Favorite Anime

Eldorion wrote:I know a lot of people who loved everything about the film so you're not alone in that.

Part of the problem was that I was somewhat familiar with the real events/life behind the film and it kinda irrationally annoyed me that Miyazaki's own story was passed off as an actual person's.  The Jiro of the film bears more resemblance to Miyazaki himself than to the historical figure.

I was pleasantly surprised with Hideaki Anno's performance (the arthouse theatre I saw it at showed the subtitled version), considering he's not usually a voice actor.

True. I think it was said the Jiro of the movie was almost based more on Miyazakis father, who made and sold airplane parts to make the exact planes Jiro designed, than the historical person.

A lot of the historical alterations though came from a short story called The Wind Has Risen by Tatsuo Hori. The movie is almost like a fictional story of reality.

Wait wait wait fucking WHAT?

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/only-yesterday-daisy-ridley-star-wars-gkids-1201576763/

Only Yesterday is probably the best work from Isao Takahata, the co-founder of Ghibli and the guy who made Princess Kaguya. It was never brought over to the US because it's pretty atypical for a Ghibli film. As a non-SF story told for an adult audience it doesn't fit neatly into typical anime categories in the Western market, but it was the highest-grossing film of the year in Japan when it was released in 1991. It's not my favorite Ghibli movie but it's a marvelous film and I'm glad to hear that it's going to get a release. Apparently this was announced months ago but I only just noticed while Wiki-walking.

That's cool. I tend to watch the english dubbed versions, as I'm not sure how much I get out of hearing people speak a language I can't understand. And with animation I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes. (I would never watched a live action dubbed film or tv-show though.)

Hopefully this can bring the story to a larger audience.

Yeah, it's great to see quality films get broader exposure in more markets.

I watch both dubs and subs. I don't speak any Japanese but after a while you do pick up on certain common words, and tone of voice and the like can communicate a lot as well. I agree that knowing the language the actors are speaking makes for a more seamless experience, though I don't always trust dub companies to preserve the intent of the original (though this is not as bad as it used to be, and it's worth noting that with subtitles you still have to trust the people doing the translation). I do think that dubbing anime is easier than dubbing live action, especially since most anime uses "mouth flaps" rather than really shaping the mouth to the syllables and sounds being spoken.

I usually watch the english dub the first time through so my eyes  are free to watch the visuals, not glued to the subtitles. After that, I'm all about the Japanese versions and subtitles.  There's a lot of subtlety lost in the dubs, both in the rewrite and the performance. They like to have the American voice actors ham it up quite a bit more (Billy Crystal as Calcifer in Howl's Moving Castle is just one example), and they'll sometimes add exposition or whole little exchanges into long silences that are apparently thought to be too long for the American attention span.

There's a dub trailer out too but for some reason the video is unlisted. Sounds really good so far though!

Was that Muta from Whispers of the Heart and The Cat Returns at about 0:15 ?

I don't think so ... IIRC Muta was grey.

{{{oh geez, what did I just say?}}}

Eldorion wrote:I don't think so ... IIRC Muta was grey.

Yeah, I just googled Muta. Only one orange ear, not two.
Grey though? Those are strong words. Are you prepared to defend that statement?

Probably not

Burn the witch heretic!

I can already feel the grey-hot flames!

What I think Eldo was trying to say is that he sees Muta as a grey character, as in neither traditionally good or evil, rather more interesting than all that.

{{{You're welcome. }}}

I think I've been through all of Myazakis movies now.

Did you make sure to do his pre-Ghibli one, Castle of Cagliostro?  (Technically Nausicaa was pre-Ghibli too, but it was also the impetus for the studio's foundation.)  It's of a somewhat different tone than his more famous movies, and is part of a pre-existing franchise (Lupin III), but I really enjoyed it.  Otherwise, don't forget the ones he wrote but didn't direct (Whisper of the Heart, possibly my all-time favorite, as well as the modern classics Arrietty, based on the Borrowers books, and From Up on Poppy Hill).  He also did a lot of TV work in his pre-Ghibli period, though a lot of those had Takahata directing.  Miyazaki's directorial credits from that period include Future Boy Conan and Sherlock Hound (which is exactly what it sounds like), but I can't vouch for either of those in terms of quality.

