Miyazaki’s Magical Food: An ode to anime’s best cooking scenes | Hacker News Reader

Miyazaki’s Magical Food: An ode to anime’s best cooking scenes

seriouseats.com

128 pointsDemiGuru63 comments

I don't know that I'd call Miyazaki's movies "anime's best cooking scenes". There's an entire genre of manga/anime that's devoted to food that takes things way beyond any Miyazaki film. I like Yakitate!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitate!!_Japan

There's also things like Food Wars which is entirely dedicated to cooking/eating.

Looking at screencaps of Yakitate I'd say Miyazaki's food looks way more appealing/homley, but I'll give it a go :)

(It's as much about wordplay as it is about baking. If you don't enjoy that humour, you might lose interest).

That’s for sure! I am absolutely tickled by the idea of a bread called “Ja-pan”! Now I need to watch this!

I'd also recommend Moyashimon, which is about fermenting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moyasimon:_Tales_of_Agricultur...

similarly Bartender manga is good for descriptions/depictions of cocktails/drinks, as is Death Parade and Love is like a Cocktail.

I'm obsessed with Ghibli and Miyazaki's work, I discover them in earlies 2010s because of my nieces (then my daughters were born). I love to watch Totoro and discover old (new) Ghibli films and watch with my daugthers. Those weren't available in my country when I was a kid in the 80s. Inn a way these movies transport me to that time, it's a warm a nostalgic feeling. I'm looking forward to watch Miyazaki's new film, soon to be released.

I signed up for HBO ... er whatever they call it now, just to share Miyazaki films with my kids.

There's a joy and generosity that the films have towards people, animals, and even food that you don't find in much media anymore.

More than once I watched expecting the "bad guy" to get his in the end, but the film ended just fine without it, maybe better because of it.

Absolutely. And generally great treatment of gender, and none of the Disney obsession with royalty.

There's a Western/Japan cultural gap here. Ghibli movies are not different from other anime. The reason anime stars women is because the animators are horny and like drawing women first, marketing second, and because they're feminists maybe like tenth. (Miyazaki's waifu is Clarissa from Castle of Cagliostro.)

And the opposite happens too; a work where all the characters are men is usually by/for women, and a lot of things Japanese women love to write look like "ugh some perverted guy did this" to unfamiliar Western readers, making it tricky to localize romances.

I think you can give Miyazaki a lot more credit than that for the girls and women in Totoro, Kiki, Mononoke, and Spirited Away.

I'm basing this comment on an interview I read where Oshii makes fun of him for it.

(Which unfortunately I can't link because it's on my own website, where Wordpress auto-updated itself and broke and I haven't fixed it.)

I think their thesis was that Miyazaki was most like this in the 80s-90s (see Porco Rosso, which stars a self-insert of himself), then was a dad in the 2000s (Spirited Away), then later entered a second childhood (see Ponyo and Wind Rises, which is mainly about how cool planes are.)

>Wind Rises, which is mainly about how cool planes are.

if that was your main take-away from that movie, I suggest you re-watch it.

it reminds me of the meme that Gundam fans ignore the fact that the story is about the brutality of endless human conflict for the fact that there are shiny robots and cool technologies.

It's a synthesis. War is bad because it detracts from the purity of thinking about how cool planes are.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/hayao-miyazaki...

The Gundam meme is an over-simplification; Tomino is moralistic but he's far too weird to just have a normal moral like that. Typical Tomino morals are like "all old people are evil, including myself", "we should have a matriarchy", and whatever Brain Powerd was about.

Have you considered that some works may focus on women without any underlying motive or intention

Yes, I have considered that.

But Ghibli doesn't do things without intention, I would say that's what people like about them. (Though you might say that about Goro Miyazaki's Earthsea movie.)

Make of this article what you will...

https://kotaku.com/hayao-miyazaki-wants-you-to-know-why-naus...

Apparently a lot of writers and animators are actually women: https://gamerant.com/great-series-written-female-mangaka

I have no idea how accurate this claim is (it’s a survey on a random news site) especially because in most anime women are indeed very sexualized. But I wouldn’t be super surprised. I think part of it is that anime artists just drop realism and like to draw idealized versions of women and men, whatever makes the most interesting story. And maybe women being the heroes and doing everything is a lot more interesting than men, at least to the writers.

