sentences:  Initially, Miyazaki solely considered the concept of a film that would depict a stormy sea with "waves higher than the house on a hillside".He later created the character Ponyo, a name he thought of as an onomatopoeia of what "soft, squishy softness" feels like when touched.Miyazaki recalled that as a nine-year-old he borrowed a copy of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" from his neighbour, and that while he was reading it he had difficulty accepting its premise that its protagonist did not have a soul.