![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyMy dad, sister and I ran the Teal Ribbon 5K yesterday in memory of my mom--I finished in 39:10, of which, considering that it was my first 5K ever and that I was by no means physically destroyed at the end, I am quite proud. I only got back into running (after about a six-year gap) about 10 days ago, but I must do more of it, it pretty much seems to be the best all-around exercise I've yet encountered. Seemingly unrelated muscles have been pleasingly strained.
I watched the Studio Ghibli film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" tonight. It was, I believe, Studio Ghibli's first feature film, but after 25 years it's aged surprisingly well (which is to say, not at all), if one excepts the 80s soundtrack on the Japanese language track. I've been told the dub is good, but I really try not to watch dubs.
It's striking to see how many of Miyazaki Hayao's themes are revealed to be signal preoccupations--girls that fly, powerful women who oppose them, the immense importance of living in balance with the Earth. Nausicaä is an appealing heroine (and a ginger!); I found it amusing that everyone in her valley wants to protect her, but she takes no notice of that and protects them instead. Also, she didn't die at the end, at which I was vastly relieved--since reading Livia Monnet's chapter in Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams, I've become hyper-aware of all the maternal, female messiahs in sff who die and redeem the world by dying (perhaps the prime example of this is Aenea in Dan Simmons' Endymion and The Rise of Endymion). Plus she hasan Evie a fox-squirrel, which is just cool. Per Monnet, I also found it interesting to consider the fact that Nausicaä's agency (or rather, its effectiveness) arises squarely from that characteristic which has traditionally disqualified women from full subject-hood: her openness (or permeability) to other beings, whether it's her fox-squirrel, the ohmu, other people or the world itself. By the same token, it's also interesting to contemplate Lady Yushara as a cyborg, which she apparently is. I was also struck by how many of the movie's themes seem to have been taken up by other, later anime--the Giant Warriors in particular are like something out of Eva or The Big O (and they look a lot like the giant robots in Laputa. Miyazaki steals from himself above all other sources).
I watched the Studio Ghibli film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" tonight. It was, I believe, Studio Ghibli's first feature film, but after 25 years it's aged surprisingly well (which is to say, not at all), if one excepts the 80s soundtrack on the Japanese language track. I've been told the dub is good, but I really try not to watch dubs.
It's striking to see how many of Miyazaki Hayao's themes are revealed to be signal preoccupations--girls that fly, powerful women who oppose them, the immense importance of living in balance with the Earth. Nausicaä is an appealing heroine (and a ginger!); I found it amusing that everyone in her valley wants to protect her, but she takes no notice of that and protects them instead. Also, she didn't die at the end, at which I was vastly relieved--since reading Livia Monnet's chapter in Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams, I've become hyper-aware of all the maternal, female messiahs in sff who die and redeem the world by dying (perhaps the prime example of this is Aenea in Dan Simmons' Endymion and The Rise of Endymion). Plus she has
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 03:37 (UTC)So true, but what better source to steal from?
I loved the 80s soundtrack, but I really am a sucker for old-school anime like that, music and all. Something about it seems more direct, more honest than modern anime.
Speaking of Ghibli...this is making me absurdly excited. I really really REALLY hope it makes its way over to the West.
http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1224270_1407.html
If you don't know the story, Ghibli and Level 5 (a fantastic RPG studio who have really taken over the title of best Japanese RPG studio the last few years since Square has lagged behind so much) have teamed up to make an RPG for the DS. Supposedly the game is going to come with a spell book with symbols you write on the touch screen to cast spells. It's the first time Ghibli has agreed to do a game since the 80s, when somebody did a Nausicaa game and turned it into a side-scrolling shooter I think. Miyazaki was aghast, and vowed to never be involved with games again. I guess they stuck this one around him or Level 5 was able to convince him otherwise for this project. =D
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 04:42 (UTC)A side-scrolling shooter!? WTF did they even watch the movie!?
P.S. Yes, I think a lot of the really good artists do that--I'm starting to block out a paper on CLAMP as authors of self-fanfiction, so I've been thinking about it. Since you internalize your sources of inspiration.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 05:01 (UTC)Either way, it's remarkable that Ghibli is involved with a game project at all after all these years. Now we just have to pray that it comes over here.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 03:31 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 03:55 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 02:03 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 02:08 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 03:15 (UTC)