Edit: I didn't mean for that to sound so much like a homework assignment. I always enjoy reading your thoughts on anime you've seen though.

I've been through most of it. All of his written/directed ones, including Cagliostroostroostroostro. Which was the last one I watched.

To be honest, I felt it didn't really live up to his other work. There is a lot of signs there of things to come, but in the end I felt being locked into the ongoing series format meant he couldn't make his sensitivities really come through. (Like the way Lupin left the Princess at the end seems to go against so much of the characterization and the choices he has made when he has had full control of the process.) Still, there were a lot of interesting things there. And as always with Myazaki the inspiration, scope and animation is peerless.
 
I found Nausicaä a lot more interesting, for instance. And I enjoyed a lot of his other movies a lot more.

I have on the other hand not seen the movies he simply wrote for Ghibli. I'll certainly watch those. A bit more hesitant about the tv work, but.. we'll see.

Not seen many of Takahata's though.






Only Only Yesterday, actually.

I'd agree that Cagliostro is not an auteur work in the way that a lot of Miyazaki's later films were. Being part of an existing franchise will do that I guess. I still think it's really effective as an adventure/caper film, even though it doesn't pack the same emotional heft. It's just aiming for a different and more comedic tone. But I can certainly understand why people would find it a lesser work in comparison.

I'm not quite as keen on Arrietty and From Up on Poppy Hill as a lot of people are, but on the other hand, I'm a full blown evangelist for Whisper of the Heart and I always recommend that one.

Yeah, I guess it reminded me a bit too much of the parts I liked the least from Laputa.

Simulpost earlier.

Takahata is pretty great. Grave of the Fireflies is probably his most famous work, and it is just as depressing as everyone always says. Definitely don't watch that one on a bad day. I like some of his pre-Ghibli stuff a lot too. Gauche the Cellist is a short film about a guy trying to learn to play classical music, and it has a fairy tale quality that I found very charming. Takahata also made Hols: Prince of the Sun* back in the late '60s, which was massively influential on the young anime industry, but that I don't think has aged great (I should note that some people strongly disagree). It feels a lot like a Disney film, to be honest, but not necessarily in a bad way. But it's definitely aimed at a young audience.

*Also known by the titles of Horus: Prince of the Sun and The Little Norse Prince, as well as a few variations on those.

Yeah, Only Yesterday struck me as really different. But definitely in a good way. So, looking forward to the others.

Actually, I've taken forever to find a good version of Princess Kaguya (I could only find one with (differentiating) english language and subtitles at first.) So, I've decided to watch it in Japanese with subtitles. Will do that in not too long.

Ah, I love this quote.

"Why are your protagonists always female?"

[An excerpt from an interview.]

Question: Why do you always choose a girl as your theme?

Miyazaki: I don't logically plan it that way. When we compare a man in action and a girl in action, I feel girls are more gallant. If a boy is walking with a long stride, I don't think anything particular, but if a girl is walking gallantly, I feel "that's cool." Maybe that's because I'm a man, and women may think it's cool when they see a young man striding. At first, I thought "this is no longer the era of men. This is no longer the era of taigimeibun."[1] But after ten years, I grew tired of saying that. I just say "cause I like women." That has more reality.

[Kikan Iichiko, October 20, 1994. Reprinted in Shuppatsuten by Hayao Miyazaki; published by Tokuma Shoten, 1996.]

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/heroines.html

I think this "review" does a good job of summing up a lot of the impression Miyazaki's The Wind Rises made on me.

http://ghiblicon.blogspot.no/2014/03/and-wind-cries-reflections-on-hayao.html

This movie..

I watched Grave Of The Fireflies a couple of days ago...very good and very