct contact both with the boss of Tokuma Shoten, the extravagant old-timer Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the creative geniuses behind Studio Ghibli’s films, and executives from other companies such as Disney, Pixar, and Miramax. However, he was also an outsider of sorts, due to being a gaijin (a non-Japanese). His unique position within the world of Japanese animation, coupled with him being present during some of the most important moments of the studio’s history ,such as the move towards digital animation and the expansion to American and European markets, gives Alpert the unique opportunity to contribute to our knowledge about Ghibli. And he does that very effectively in his memoir “Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man.”

Through Alpert, we learn about what life in a Japanese company in the 90s was like, with all of its quirks such as unnecessary speeches, complex hierarchy, sleeping during meetings, shady business, and smoking. A whole lot of smoking. Through such interesting and quirky stories, such as Tokuma’s boss buying his executive vanilla ice cream and watching them eat it or Suzuki’s decked-out car in which he basically lives, we get a fuller image of the people behind the films and their never-ending work towards perfection. Interestingly, though, there is nothing said about Isao Takahata which is very strange. Of course, few of the stories tell anything that hasn’t been already said in the manifold books and movies about Hayao Miyazaki & Co. but they nevertheless work within the context of “Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man.”

Yet, the book does something much more than recount strange stories about being a non-Japanese in a Japanese company. It also explores the business side of Japanese animation and specifically, its international distribution. Alpert does this very well by choosing to focus only on a small part of his stint in Ghibli, namely the years between the creation and distribution of “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away.” He pays more attention to the first movie as it is around that time when Studio Ghibli signed a contract with Disney (a deal on which Alpert spends a considerable amount of time and space) and the first major release of a Ghibli film for the American audiences. Concerning the latter, he mostly speaks about the difficult award season and Miyazaki’s refusal to attend ceremonies, including the Oscars.

The distribution of “Princess Mononoke” in the US, which was supposed to be done by Disney but was later relegated to Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax, gives Alpert the opportunity to speak about the process of localization of Japanese films for the international (read American) markets. The process is very complicated, especially in the case of complex and ambiguous films like “Princess Mononoke” which Miramax head honcho Weinstein believed would not earn much money if not changed. So, he tried to alter it to fit the simpler American expectations, in the meantime dumbing down Miyazaki’s vision. He did this not through discussions but by going behind Ghibli’s backs, lying, threatening and throwing a tantrum or two.

With such a depiction, Alpert paints pretty obvious villains in the face of Miramax and possibly Disney who disregarded everything and were ready to do anything just to make the movie sell tickets. For example, they hired the sci-fi author Neil Gaiman to write the English-language script for the movie just to completely ignore his faithfulness to the original script, added a ton of unnecessary music, sound effects, and exposition and went against the contract on a thousand occasions. Such a depiction, of course, makes sense as the book presents a very subjective perspective about this time in the history of the Ghibli and is written by a Ghibli executive. Still, the book would have benefited from a somewhat more nuanced depiction of the parties involved.

This brings us to what is possibly the biggest weakness of “Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man”, its writing quality. Yes, the story is entertaining and at times difficult to put down, but at the same time, it often reads more like a cheap pulp or an 80s story about “the Orient” that exoticizes Japanese people for better sales. There is just too much bombast in some of the paragraphs and way too many generalizations and exoticizations of Japanese corporate culture, at least for this reviewer’s liking. This ends up slightly hurting the believability of the story but not to the point where the book sounds fake.

Despite its somewhat cheap and cheesy writing style, Steve Alpert’s “Sharing a House with the Never-ending Man” is a very interesting and insightful business memoir that educates the readers on the other aspect of making animated features in Japan, that of having to sell them to people from other markets. As such, it is a worthy read not only for fans of Studio Ghibli but also for all film buffs.

I'm a huge Ghibli fan, and I've been going through the studio's fantastic catalogue of films recently, so when I heard about this book, a memoir written by the only gaijin to have worked in Studio Ghibli, I jumped right on it. I greatly enjoyed the anecdotes shared, and love the intimate glimpses at Hayao Miyazaki and his creative process (and his stubborn old-man crankiness). Reading about the behind-the-scenes process of bringing their films to life and distributing them around the world was enlightening.

There were certain things that detracted from my enjoyment of this book, however. Namely, the occasional borderline racist commentary (but honestly, as cynical as this sounds, I've come to expect this from white people writing about Asian cultures; that sort of exoticising/othering seems to be the norm for Western publishing) and the really weirdly detailed descriptions of women and their clothing. Probably the most uncomfortable of these would have to be the one describing a teenaged (!!!) pop starlet dressed skimpily and "jiggling". Why, God, why. Fortunately, these references are few and far in-between—but damn do they destroy the otherwise pleasant reading experience.

