The Layered Genius of Miyazaki, Part II

Michael Siegel

Michael Siegel is an astronomer living in Pennsylvania. He blogs at his own site, and has written a novel.

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5 Responses

  1. Oscar Gordon says:

    Yay!

    (I’ll comment more when I’ve had a chance to finish reading this)Report

  2. fillyjonk says:

    Really, really well done, and touches on a lot of the things I love Miyazaki’s movies for. I particularly like your comment about “an agape for the world.” The little affectionate moments, the fact that various forms of love (not just romantic) are explored, the lovely little domestic scenes of eating or lying out on a hillside and looking at the clouds, or even cleaning house. Studio Ghibli shows us a better world, I think – that’s probably why so man of us would like to live in that world.Report

  3. North says:

    Mononoke is far away my favorite. I wonder if this is simply because it was my first of his films.
    This was a great article, so great really that I can’t think of more to add to it.Report

    • Oscar Gordon in reply to North says:

      Spirited Away was my first, and thus it’s mine.Report

      • North in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

        I can very much understand that. Spirited away is a extraordinarily good film but I feel like Miyazaki was getting both old and nostalgic enough that his work was starting to become overly sweet. While I loves Spirited Away it just felt excessively lacking in actual conflict, it had just a slight bit of saccharine to it that reduced my enjoyment whereas I felt that Mononoke was the pinnacle of Miyazaki’s writing. His later films, Howl or Ponyo, were so sweet that they gave me toothaches.Report