[quote=“Abadd”]Howl’s Moving Castle actually isn’t a Miyazaki original. It was written by a German author (IIRC). Spirited Away is pure, unadulterated Miyazaki.
I didn’t list him above simply because I don’t really consider him to be “anime.” He’s really in a league of his own.[/quote]
So what’s anime to you?
Japanese animation for me.
About Miyazaki : I don’t know much of his work but I’ve seen Spirited Away and altho I dind’t dislike it (I loved it from an artistic point of biew) I can’t say I liked it alot either.Where exactly is the plot?The thrill for me is a “Alice in Wonderland” kinda of feel but I find it hard to like it as a story.
I was intentionally being a bit snobby in that last statement… Yeah, anime is specifically any sort of Japanese animation, but at times, it seems strange to have a genre of its own. It makes sense when you are dealing with animation from Japan that is steeped heavily in the memes of that genre, most of which Miyazaki’s films avoid. Even my favorite anime, Cowboy Bebop, suffers from many different issues that plague most anime (overly proportioned females, androgynous girls, quirky/cutesy characters, odd American caricatures, etc). Miyazaki’s, on the other hand, are much more steeped in eastern and western fairy tales.
He generally sticks with stories about personal growth, primarily centering around a female lead. There are exceptions, but even in those exceptions, the male leads are often mirrored by a strong female lead that acts as a foil to the male lead. In Laputa, Pazu’s brash hot-headedness is counterbalanced by Sheeta’s wisdom and serenity, for example.
Spirited Away is an “Alice in Wonderland” story. It’s a coming of age story in which the young girl (Chihiro/Sen) is stripped of her identity and forced to face the harshness of the world (which is represented through Japanese lore). She sees her parents as less than perfect beings, but not as ones worthy of contempt - they too are human and flawed and make mistakes. In the end, she learns that regardless of what happens to you in life, nothing is more important than remembering who you are and where you came from.
At least, that’s my interpretation. One of my favorite movies, to be honest, though I’m saddened by the fact that the coloring on the DVD release is slightly off (Disney denies this, but if you just look at the trailers section, you’ll see a trailer in the original color).
Yeah, you got a problem like that? I’m more of a video game fan. Games from a Japanese company like Square Enix nad Capcom are some of my favorites because some games look animeish.
Unfortunately, 99% of all anime suffers from this never ending cycle: the first few episodes are excellent; towards the middle, however, the story begins to fall apart (mainly due to what is known as filler episodes); then, toward the end of the anime, the story has taken a turn for the worse and is completely incomprehensible. This is usually due to time constraints, lack of funds or sheer laziness.
I’ve watched the majority of all the anime ever released from 1979-2006, and I can honestly say that out of all of seemingly endless anime series out there, only a few exist that are good from beginning to end - all of which can be counted on one hand. Of course, the same can be said about books and movies.
There is some truth to that. Part of the reason why the vast majority of anime turns my stomach. Back during the 80s, the Japanese seemed to love teaming up with the French, and a lot of French only cartoons were pretty good as well. Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea had a very heavy Moebius inspired feel to it, if not strictly Panzerish as the game hadn’t even been invented yet. That show and Mysterious Cities of Gold, which was part Japanese, were my favorites growing up, and even today, as I still have all the episodes, Mysterious Cities of Gold amazes as to how little of the anime formula it follows. Another reason why I love Blood: The Last Vampire is because it doesn’t have the typical anime visual style to it.
[quote=“Kadamose”]Unfortunately, 99% of all anime suffers from this never ending cycle: the first few episodes are excellent; towards the middle, however, the story begins to fall apart (mainly due to what is known as filler episodes); then, toward the end of the anime, the story has taken a turn for the worse and is completely incomprehensible. This is usually due to time constraints, lack of funds or sheer laziness.
[/quote]
Ahh yes I remember these filler episodes back in the days I used to watch Pokemon. They really are very annoying.
Same thing with Naruto, it has almost about 100 filler episodes (with some understandable reasons) I’m just glad the fillers ended and started a new series: Naruto Shippūden.
There is no understandable reason for 100 episodes of filler. o: They might as well have halted the series for a year if they wanted the series to gain another head start. All this filler has damaged the plot really. >.>;; “Naruto! It’s urgent that we go and get you to become as tough as you can within 2.5 years! Train like there’s no tomorrow!”
“Okay! =D But first I’ll go and have a load of nonsensical adventures.”
The anime Naruto was catching up to the manga and you know that it takes a month to do a chapter or two in the manga. They decided to make fillers to show that they’re still doing the anime and wanting the manga to go way ahead until its enough. If the anime keeps going, and goes ahead of the manga, the anime is going to be a screw-up(Like Rurouni Kenshin).
I think that is a smart reason of the fillers, but I think about 20 or more episodes of Naruto Shippūden will cover half of this wound.
I regard Hayao Miyazaki as a master animator and storyteller. His animation is so subtle, so fluid, mimicking real life movements. I love all of his films!
My friends making a Nausicaa Website, I’ll eventually show it to all of you guys to get your impressions of it.
