The great Miyazaki watch of 2022
robinsloan.com
robinsloan.com
I never would have connnected Miyazaki with Tolkien.
It looked funny pairing for bit of Greek I know until I read the link and realized it wasn’t really Greek.
> The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe
From the New Oxford Dictionary
> Catastrophe: mid 16th century (in the sense 'denouement'): from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophé 'overturning, sudden turn', from kata- 'down' + strophe 'turning' (from 'down strephein 'to turn').
[0] https://twitter.com/NEBU_KURO/status/1440944255011225601
I don’t know if both your example and mine are pulling inspiration from the Lupin film intentionally or if all 3 are referencing hurdling. There definitely seems to be a Superman style, heroic sense of “leaping tall buildings in a single bound.” The Lupin clip and your example seem to play it for laughs, contrasting these extreme feats the characters are performing with why they are actually trying to perform them (e.g. in the OPM case, moving at incredible speeds and jumping great distances just to try to get a good deal on groceries) while Eva plays it more straight (emphasizing the power and speed of the Eva’s and their effects on the built and natural landscape).
Could also be! Either way it seems to be part of the Japanese animation "language but not the Western one so much
- Future Boy Conan
- Lupin III (partly Miyizaki, partly Takahata, partly other directors)
Lupin III was ok, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it (the TV series, as mentioned the film is excellent). But I would wholeheartedly recommend Future Boy Conan (also known as "Conan, The Boy in Future"). I thought this was every bit as good as his movies, with the bonus that it's almost 13 hours long in total.
Mirai Shōnen Konan ... I watched this with my kid when he was 7-ish ... man was that series great, my kid was addicted ... and yeah, it lasts for ever even though each episode is short.
In general, Lebanon, Syria, and Kuwait are the big players in the anime dubbing space. Egypt is known for dubbing US cartoons.
Also, Future Boy Conan apparently just got a new 4K release[3]
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/arts/television/best-tv-s...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwGakTUnxK8
One of the best animes I have ever seen. Celebrates the inherent deep joy in making, set in a low key solarpunk world. A breath of fresh air.
No surprise Masaaki Yuasa was involved, his latest movie Inu-Oh gave me similar feelings of ecstasy by combining off the walls psychedelic animation with a 14th century historical Noh theater inspired rock opera. So good.
Unsurprising given Miyazaki's famously fierce work ethic:
> "...he is an intense workaholic, and resents anything that takes him away from his work. His producer and friend Toshio Suzuki told me that in the early days of their studio, Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki would work from 9 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., and that in recent years he has mellowed somewhat and goes home at midnight.”
Source: https://animeuknews.net/2005/01/hayao-miyazaki-intense-worka...
(Here's a rather solipsistic piece I wrote about Starting Point and how it made me feel about my work as a programmer: https://thebreakfastpost.com/2021/01/05/hayao-miyazaki-and-w...)
The rest, and on my opinion the best ones, are like the author described: the plot runs on kindness, friendship and discoveries, which may feel “static” when you’re used to frenetic disney movies but makes for much more inspiring movies.
I really love the ones that doesn’t have a “story” but just places you in a world with interesting characters.
Stories are overrated.
Maybe I was biased as a stranger in a strange land. Blind to Japan's less savory side, if it has one. Being stationed in Japan as a young Marine changed me immensely. Such a beautiful country of beautiful people.
I'm rambling now.
I'm absolutely no authority but I get the feeling that Japan is a great place to live if you fit into one of the traditional societal roles, but otherwise can be very alienating. Luckily for the gaijin amongst us, one of those roles is "polite tourist", so expect to be welcomed and treated very well. Just don't expect the same wonderful experiences to continue if you try to put down roots.
Eh? It’s still a very nice country if you put down roots. It’s certainly one of the best countries in terms of social cohesion/structure.
Japan doesn’t cease to amaze me even after 10 years.