Lots don’t even have a villain, really. They are really great for children, to help them see that not every story needs a villain to be compelling.

My daughter is 21 months old and has seemingly memorized Totoro—if she hears the soundtrack, she’ll start talking about what’s happening in that scene. If she hears the track where Mei grabs the soot sprite, she’ll yell out, “I caught one!”

Miyazaki movies are truly timeless. They’ll still be loved in the 2080s.

The music is so much of the experience, and the "Ghibili" style is unmistakable. I have not seen all of the films, but I have heard all of the music! It was even better in concert.

If you ever get the chance I am sure it would be an unforgettable experience for you and your family to see it performed in concert, it's quite regularly toured around various countries by different orchestras.

I'd had Miyazaki's films on my watchlist for years, and when we found out we were expecting our first kiddo (now 3 years old), I decided to wait to watch any of them so that I could watch them, for the very first time, with her (well, "them" now, on account of our second kiddo).

I'd love to see suggestions from folk around which film might be a great first choice, I'll probably give that a go this week.

Edit: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! :)

I haven't gone super-super-deep into Ghibli but I feel confident saying either My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away.

Be careful to keep your expectations straight for any of the Ghibli films you watch after Spirited Away though, because it's possibly their best. I go back and forth on that or Princess Mononoke taking the crown.

Spirited away is pretty scary for a 3 or even 6 year old. Perhaps Kiki? Or Arrietty?

Spirited away is one of the best.

Spirited Away is going to be too scary and too complicated for a lot of littler kids.

Spirited away: One of the best and has all all the flavours of Ghibli, I recommend starting with it.

Shorter: Totoro, great for kids with a short attention span, my toddler enjoyed it.

Totoro or Ponyo would be my recommendation.

For kids:

My Neighbor Totoro

Spirited Away - (3 year olds might find some moments scary, lost of strange creatures and scary moments for the protagonist but not for too long.)

The Secret World of Arrietty

Depending on how they handle those you could try others.

Totoro of course, but Kiki is highly underrated and great for little kids.

Kiki is pretty sad though. It's the definition of a coming-of-age story and the ending is not particularly upbeat.

She saves the day and writes a letter to her parents that she's doing great!

Ponyo or My Neighbor Totoro would probably be best for a first choice.

Kiki's Delivery Service and The Secret World of Arriety would be better for a (slightly) older child.

Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle for slightly older yet.

I've been doing this with my kids. It's been so enjoyable, we're all getting a lot of joy out of it. My youngest became obsessed with Totoro when she was 4 and I think I enjoy it more every time we watch it. Waiting a while before I show them spirited away, Ponyo spooked her first time round, but a year later and she loved it. There's a lot to process in some of them for small kiddos, so like most everyone else says, those two are probably the best ones to start with.

Totoro is probably the best for your kids age. Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service might also be good around this age.

A lot of suggestions for Spirited Away, but I think you're going to need to wait a few years for your kids to appreciate and connect with it -- I'd say 7 or 8y/o. Around that same age, Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa become palatable too. A little after that you can probably introduce them to Porco Rosso and Howls Moving Castle -- they both touch on some war stuff that might be hard for young kids to understand.

Whatever you decide though, hold off on Princess Mononoke until they're older. That one to me is the most visually jarring one, and I'm glad I was as old as I was when I first saw it because a younger me would have definitely had a nightmare or two.

For a great, under appreciated (in the west) Miyazaki series pre-Ghibli, check out “Future Boy Conan”[0]. It’s my personal favourite, and all 3 of my boys (and my wife) have watched it multiple times. It’s the source of a lot of Ghibli tropes, and I think they were expertly executed.

Of course it’s nice that it’s a TV series, so you get to spend that much longer in the world with the characters.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Boy_Conan

Some kind soul uploaded it and made it available for anyone at the Internet Archive

You can see them every year on the big screen in a lot of cities and I highly recommend it: https://www.fathomevents.com/series/studio-ghibli-fest

The absence of true "bad guys" is one of the best part (Suliman, Yubaba).

That's common in Asian dramas, not just anime.

In US dramas, such as Blue Bloods, you'll see people eating. But no close-ups of the food. In Asian dramas, there will often be close-ups of the food.

