I’m only familiar with two of his movies - Howl’s Moving Castle and Grave of the Fireflies, and I really don’t like his work. Having just looked Howl’s Moving Castle up on TVTropes, it looks like he is responsible for everything I hated in the movie, since apparently none of it was in the original book.
Grave isn’t Miyazaki. It’s Isao Takahata, based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s novel.
- Howl’s Moving Castle is my least favorite Miyazaki.
- Fireflies is not Miyazaki.
Blood (the series, not the movie) was so disturbing I think I stopped watching after four or five episodes - I did read ahead in the plot - and it gets worse.
Mine too. It’ simplistic and unispired.
Yes. His original stuff is mindbendingly imaginative; HMC is not.
That would be Ghost in the Shell which ,yes, is one of the more baffling anime films out there though I still liked it. Grave of the Fireflies OTOH has a very simple and powerful story. As a bonus it certainly doesn’t look like a typical anime like you have been complaining about in the other thread. Another film you might want to check out, though I haven’t seen it myself, is Perfect Blue which is a psychological thriller and a good example of the kind of story which mainstream Hollywood animation would never touch.
A link to Occam’s razor! How very… what’s the opposite of droll? :rolleyes:
This is true. He has many films that are much more straightforward in their narrative. In fact, from what I’ve seen, Spirited Away is the most convoluted and abstract of them all. It’s very difficult to categorize his work one way or the other, because the variety of what he produces varies widely. I suspect it’s very possible you could hate one of his films and adore another one. I didn’t care much at all for Kiki’s Delivery Service–it seemed really targeted at young children and was too simplistic (more so, I thought, than Howl’s Moving Castle, which is quite a unique story and does deal with some darker themes.) Castle in the Sky was still somewhat targeted at young kids, but I really enjoyed the enduring love between the characters.
I also had to brag that for Christmas I unexpectedly received the first two volumes of the original Nausicaa manga, which Miyazaki created before the film was made. I’ve never actually read any manga before in my life, but I am absolutely thrilled.
Gauche?
Good film. Not all that straightforward though, as it’s shown through the eyes of someone who’s losing touch with reality. A similar film (in style, not genre) is Millenium Actress by the same people. It’s a little more straightforward. No swearing or gratuitous violence though.
I loved Spirited Away. I liked the animation, the voice acting (I saw/own it dubbed with American voices), the story, etc. All the good points have been mentioned upthread (whimisical qualities and all that) so I’ll leave it at that.
Strangely, I wasn’t too impressed with Nausicaa of the Vally of the Wind (also mentioned upthread and filled with big name voices in the American release). I can’t say why – it just didn’t grab me. I think I lost track of the plot once or twice due to disinterest which didn’t help later on.
Lilo & Stitch struck me as typical, unimpressive Disney fare. Ha ha… he likes Elvis. How quaint.
I’m not a big anime fan in general. Ghost in the Shell was okay. I’ll be happy even if I never see it again. I kept hearing how Akira was amazing and my impression of it was that it was boring as hell and, by my reckoning, approximately 160 hours long. About five times through the movie I’d think “This isn’t over yet?”
I love Miyazaki’s work, Spirited Away being among my favorites. Seeing the reasons for disliking it though, emphasizes to me how much of what I love about his work is essentially non-Western (Asian/Japanese). I certainly can understand how people could “not get” this style of storytelling or where he’s coming from and as with anything artistic, it’s not for everyone. But here’s my take on it.
Yes, you are sort of “thrown into” the story line. You get the feel for the back story as things develop. There is no setup to frame everything that follows, and no neat tie-up at the end. Western culture prefers a very strict “Beginning-Middle-End” cycle to stories, even in religion (God creates the Universe; stuff happens; then it all Ends with a big Judgement and let’s call it a wrap). Eastern culture is much more about “You are here, Eternity goes in both directions”. You are born into life in the middle of things, and things will keep happening after you leave this life, even the question of whether there answers to be known or are knowable is for you to discover.
With the exception of Castle In The Sky, there is no climactic moment that things build up to, except on a level personal to the central character. There are key moments, for example what happens to the Spirit of the Forest in Princess Mononoke, but the movie is not “about” that.
Miyazaki’s work is generally suffused with a few recurring themes: a love of nature, a rejection of modern materialism, and an emphasis on selflessness, that life is worthwhile and enriched only through ties with other people. His protagonists are generally children, often girls, and the true theme of the films is to evoke a combination of childlike wonder and emotional maturation.
Think of the Disney classic Bambi – what is “the point” of the movie? It’s a little like that, except that there is a much larger backdrop story since these films are not bio-pics, but are following a part of the life of the main character to tell the story.