Today I was put on a sort of medical gyroscope and made to drink burp and glowjuice as part of a yearly medical checkup, after which the guy proceeded to yell instructions at me in half broken english, while he presumably took multiple x-rays of my stomach and throat. I didn’t even know this existed, but apparently all men 35 and older do it once a year as a matter of course.
To balance that, Japanese people have a fairly different idea of what constitutes ‘normal’, and that is hard to get used to. For example, everyone considers me a deviant for just wanting to start my day with cereal and milk, and not wanting to eat a (warm!) multi-course meal for breakfast.
My ideas about breakfast were turned on their head many years ago when a German friend (his typical breakfast: rye bread, cheese, cured ham) remarked that he "can't understand how you can bear to eat sweet food first thing in the morning".
I suppose most of the world's breakfast traditions evolved from whatever is left over from the previous night's dinner. The idea of a custom synthetic breakfast food is quite an American thing.
I was a huge sucker for Japanese culture and stuff but after living there and experiencing feeling so lonely and alienated by their culture and their world view (being treated like a nuisance that's coming into their country to disrupt their jobs or "take their girls") it totally fizzled out for me.
Miyazaki seldom based a movie location on any single real-world place, though. They are always combinations of several places.
Of course there's also his powerful "Grave of the Fireflies", but I think that one is well known by all anime fans and needs no recommending.
But if you really are curious about some hidden gems, I can't suggest enough Mary and the Witch's Flower. The vibes, the settings, the girl's feelings... That work of art literally takes you to another world, among the clouds, to the Endor College to be exact :)
I kind of understand why it doesn't get as much attention as other Ghibli films (gentler pace, not Hisaishi (though still great music), mildly questionable storyline for a US audience at the time)...
But damn the dry sarcasm and subtle savagery in the English dub is delightful.
For reference, my two favorite movies by Ghibli are Only Yesterday and Totoro and my top three movies from Miyazaki are Chihiro, Totoro and Nausicaa (with Mononoke coming close behind)
Yes, the whole "war" plot was confusing and grotesque- but that is how Sophie would experience it, right? The backstory with the witch of the waste is clearly incredibly consequential to Howl, but it's had to figure out until the end. But that's also Sophie's experience.
It's just after a character development through all the movie that you can finally see the beginning of some confidence in herself.
It reminded me of all of us with the impostor syndrome, we don't really believe in ourselves and when something good happens there must be something wrong with the world :)
A good time to mention: Kittelsen's fairy tale/ fantasy illustrations get all the attention, but he was also a visual satirist, a sort of proto comic artist, with a great deal of humour and self-irony (he once drew a self-portrait where he's passed out in a hammock, a half-finished painting on his easel, and a pig rooting through his paints box, for instance)
He published a book of newspaper-style single picture comics called "Har dyrene sjæl" ("Do animals have souls?") with anthropomorphic frogs, snails and insects of various kinds. The frogs look a lot like Miyazaki's in "Spirited Away"! I wonder if it was a direct inspiration.
What Miyazaki added to the original was actions and excitement. The original was probably a bit too boring for his (and possible markets') taste.
I'm about to have my first child, and have recently (in the last 5 years or so) revisited some Disney classics from my youth, and I'm not really thrilled with them.
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/
IMDB parents guide: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/parentalguide
Minimum age recommendations start at 0 (simply meaning no official limit, it's up to the parents) - depending on country - to around 5-7 years old for a minimum age for this movie.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponyo
It is was the first non-Miyazaki Ghibli film I was ever exposed to. Not as popular as their other works but notable in it's own right.
<https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-giant-ghibli-clock>
Brb... internet tells me Seiko did four models in collaboration with SG last year. They're OK but I wouldn't call them great.
Therefore to avoid that my self-image takes a hit I do not watch them anymore.
Paradoxically that's a very childish thought.