I did enjoy the parts about what it is like to work in Japan as a gaijin and the insights into the industry we're fascinating. I'm a huge studio Ghibli fan and the author captured the processes well for people who don't work in the industry.
However I didn't enjoy (as I can also see in some other reviews) the part about Harvey Weinstein. I understand that this is written from the author's perspective, but it might be better for the book itself to leave it out entirely.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

Steve Alpert was the only non-Japanese executive at Studio Ghibli, working there for 15 years in charge of marketing Ghibli films outside Japan. This is his very enjoyable memoir of his time there, including his struggles to come to grips with doing business in a foreign culture, crossing the language barrier, and trying to protect the tiny studio's interests from the depredations of Hollywood giants and Asian pirates.

Alpert's respect and affection for his Ghibli colleagues shines throughout, especially his esteem for the legendary Ghibli director Hiyao Miyazaki. His descriptions of his struggles bringing films like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away to global markets adds to one's understanding and appreciation of these film classics. This is a must-read for any fan of the Ghibli studio's work.

***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

Studio Ghibli is a world-renowned animation studio that produces quality content. They are known for hit movies like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, the latter of which won an Academy Award. In the book, Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghilbi, Steve Alpert describes his experience working for the company. As the only foreigner at the company hired to get Ghilbi's movies distributed abroad, the reader gets an inside look at what working at the company was like. From getting used to the way the Japanese conduct business vs the West, wrangling with distributors over proposed changes to the movie and hilarious situations from the clash of cultures, Alpert tells an engrossing story of how the studio toom Princess Mononoke from storyboard to homes all over the world and the other highlights and struggles of the studio along the way If you are a fan of Studio Ghibli or looking for an interesting memoir to read this is one for you.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

Sharing a House with the Never-ending Man is an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at a Japanese company from an American’s perspective. It is not about the personalities at Studio Ghibli or where Miyazaki gets his ideas for the movies.

It is interesting to see cultural differences explained so clearly. I also found out what a sound mixer’s job really consists of—and it makes computer programming look interesting. It is interesting to see the ideas that we were copying like continuous improvement and agile teams taken to extremes. Agile teaches you to only plan for the next task rather than for the entire project. Miyazaki takes that to the extreme of not writing the conclusion of each film until after the film creation has started and is well on its way. The description of meetings feels very American from an upper management perspective. All decisions are made informally before the meeting. The meeting merely announces the decisions to the peripheral and subordinate staff.

Overall, I don’t think Sharing a House with the Never-ending Man will appeal to fans of the movies. It is, however, an interesting look into Japanese culture. 3 stars.

Thanks to Stone Bridge Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Stone Bridge Press for providing me with an eARC

Not only is this book entertaining for fans of Studio Ghibli, but it's entertaining for fans of the film industry. It provides readers with a rare behind-the-scenes look at inner workings of one of the greatest animation houses in assistance, as well as glimpses into its parent and sister companies. Told from the point of view of an American, the story provides an interesting view into the inner workings of Japanese companies from the western point of view. And though there are faults that come with telling such a story through anecdotes, the author does a good job illustrating the reality of working in Japan in the '90s.

The final review will be posted on June 23, 2020

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

This is a truly <I>fascinating</I> book and one I would recommend for anyone interested in either Japan or the film industry. Alpert has a knack for anecdotes and the book was better written, linguistically, than I thought it would be being a business memoir. There was a great mix of behind the scenes drama and general information about the animation industry that was told in an interesting and easy to understand way for people outside the field. It's also probably one of the best looks at what Japanese work culture is actually like (for both Japanese and foreigners) and a must read for anyone thinking about working in Japan in any capacity.

However, there were some downsides that prevented me from giving this four stars. First, most of Alpert's stories are very good, but sometimes they veer off onto tangents or just end without a clear reason or punchline to the story. Also, while not often, he would sometimes drop down sentences that were so unnecessary that I had to stop reading to figure out why the information was even there. This was for things like randomly giving the recipe for a mojito or long descriptions of women (only women) who weren't even part of the story but who he really needed the reader to know how beautiful they were.

Then there was one line regarding the Harvey Weinstein business. I fee like someone must have told Alpert that since he talks about working with Weinstein (it would have been unavoidable to mention him since he ran Miramax at the time <I>Princess Mononoke</I> was released) that he must address the crimes he committed. I think Alpert would have been better off saying nothing about it since he retired years before everything about Weinstein came to light, instead of just casually dropping in "this was before the me too allegations" and then moving immediately on.

The word "allegations" in a book being published <I>after</I> Weinstein has already been found guilty really threw me and it unfortunately colored all of the stories that involved Miramax later on - many of which mentioned incredibly unhappy Miramax employees. So why mention this at all if not to condemn what Weinstein did? Why casually give the impression that you don't believe his accusers but then also later give the impression that Weinstein was a nightmare to work with? Alpert himself didn't seem to care much for Weinstein, so why not just condemn him in accordance with what a jury of his peers already found and move on?

