@gaguri: I thought my old theme had too much whitespace but it’s currently too far in the opposite direction…I’ll try to get rid of the blacks and bring in some more subtle shades of dark blue during the week.

As for the different reaction Western kids have, I really admire the Pixar stuff in that I’ve never *not* enjoyed any of their titles. Miyazaki’s films do have a more…old-fashioned subtlety to them, but it would be sad if youngsters didn’t appreciate that. I’d like to think it’s a generalisation and the reality is that the quieter kids (the ones who don’t attract attention in movie theatres!) have more refined tastes and longer attention spans. At least, I hope that’s the case.

@Ghostlightning: I was fortunate in that I saw the Nausicaa movie before reading the manga but yeah, the latter blows the film (and everything else he’s done before and since) out of the water. It’s simply stunning on every level. I’m trying to halt the emotional ageing process…hence I hold onto my fondness for Miyazaki pieces and treasure iyashikei shows.

I actually prefer Laputa as a film than Nausicaa (for my great, great love for the manga I can’t help but diminish my appreciation for the film).

I suppose it’s not surprising that I remember the robot with such fondness, but you made me remember love for so many good things about it. I like this post very, very much.

I too think Laputa is a top tier imaginative work intended for children, but I noticed that not as many western children are captivated by films like Laputa compared to say, other Pixar works. One of the defining characteristics of Miyazaki’s movies is that there are slice of life moments, such as when the girl (god i forgot all their names…) cooks for the pirates and become more friendly with each other, these all ground the fantastic setting in a somewhat more realistic atmosphere, that people act like people within this wonderfully magical worlds, as well as making us more familiar with the characters. But when I watched Howling’s Moving Castle at the cinema, I could hear children yawning delibrately in an attempt to express their boredom in those scenes.

I don’t know, maybe one needs to be really immersed into the film in order to truly appreciate the movies of Miyazaki, whereas most children come as group of friends and families, to watch something flashy, loud, filled with blatant rofling humour (whereas ghibli humour is more subtle) and normally don’t have the patience to open themselves to that world? x_X

Miyazaki’s works had a knack for finding their way onto network television many years before ‘anime’ was a word that entered mainstream vocabulary. In the UK it was Castle in the Sky, but here in the US, countless friends of mine recall in their childhood this funny little movie about a catbus and a giant flying raccoon thing called Totoro.

Alas, I share no young memories of anime until Cartoon Network’s Toonami of the late 90s (my favorite childhood film being The Land Before Time), but Castle in the Sky still inspires that sort of childlike awe and wonder in me like nothing else can.

And Joe Hisaishi rock!