I quickly looked in Google Scholar and found this paper titled "Pale and Geeky: Prevailing Stereotypes of Anime Fans", and I quote:
> The social distance items suggest that anime fans are indeed stigmatized. For example, non-fans indicated a willingness to interact with anime fans at a distance (e.g., neighbor, coworker), but did not wish for an anime fan to hold political power (e.g., governor) or be allowed into one’s personal life (e.g., relationship partner, roommate).
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Reysen/publicat...
> We examined the content of anime fan stereotypes in a sample of non-fans (N = 146). Self-identified non-fans of anime wrote about a prototypical anime fan and rated the prototype’s personality their desired social distance from the prototype.
I think we can both see where conclusions drawn here might fail. Replace any human characteristic and have non-fans of that characteristic respond, and you’re likely to get similar results.
If you already see the person in front of you is not a pasty white nerd the statement doesn’t make as much of sn impression.
In which case the problem is really being a pasty white nerd.
I think the people the non-fans are probably thinking of are more likely "weeaboos", or people who are so obsessed with Japanese culture that they completely reject their own (the ones in really cringey videos). However, there are so many more people now that are either more open to the medium or just openly enjoy it but aren't really as visible - I'd love to see a reproduction of this test with this distinguishing factor.
as for what does make a man, go ask Socrates.
> Any sucess will never be because of it but despite of it.
Success is what - pulling? ... Or finding a partner who likes you for who you are?
Anyway, liking the things you like, regardless of others opinion, is an attractive trait (as long as you're not harming people).
Similarly, being deceptive is very unattractive; and more importantly, deeply bad for you.
On the contrary. The ability to be deceptive, to wear more than one mask, is an evolutionary advantage in my opinion and highly attractive even if people will never admit it because it's socially unacceptable.
You only get one life. If you spend it lying to everyone, you'll end up not even learning who you are.
Watch the movie together first, then mention you like it after. Your attractivity will go through the roof.
The actual thing is, you probably got it the wrong way. Not anime makes you unattractive, the lack of anything attractive makes you unattractive.
These aren't anime bullshit with misogynistic crap, complicated giant robot plot-mechanisms that nobody can bother to follow, pedophilic male gaze crap, untranslatable humor, or the other things that plague a lot of Japanese comics and animation, they're quite accessible pieces of relatively pure art. The worst thing they have going for them is a mild obsession with themes of aviation, and some somewhat preachy subtextual political views (nature and harmony and people good, industry and violence and authority bad, mkay).
If you can't bring yourself to appreciate the art in them even a little, I would frankly question your emotional intelligence.
—C.S. Lewis
If the child-like moments of the show are sticking out to you, okay, maybe try to find the bigger picture in the story.
Complaining that you have to conform to what some girls find attractive (or what other guys say girls find attractive), is no criticism of the film.
If you want to otaku/weeb out on some niche anime, go find some uwu girl who likes that stuff.
I don't understand this view that every woman has to like everything you're into and be attracted to it. You're going to get into some stuff that fluxuates your 'attractivity' metric and it's just part of your life.
Pulling apart a motorcycle engine and spreading broken parts across the front lawn isn't so flash, but by golly, gee-willikers, it's going to happen if I want it to.
So why care about being a man or any particular thing at all? Experience the universe in its rich fullness while you're still able. You're already dead in the limit [1]. Nobody's left to judge you.
([1] You can also use this perspective to shut down your experiences prematurely, but pro tip: don't. That's a minimization of potential.)
it's not about what others think of me. It is about what I think of myself.
Watching this kind of stuff sends the wrong signal to one's subconscious ... that one is still a "child"... and this will show up in one way or the other in one's interaction with other people.
it's already not so attractive to watch TV and even less attractive to watch anime or other children stuff on it.
You could police your identity to make yourself attractive to someone that you need to hide yourself from for the rest of your life, but it's a tremendous waste of energy. Find yourself an anime girlfriend.
This might hurt to hear, but you're a coward if you let gender roles stop you from enjoying something.
I sincerely recommend reading some theory on gender. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler is a surprisingly approachable introduction to the subject, despite not being written as such.