Although not to the level of detal of US fast food commercials, which have become gross.

I got so hungry watching Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. Fuckin' Ang Lee. Couldn't get enough Jane Austin so made his own.

If I'm ever under doctor's orders to eat more calories, that'll be at the top of the list of movies I watch for inspiration.

In US media is very common to have a character take a single bite to the food, then run away. I dunno why, but I hate that. In Korean tv the characters are always eating, full bites, empty glasses, etc. I love it.

It's hard to film an eating scene. You can only do so many takes, the actors don't want to get full, and the food looks better if it's fake.

Kdrama food scene with noodles and pour over coffee: https://youtu.be/HFMkrXezcLQ

I'm currently struggling through "Our Glamorous Time", which is about the modern fashion industry in mainland China. There are several romances, and the romantic scenes mostly involve food. Business dinners are a big thing. The social scenes involve food buffets. Everybody is thin, except one bad guy, and he gets shot.

(There's no sex. Not even close. This stuff is heavily censored and has blatant propaganda about the Belt and Road Initiative and the COMAC airliner. The feeling I get is that the writers have certain boxes to check to get past the censors, and once they do that, they can make entertainment. As long as they stay away from the no-go areas.

There used to be junk such as "Sky Fighters", a Top Gun movie clone made by a film unit of the PLA. That was so awful that the PLA stopped trying to make entertainment. More than half the Chinese dramas today are historical costume epics, which don't get censored so much. If you like that sort of thing, watch "Princess Agents", which is perhaps the best of that genre.)

An interesting exception is the film The IPCRESS File, the original with Michael Cain. It has extremely detailed cooking scenes, including the protagonist making his morning coffee in a french press as part of the opening montage. Good film, if a bit trippy at times.

The most delicious was one of the Ghibli shorts they screen on 35mm only available to see at the museum. A bread making witch. Don’t recall the name.

My fav of theirs though is Mei and the Kitten Bus just wish I had a better copy of it

Was this it? :)

https://vimeo.com/850696013?share=copy

Yes! Thank you. Haven't seen for a decade. The 35mm prints are worth seeking out

There is a section at the new Ghibli Park in Aichi prefecture which showcases some of these foods.

https://ghibli-park.jp/en/about/ghiblisgrandwarehouse.html

This article just makes me wish that they had used gifs of the Ghibli food scenes, they're so much more compelling: https://imgur.com/account/favorites/V8JvhMT

Somebody put together a cut of several of them with a maybe-"lo-fi" no-words version of that Jason Mraz song "I'm Yours", which is really relaxing, but I can't find it right off the bat. edit here it is: https://i.imgur.com/9yvTOn4.mp4

Watching Ponyo was how I learned that people added meat, eggs, and vegetables to instant ramen.

"It's HAAAAAM" gets yelled in my kitchen every time we have ramen, or just ham.

I really enjoyed the beach-side cooking scene in Ride Your Wave: https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/107905

Great movie overall.

I think it would be a disservice not to link this video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs_mH4QnAe4

Going meta, here's Miyazaki cooking ramen in live action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPTNdmdJSc

Hmmm... There was a cartoon series, I believe Chinese or Japanese (?)[It was over twenty years ago] that was about a young boy who was a very good cook, and most of the episodes were about acquiring some special ingredient, cooking to save some poor person, or winning some great competition.

I first saw it in the very very early days of YouTube.

For the life of me, I cannot recall which one. Any ideas?

Asking, because as far as animated cooking series, it had some great cooking scenes in each episode.

Perhaps "Chuka Ichiban!" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABka_Ichiban%21

It's Japanese, but takes place in China.

Yes! Thank you!

Is it this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABka_Ichiban!

Yes! Thank you!

A YouTube playlist for anyone interested in Anime Food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcLTe8MoAV4&list=PLopY4n17t8...

Food has a universal appeal that transcends cultural and linguistic boundaries, making it a powerful tool for conveying emotions and relationships in film.

I highly recommend Makanai (both anime and live action). Great story and great food imagery.

Not Miyazaki, but I loved the food in Pixar's short "Bao". Made me hungry.

Anime made me buy a rice cooker. It really does taste different.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com