Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 116 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studion Ghibli
Year Produced: 1984
Welcome to the To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some...!
As I pretty much stated in the freaking title, this is the week and a little over where I watch and then review all of the Miyazaki movies that I can lay my hands on, starting with his oldest one... well... this one.
I'll be doing the following in the following order (one a day)...
Tuesday - Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Wednesday - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Thursday - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
And now you know why the "... and then some..." is there. Anyway, let's get this party started!
For the record, I actually haven't seen a majority of these films at all. The first anime that I ever watched was... okay, Pokemon, but that's beside the point here. The first anime that I watched and got hooked on was Princess Mononoke, when I was like... 12. It was awesome.
Apart from that, I've only the work that he's done after that (up until now, of course, I just watched this movie). I did take a peek at Whisper of the Heart, but that's okay since he technically didn't direct... all of it.
Okay, granted, I also have a bias here if you want to get technical. I'll tell you the whole story.
After I had finished watching Princess Mononoke for about the sixteenth time, and had watched the others a couple times as well, I went "God dammit, this guy is the best!!".
Then, it somehow came to my attention that Mr. Miyazaki had published a manga. A few, actually!
... I nearly had a heart attack. Can you imagine a 14 year-old having a cardiac arrest? It wasn't pretty.
So of course I bought one of them, and downloaded the others (yes, I'll give you the links at the end).
One that I downloaded was a little known work called Shuna no Tabi and it was... well, I don't know if I should call it a manga, since it was written in a really strange format... you'll just have to check it out.
You'll see some definite parallels between this manga and Kaze no Tani Nausicaa, as well as Tales from Earthsea.
There is also another one that looks like something that he drew during high school or something. I can't tell if it's supposed to be historical or not, but it is set in China before the Mongols came. But the it has the city of Pejite, and I'm pretty sure that that's not real, though I don't have a firm grasp on Chinese history.
The second was... yes, you guessed it! Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the English name for Kaze no Tani Nausicaa...
HOT DAMN!
It was probably the best manga that I read that year, and one of the top three that I've read so far (and since I have a strange paranoia about stating favorites, I can't tell you the others).
Miyazaki engaged to create this manga in 1982, and worked on it sporadically until 1994. It was published in Tokuma Shoten Animage over the 12 years, and then published again in 7 bound volumes (or 4 if you bought those squat, fat ones).
The manga and the movie... weren't the same... at all. The character's were pretty much all different, and my favorite characters Kushana and Kurotowa looked like the assholes that they were in the beginning of the series. Damn. Well, you've got to draw the line somewhere.
Kurotowa will never stop being awesome, though.
The story is set in the post-apocalyptic world of... wherever the hell they are (they don't actually mention in the anime or the manga... well), and is about the beloved Princess Nausicaa, princess of a small valley that is struggling to survive with a decaying planet.
That's Nausicaa...
... that's the aforementioned valley.
... and this is what's happening to the Earth.
The Sea of Decay is a forest of toxin-spewing plants that has overtaken a good surface of the Earth. No human would be able to survive for more than 5 minutes in such a toxic environment, but that doesn't mean that it's uninhabitable. It's filled with...
The Valley of the Wind is full of peaceful people who only care only about cultivating their crops and generally having a good time... that is until a random barge sails into their valley and smashes into a cliff.
... Giant bugs.
Really giant bugs. This one is called an Ohm in the movie and Ohmu in the manga.
The Valley of the Wind is full of peaceful people who only care only about cultivating their crops and generally having a good time... that is until a random barge sails into their valley and smashes into a cliff.
... Shit.
Unbeknown to them, the ship was carrying vital cargo of the Torumekia, and imperial, militaristic nation, and they want whatever was in the hull of that ship back, so they come and bring an army to the Valley of the Wind.
They're actually a lot more gray than I wanted them to be. I always pictured them with gold armor and blue or red capes.
Pretty cool, yeah? And it's Miyazaki, so it's got to be good. Even his earliest stuff was righteous (especially since I'm into strong female leads).
The characters were limited. I have to admit that I didn't like how Kushana and Kurotowa ended up like I already said, but they were still cool characters.
For your information, Kushana is a lot more of a badass in the original manga. She led a cavalry charge, fought with some really freaky creatures, and then slaughtered a ship-full of Doroks (that's something that was only in the manga, as were all of the things that I sited here (and no, the freaky creature was not the one out of the movie)).
You've still got Yupa, though (another bitchin' character).
You've still got Yupa, though (another bitchin' character).
Yupa annndddd....
TETO!!
Since this is an adaptation of only about the first 2 volumes (in terms of the 7 volume set), it's limited in it's capacity to develop the characters like the manga (this movies was created part-way through his production of the manga, you know?). Miyazaki actually introduced at least five more pretty major characters later on who you don't see at all in the movie, unless I'm really missing something.
The animation style was classic, in a good way. It was a lot more colorful than I would have originally imagined, but that was a good thing. I would never have used so much pink and purple, but somehow it was all good.
I actually only watched this in Japanese, and I have to admit that I was scared to watch this in English, despite the cast list (Patrick Stewart (various roles, but I remember him from Excalibur and... Star Trek), Uma Therman (you'd probably know her from Kill Bill), and even Mark Hamill (not technically a star, but... Luke Skywalker, damn.)).
The music is something that I'd classify as strange. It blended into the background it you weren't careful, but since I had to listen for it, I heard... a lot of weird stuff in there. I don't even know what the influences for the music were, but they were definitely from the East. It was still good though, didn't distract you from the story or anything, so that's good.
Manga:
Shuna no Tabi Scum Scans
Sabaku no Tami Mediafire
The animation style was classic, in a good way. It was a lot more colorful than I would have originally imagined, but that was a good thing. I would never have used so much pink and purple, but somehow it was all good.
I actually only watched this in Japanese, and I have to admit that I was scared to watch this in English, despite the cast list (Patrick Stewart (various roles, but I remember him from Excalibur and... Star Trek), Uma Therman (you'd probably know her from Kill Bill), and even Mark Hamill (not technically a star, but... Luke Skywalker, damn.)).
The music is something that I'd classify as strange. It blended into the background it you weren't careful, but since I had to listen for it, I heard... a lot of weird stuff in there. I don't even know what the influences for the music were, but they were definitely from the East. It was still good though, didn't distract you from the story or anything, so that's good.
Manga:
Shuna no Tabi Scum Scans
Sabaku no Tami Mediafire
Anime:
(You need an account to access the links here too)
Coming up next!
Day 2: Laputa: Castle in the Sky!
