[HN Gopher] The pre-Ghibli work of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata
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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.
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(page generated 2022-06-12 23:00 UTC)