This was one of my two major problems with the book, which is deeply unfortunate because it was literally a single throw-away sentence that should have been caught in editing.

The other problem I had, and which I am still really confused by is where was Isao Takahata during the 15 years this book spans? He is very rarely (and only in passing) mentioned throughout the book. He is the 4th founding member of Studio Ghibli, was responsible for some of their biggest films (<I>Grave of the Fireflies</I>, <i>Pom Poko</i>), and was notoriously difficult to work with. There is no way, being the head of international sales and press for so many years, that Alpert would never have worked with him. However, to read the book you would come away with the impression that Miyazaki wrote and directed <I>every</I> film Ghibli has ever made. Takahata was such a major part of the studio until his death that this would be like writing a book about The Beatles and pretending the entire time that there were only three members.

I suppose that I'll never get an answer about this, but it was definitely the most glaring issue the book has. If there had been a few stories were Takahata was involved or an explanation of why he wasn't written about, I would have given this memoir four stars.

Overall though, I really enjoyed this book and will be buying a physical copy for my collection. It is a must read for any Studio Ghibli fan.

Thank you so much to netgalley for sending me a copy of this book. I’ve loved studio ghibli productions since I was a kid. Coming across this book on net galley really made my day and I enjoyed reading the actual book too!

This book takes an admiring and reverent look at what it was like for Alpert to work for Studio Ghibli. There are moments of this book that were beautiful and it was interesting at times to peak behind the curtain... unfortunately, I also found this book quite problematic.

I noted at least 9 instances within this book where Alpert shared racist commentary, perpetuated damaging stereotypes, and was blatantly racist. He also made objectifying comments about women and promoted toxic masculinity. It is for these reasons that this book can not be rated higher than a 1 star and I do not encourage readers to pick up this book.

trigger warning
mention of rape and assault, racism, mention of war things and natural desasters

Steve Alpert was hired by the concern Studio Ghibli was part of for a long time to help with international marketing. They needed a person that speaks English and Japanese and knows how foreigners tick.

Two things intrigued me about this:
1. I am always interested in accounts of how someone went to another country and tried to live in a culture extremely different to their own, especially if a western person goes to Asia. I've greatly enjoyed Amélie Nothombs books for example.
2. I love all the Studio Ghibli movies I know. I don't know all of them, but am planning to change that. Getting some background information on the production of stories I know is always fun.

Before I start with my review, I want to say that the publisher told me the version I read is uncorrected, so I am just going to assume that still some editing will take place.
Because as it is, this one felt very unedited. In the beginning, the author jumps from one anecdote to another without any kind of structure. This only ends as he starts to describe the usual process of making a movie, followed by recollections of how he travelled, sometimes with Hayao Miyasaki, most often not, to make deals with international companies about film-rights and to recieve awards, first for Princess Mononoke and then for Spirited Away.
To my confusion, this section was followed by and account on how Princess Mononoke was synchronised for the English version, which chronologically makes no sense at all.

I can't say how much of this will be an issue in the final version of the book.

Then let me get to the main part why I feel iffy about this book.
"This was well before Harvey's "Me Too" troubles, and at the time there was no hint at all that the things he's been accused of were taking place."
Harvey Weinstein has been mentioned a couple of times and I was wondering why there was no comment at all about how a disgusting person that guy is. Finally, I saw this comment - this was all. No, I didn't expect a longwinded explanation or statement in a book that was about something else than the me too movement or Hollywood in general, but making this the only reference to what happened is... whoa. No.
Only a guy could say he saw nothing. And since Harvey Weinstein has been convicted, the phrasing is offensive to all persons who have been assaulted. I am lucky enough to have only slightly be molested in my past, and even to me this feels outrageous.
It's a delicate topic. I hope that this is something an editor will work on with Mr. Alpert before publishing. Because after reading this, had the circumstances been different and had I not been very concentrated on reading my arcs, I'd have quit at that point and no, this will get no recommendation from me.

