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For Goro Miyazaki the summer ended on a bittersweet note. This 39-year-old filmmaker had the pleasure of seeing his first movie, the animated feature “Gedo Senki,” or “Tales From Earthsea,” blossom into the biggest hit of the summer in Japan, as it rose to the top spot and took in more than 7.3 billion yen (about $61.4 million) by the end of September.

But even his success brought inevitable reminders that he is, after all, the other Miyazaki. His Oscar-winning father, Hayao, regarded by many critics as the greatest director working in animation today, has earned much more with his own hits. Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the popular “Earthsea” novels, on which the new film was based, went out of her way to make the distinction on her Web site, calling the father “a genius of the same caliber as Kurosawa or Fellini.” She went on to complain about the liberties Goro and his new film took with her work.

“Of course a movie shouldn’t try to follow a novel exactly — they’re different arts, very different forms of narrative,” she wrote. “There may have to be massive changes. But it is reasonable to expect some fidelity to the characters and general story in a film named for and said to be based on books that have been in print for 40 years.”

So the younger Mr. Miyazaki can be forgiven a bit of weariness. “Sometimes I wish hadn’t entered the same profession as my father,” he said, speaking through an interpreter during an interview at Studio Ghibli, headquarters of the Hayao Miyazaki and the director Isao Takahata, in this suburb of Tokyo. “I realized for the first time how difficult it is to be the son of Hayao Miyazaki. If I weren’t involved in animated filmmaking, I would just have a simple, quiet, normal life.”

When American audiences will have the chance to judge Goro Miyazaki’s work for themselves is an open question. There is currently no plan to distribute “Gedo Senki” to theaters in the United States; the rights are tied up with a 2004 Sci-Fi Channel mini-series.

In a telephone interview from her home in Portland, Ore., Ms. Le Guin said: “Mr. Miyazaki’s movie won’t be shown as long as the Sci-Fi Channel people sit on their rights, which they have until ’09, unless they decide to stop being a dog in the manger.” Representatives from the Sci-Fi Channel did not respond to calls seeking a comment.