[HN Gopher] The pre-Ghibli work of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata ___________________________________________________________________ The pre-Ghibli work of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata Author : zdw Score : 142 points Date : 2022-06-12 15:56 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.vulture.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.vulture.com) | thegeekpirate wrote: | A few years ago I watched the entirety of Ghibli's collection | (besides Tales From Earthsea) with my family, having only seen | Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away previously. | | Every single film was fantastically unique and worth the watch. | SomeBoolshit wrote: | I've recently gone through a couple of the "must watch" Ghibli | films, as well, and they really get you hooked into the story | and you immediately forget that no, you shouldn't go to some | guy and apply for a job just because you just got thrown into a | fantasy world and it's the thing to do. Really good stuff. | clairity wrote: | interesting, these are more 'western' than the ghibli catalog as | a whole, which does have some western stories. it almost seems | like they were looking for less familiar material, much like i've | been doing for the past number of years by watching more | 'eastern' (chinese/japanese/korean) content. still, looks like i | have some watching to do! | | as a sidenote, i'm happy vulture put "spirited away" and "my | neighbor totoro" at the top of their ghibli rankings[0]. these | two films are amazing. i wouldn't have ranked "castle in the sky" | at 3, but do agree that "grave of the fireflies" and "princess | kaguya" should rank highly. "howl's movie castle" or "ponyo" | would probably be #5 for me. "arrietty" would be last, despite me | not having seen 5 of the films yet. | | [0]: https://www.vulture.com/article/best-studio-ghibli-films- | ran... | toyg wrote: | _> these are more 'western' than the ghibli catalog as a | whole_ | | Up to the Disney contract, the Ghibli heads (Hayao Miyazaki, | Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki) were explicitly interested in | exploring japanese issues. Their priority was always to do well | in Japan, and to communicate their views on japanese problems | (like environmental and societal pressures typical of the | country) and japanese lore. Some of the later tensions with | Disney producers, which eventually resulted in them parting | ways, were precisely due to pressure from the States to make | the material more accessible to international audiences. | dmitriid wrote: | Nausicaa is the go to movie for me these days even though I | love Spirited Away and all the other movies. | hitekker wrote: | This is a fun article. One of my favorite youtube videos is a | collection of scenes (presumably) animated/directed by Miyazaki | before he started Ghibli: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SANfYqmNz6U | paganel wrote: | I very heartily recommend the first Lupin the 3rd TV series [1]. | The Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata episodes are of course | excellent, but what surprised me when I watched the series | (almost 20 years ago by now) were the first 6-7 episodes, | directed by Masaaki Osumi, they had a (slight) bleakness to them | that was really special. | | Also, Future Boy Conan is really excellent, too. Its | ending/credits song is one of the best ever when it comes to | anime. | | [1] | https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=8... | | [2] | https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=... | | [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEq7m_6odoc | toyg wrote: | The original manga of Lupin III, by the late Monkey Punch | (Kazuhiko Kato), is basically a psychedelic '70s Bond with | heavy noir undertones. It's also very adult, with pretty | explicit sex scenes and jokes. | | The TV series obviously toned it all down, but the first season | is the closest to the original material - hence the bleakness | and the crazy jazz score. Unfortunately it's also the worst one | from a technical perspective, although it's one of the few | products of that time that will continue to be watched probably | forever, hence acting as a document. | labster wrote: | The early episodes of Lupin III, especially the first ones, are | something of an acquired taste. 1970s animation is so much more | sparse than the bubble economy anime later on. The Woman Called | Fujiko Mine captures a lot of the feel of the early episodes | but with modern animation and themes. | | It is a great show, it's just... variable. Some of this is by | design, as a Jigen plot is going to be darker than a Fujiko | focused episode. Every once in a while there will be an episode | that's pitch perfect and has a Spruce Goose (I wonder who | directed that one?) but then the next episode is a bit lame. | | Or there's the version with better music, Cowboy Bepop. The | tone is a bit darker because the Lupin analogue is age twelve | but it's still fun. | leoc wrote: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2tm9B6A4E is a pretty good | video essay which discusses Miyazaki's Lupin TV work, and of | course _Castle of Cagliostro_. | kome wrote: | I watched many of them as a kid and I had no idea they were by | Miyazaki and Takahata. I loved to watch Lupin after school. | layer8 wrote: | . | woodruffw wrote: | He also directed a couple of episodes of one of the shows, | IIRC. So they might have also seen those. | leoc wrote: | He directed the second half of the first (full) TV series | and a couple of episodes of the second series, apparently. | His Lupin work also probably had a fairly big impact on | later film and TV versions of the character. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2tm9B6A4E is a pretty | good little video essay. | 310260 wrote: | I didn't know Nausicaa wasn't animated by Ghibli! I just assumed | cuz it's been promoted with Miyazaki's name on it. | skohan wrote: | I discovered Nausicaa on Netflix last year, and was so | impressed! Incredible world building, and you can see so much | of its DNA in other media which has come after. Rey from the | new Star Wars for example seems almost directly lifted from the | film. | layer8 wrote: | I recommend reading the manga (written and drawn by Miyazaki) | on which the movie is based, which is on another level, and | has a nice English edition from Viz: | https://www.viz.com/read/manga/nausicaa-of-the-valley-of- | the... | toyg wrote: | Iirc, the manga was started shortly before or even during | actual production of the movie, but completed and published | much later. So it's not a straightforward "based on", in | many ways - it's a bit like the latter part of Game of | Thrones. But I agree that the manga is better, simply | because it has time to fleshen out every aspect of the | story. | toyg wrote: | It was designed by Miyazaki though, who also wrote and drew the | manga (which is better than the movie, having space for more | material, of course). You can see Miyazaki aesthetic throughout | all his works, pre and with Ghibli. | pkdpic wrote: | Crazy they put Conan so close to the bottom imho. It's absolutely | amazing. And they recently (finally) dubbed it and rereleased it | bluray. | Dracophoenix wrote: | This article forgot to mention the first Japanese adaptation of | the Moomins (1969) (https://myanimelist.net/anime/8234/Muumin) | United857 wrote: | Another good one is The Last Unicorn. While Miyazaki himself | wasn't involved, it was animated by Topcraft, the company that | did Nausicaa, and most of them would go on to be the core team of | Studio Ghibli. | Dracophoenix wrote: | As a side note, Topcraft (of which many animators later formed | the Pacific Animation Group) also designed and animated the | original ThunderCats and Silverhawks. | agumonkey wrote: | definition of slick | TedDoesntTalk wrote: | The theme song to The Last Unicorn is something of a meme, | isn't it? | scrame wrote: | Is it? The soundtrack is done by America, and the film itself | is excellent, with a great cast (Angela Lansbury, Jeff | Bridges, Mia Farrow, Christopher Lee and Alan Arkin). It's | also fairly scary for what's nominally a kids movie. | _ph_ wrote: | Fun fact: Christopher Lee also took his part in the German | version of the movie. What a talented man he was. | scrame wrote: | Topcraft also did the more lackluster (though personal | favorite) Flight of Dragons, as well as the Rankin/Bass | productions of The Hobbit and Return of the King, which | bookended the aborted rotoscoped Lord of the Rings by Ralph | Bakshi. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-06-12 23:00 UTC)