Here’s an excellent review that describes very well what I love so much about the movie.
Interesting how Miyazaki elicits such variable opinions. Even among those who love him they can’t agree on which the best films are at all it seems.
Dio’s talk about anime is rather unintentionally amusing, it seems to me the vast majority of it involves tons of swearing, gore, and shooting people. Including some very disturbing stuff.
The comment that lots of it has no setup is true though, I suppose you’re meant to figure it out as you go. Personally I quite like it, it’s like exploring a new world, rather than having the world explained to you at the start, then a boring predictable narrative beginning in that world. I’m sure others can/have provide better explanations for what exactly the differences are, but I like it regardless.
There is a difference usually between Chinese/Japanese and Western approach to story-telling. While the western approach usually follow the three-acts (or five-acts) approach and trim the fat, Chinese/Japanese storytelling usually focus on the world around them, that sometimes the main story is akin to a small section of a vast painting.
What I like about Spirited Away was that I have no idea what to expect. I mean, some reviewers bombard Wall-e for its later action-packed part because it is so ‘typical’ of such animations. But with Spirited Away, I have problems guessing what could happen next, which keep me glued to the screen all the while
PS. I was watching the show in original Japanese with subtitles at the cinema.
Nausicaa’s draw for me is twofold. One, I love nature, particularly bugs–I ADORE bugs. This movie is perfect for any bug-lover. I used to collect potato bugs in the yard and since the Ohmu are like giant potato bugs, this is an instant win.
Second, the character of Nausicaa is a complete person. I find it’s difficult to see complex, strong female heroes in movies. Many female heroes of cinema run along the lines of, ‘‘I’m sexy AND I can kick your ass!’’ Nausicaa is personality-driven. She is a tough cookie, but for a purpose–to help her people. She struggles with rage and grief
when her father is murdered
and ultimately must swallow that rage and grief in the interest of her community. She’s not invulnerable, but she cares enough about the Ohmu to
take a few bullets and wade in an acid lake
and essentially is willing to sacrifice her life for her people. There is nothing about her character, about this story, that I don’t find inspiring. She is exactly the sort of person I aspire to be.
ETA: I lost interest and feel asleep during Princess Mononoke. I’d be willing to give it another shot, but one thing that’s clear is that Miyazaki has broad appeal specifically because all his movies are so different.
If you need to appreciate the narrative structure and references and language they use like I do (which you seem to) anime can be really frustrating at first. For example, that word (or more accurately, words, there are several of them with different meanings that often get translated as such) they’re translating as “demon” is often better described as “spirit” (or even, in some cases, “god”) but given the non-corporeal images “spirit” conjures in English they seem to go with demon more. There are “bad” demons and “good” demons and “shades of grey” demons (see: Inuyasha where in the dub “demon” is the generic descriptor for “non-human”). If you want to give it a shot dig around information about Japanese culture for a bit, when I watch anime sometimes I’ll even have Wikipedia open “just in case.” And sometimes there are little symbols that if you can pick up on being special you can look up to grasp at it (Paranoia Agent, for example, I dug up that Lil’ Slugger’s bat is actually bent in the form of a certain character which holds very specific connotations and parallels to another identical sounding character that I can’t recall the off-hand, it’s been a while). Sometimes things wholly indecipherable can become a lot more clear and enjoyable after a bit of research, or even a research after looking up stuff specific to that particular series.
Or maybe you don’t want to work that hard for your entertainment, either way is fine. 
Huh. Princess Mononoke was the first (and possibly still only) anime I’ve seen that I’ve really enjoyed–and given my geeky group of friends, I’ve seen plenty. I enjoyed Spirited Away somewhat, but it didn’t blow me away in the way that Mononoke did. How could you watch this–a movie in which arrows graphically and bloodily sever limbs–and complain about the lack of violence in anime?
As for the nontraditional storytelling, that’s something that I really like. I love starting a story and feeling off-balance, having to work doubletime to figure out what the hell’s going on. It’s why I loathed Bladerunner with the voiceover and loved it without; it’s why I told people going to see Dark City to cover their ears for the first two minutes of the movie until they saw the swinging light (so they wouldn’t hear the narrator explain the entire movie’s plot to them before it began). Princess Mononoke does this very well, IMO. But yeah, it’s personal taste; other folks prefer seeing the forest before they see the trees, whereas I like having to put the forest together myself.
Daniel
You could be describing any number of anime. Ghost in the Shell, Battle Angel Alita, Key the Metal Idol, Metropolis… Can you get any more specific?