I've learned some things about how Studio Ghibli operates and some nice anecdotes about the making of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.
Would I read this again? No.
Would I read anything else by this author? No.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating, funny memoir from the only gaijin at Ghibli, centred on the period in which Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away made the studio's anime a mainstream success in the West. It's sometimes hard to judge when you see a book stripped of context, but this somehow doesn't feel like it's a big release, which is a shame because it really ought to be. Adult Ghibli fan, interested in the behind the scenes gossip? You'll love this; it's shockingly indiscreet, without ever feeling merely mean, and it comes as a genuine surprise on the few occasions when names are omitted to protect the guilty, because of how much is elsewhere said outright. Equally, there are bits that are very nearly as adorable as Ghibli's films, like the ongoing love-in between the Pixar and Ghibli animators, or the French family lucky enough to get a Christmas Eve visit (complete with drawings of their favourite Ghibli characters) from Miyazaki. Just generally interested in the mechanics of cinema, particularly animation? I learned all sorts of stuff about how dialogue for cartoons is recorded, how translations and licensing between territories work – and also, which is of course far more entertaining reading, how not to do it. Or do you just fancy a sitcom starring the affably cantankerous Miyazaki; his ludicrous, self-important, shadily connected yet somehow very effective big boss Tokuma; and the intermediary Suzuki, who somehow gets the pair of them working in tandem to create magic – all while the narrator tags along behind, baffled? Sample, and it gets far sillier than this: "Every time Miyazaki conceived a possible ending for his film, he would seek out Suzuki to get his reaction. If Suzuki approved right away, Miyazaki would discard the idea and begin again." Granted, at times it's just horrifying (among the few things more fucked-up than Western corporate culture is Japanese corporate culture), and often it's nerve-wracking, but a lot of it's hilarious, especially given the author just about manages never to get fired or cause an international incident, and the films are all successes. True, at times it feels like it could have done with an edit – was it really anthropologists rather than archaeologists excavating Edo-era teacups on a building site? And like many media memoirs in which the narrator plays the wide-eyed ingénue, there's occasionally that niggling sense – hang on, you'd been at Disney a while before this Ghibli gig, your wife is Japanese, surely you can't have been quite this entertaingly unfamiliar with quite this many things? But these are minor quibbles when a book is stuffed with quite so many gems.

(Netgalley ARC)

*This book was received as an Advanced Reader's Copy from NetGalley.

Spirited Away has long been my favorite movie. So naturally, anything that involves Studio Ghibli sparks my interest. A memoir of working there, yes please!

Alpert was signed on to be the English speaking side of Ghibli. Someone who could handle international inquiry, yet still be ok with the traditional Japanese working environment. He was part of it for the journey of Princess Mononoke, and for Spirited Away. He helped with the deals between Ghibli and Disney.

Alpert is a very hand's off narrator. While we learn a little bit about his personal life, the vast majority of the book is about the studio and the people who owned it and helped run it. He also goes into great detail about the deals that helped the films get distributed around the world, the aware ceremonies that were attended, and a lot about the different meals eaten during the course of business. I was pleasantly surprised about that, I love food.

Getting to learn about some of the behind the scenes things that happened at Ghibli was great. While I'm sure there's a lot that even Alpert didn't see since he was still considered a foreigner, there was still a lot that he did get to see and that history was fascinating. I also learned that Gaiman worked on Princess Mononoke and found that exciting as well.

A neat look at Studio Ghibli and its rise to popularity outside of Japan. I am glad Alpert decided to write it down and let us get a glimpse.

Review by M. Reynard 2020

Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man is a memoir by Steve Alpert, an American who worked at the Japanese animation Studio Ghlibi for 15 years where he worked international distribution for the company, and provided translation for the heads of the studio when need be. His narrative straddles the time of hand-painted cels and the switch to digital animation. The stories he tells are both fascinating, discussing the minute details of what goes on when a foreign film exchanges hands and becomes Americanized; and also hilarious when he finds himself in situations he isn't nearly prepared for.

I would have given it 5 stars but the ending seemed kind of abrupt. I wondered how or why he left the company and would've liked a more personalized conclusion. The whole book I was seeing the world through his eyes but never really felt like I knew the man speaking. Other than that, it was a great read and I recommend to any film buff who appreciates the making and publicity of a film and would like to hear the insider's voice of a man working in a foreign market.

I'd like to thank Stone Bridge Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I'm fortunate to know friends who enjoy Miyazaki's work, have visited Japan, and in return have gotten me to appreciate his stories. Some of my favorites are Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle, and the famous Spirited Away.

I was absolutely delighted to see this up for grabs on NetGalley, and was intrigued to see 15 years through the eyes of an American who worked for Miyazaki's company.

Oh boy. This book is a treat, a real treat. The most featured films are Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, since they were the ones that fell within the time period of when the author was working for the company. Here and there he handles mishaps and or issues with Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service.

I was also intrigued to see how Weinstien was involved in this. Not surprised that he was screaming, demanding things, and overall creating an absolute mess of Princess Mononoke behind the scenes. As well as Disney! Disney didn't come out of this smelling like a rosebud, either. If anything this book made me apprehensive on how they treat things established with a commercial enterprise behind it.

I knock it down because I felt that the narrative of the book could be a bit tighter and that the book just ends rather abruptly. I kind of wanted to know why he left the company and how things were going to transpire after the mess with Spirited Away.

Nevertheless, it is a great, fantastic read about Ghibli, animation, movie business, and Japanese life and customs.