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• Lupin Encyclopedia
• Hayao Miyazaki's Lupin III works
• Alan's Webguide

He was born in the early 1950s and Oshii is considered one of the leading directors of the younger generation.

I personally feel that Oshii's movies are darker and more cynical than Miyazaki's, yet Oshii and Miyazaki are good friends. Oshii has been offered a director's job at Ghibli several times, but the projects were never realized.

• Interview: Oshii speaks about Miyazaki and Takahata
  
• Interview: Miyazaki and Oshii discuss Patlabor 2
  
• Manga: Fearsome Takuwan Rock Head, by Oshii about Miyazaki.&nbsp (image)
  
• Japanese Movie Database entry

He was born in the early 1950s and Oshii is considered one of the leading directors of the younger generation.

I personally feel that Oshii's movies are darker and more cynical than Miyazaki's, yet Oshii and Miyazaki are good friends. Oshii has been offered a director's job at Ghibli several times, but the projects were never realized.

• Interview: Oshii speaks about Miyazaki and Takahata
  
• Interview: Miyazaki and Oshii discuss Patlabor 2
  
• Manga: Fearsome Takuwan Rock Head, by Oshii about Miyazaki.&nbsp (image)
  
• Japanese Movie Database entry

He was born in the early 1950s and Oshii is considered one of the leading directors of the younger generation.

I personally feel that Oshii's movies are darker and more cynical than Miyazaki's, yet Oshii and Miyazaki are good friends. Oshii has been offered a director's job at Ghibli several times, but the projects were never realized.

• Interview: Oshii speaks about Miyazaki and Takahata
  
• Interview: Miyazaki and Oshii discuss Patlabor 2
  
• Manga: Fearsome Takuwan Rock Head, by Oshii about Miyazaki.&nbsp (image)
  
• Japanese Movie Database entry

I thought you were perhaps referring to the fact that Miyazaki was for a good deal of his life a Marxist. I'm surprised I have heard little mention of this... Any good biography will note how much of an influence communism had on Miyazaki's life.

In anticipation of it getting Slashdotted, I have made available a reduced-size copy of a DVD screen capture that shows the reddish tint.

The text of the quoted letter does not seem to bear out your statement. That's misleading. There was no claim in the letter that nothing was wrong.

Sample picture

I have no knowledge about the problem, just passing on the link I found. The effect is somewhat subtle from a single image, but I bet it's much worse when you watch the whole movie. Seems quite possible that the shirt on the right should be white.

-

On another note, could we perhaps link to Studio Ghibli when discussing their films in the future? It might reduce the number of "We Hate Disney" posts. It is unfortunate that Disney got the release rights to the Miyazaki/Ghibli films, but I'd rather rant about them somewhere else (for those of you who don't know who Miyazaki is check this out).

Then Nausicaa.net should get you up to speed.

Summary Poem:

Through the tunnel,
There was a town of wonder.
It was an inconceivable place,
Where inconceivable things happened.

A world existed right next to the humans' world,
A world humans could never see.

Local gods and various lesser deities,
Goblins and monsters.
It was a hot springs town,
Where old gods came to heal their illness and wounds.

10 year-old Chihiro wanders into this world,
Where humans shouldn't enter.

Chihiro can only survive in this world if she accepts two conditions:
To work for Yu-baaba, an avaricious witch
Who rules the huge bath house at the center of the town.
And to be deprived of her name and become a non-human.

Chihiro lost her name, and began working under her new name, Sen.

In the town of surprise and wonder, Chihiro comes to know
A huge sense of helplessness... and a small amount of hope.

However, in this difficult world, she discovers many things,
And Chihiro becomes more lively than she ever was.

Kamajii, the boiler keeper with his rich life experience.
Rin, who teaches Chihiro the work at the bath house.
Susuwatari, who carry coal.
Bou, the son of Yu-baaba.
The god of the river, a refugee from the human's world, who is covered with trash and sludge.
Kaonashi, the masked man.
Zeniiba, the twin sister of Yu-baaba.

Unimaginable things keep happening.

Chihiro's sleeping "power to live"
Has gradually begun to awaken.

And Chihiro meets Haku, a handsome but mysterious boy.

The encounter of a boy and a girl, tied together by a promise.
With awakening memories,
They understand and help each other.

Can Chihiro take her name back,
And return to the humans' world....?

If the big studios are keeping such a close eye on the effect of illegal trading, why don't they use that information for marketing purposes?

I got a bootleg copy of Kiki's Delivery Service (the dub shown on JAL flights, IIRC), and it immediately became a hit with the kids and their friends. So when Disney finally got around to releasing it, did I say "Pfft, I've already got that one"? Heck no, I bought it as soon as I could find it! So why won't Disney make it available again?

But I don't want to get carried away about Disney (that would be a whole other discussion)... can I safely assume that this myopia is not specific to just one big studio?

Shirow's primarily a comics artist, not an animator. As far as I can tell, Black Magic M-66 is the only anime in which his involvement went much beyond allowing one of his manga to be adapted or providing character or concept designs. (See also this biography.) (Ghost in the Shell is Oshii Mamoru's adaptation of (part of) Shirow's manga of the same name.)

Nausicca.net has release dates (with sub/dub info).

Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is a really great film. To answer a person's earlier comment, no, Disney has not edited the film in any way. The only real change in the dub has been some "offscreen" English dialog to better explain ome of the cultural references that English-speaking audiences might not get. But they are very well done and don't take away from the rest of the film. Actually, I liked this dub much better than the dub for Princess Mononoke, and while it's not quite as accurate as the subtitled version it's still very good.

As far as the "scary" scenes- I wouldn't have a problem allowing children to watch this movie. There are intense scenes, but there are intense moments in many children's stories- Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretal, etc. These scenes are a bit scarier than the Disneyfied versions of the same stories, but I'd say they are pretty comparable.

Even friends that are not huge anime fans loved it.

Here is a list of theatres in the US that are/will be screening "Spirited Away".

A local video store here in Atlanta already has the original Japanese version (with subtitles) on VHS and DVD. If you really want to see this film, get the subtitled version. Disney's doing the dubbing and I know they're going to screw it up.

Except for the whole red tint debacle with the region 2 release. In any case, unlike other Ghibli flicks that are still stuck in region 2, this one should be region 1-bound sooner rather than later. And since it'll likely be bilingual (at least), it's probably best to wait for the region 1 version and hope for proper color correction.

Funny, I never noticed Haku's wolf head on the dragon until looking again at the DVD just now. Though the movie is full of references to other Miyazaki movies...

The music was done by Joe Hisaishi, though I have not seen the Disney version yet to know whether they've mucked with the excellent music.

Want the DVD? Beware the many bootlegs, our Video page contains the official releases for this and other Studio Ghibli works.

Want the DVD? Beware the many bootlegs, our Video page contains the official releases for this and other Studio Ghibli works.

Want the DVD? Beware the many bootlegs, our Video page contains the official releases for this and other Studio Ghibli works.

Want the DVD? Beware the many bootlegs, our Video page contains the official releases for this and other Studio Ghibli works.

The legitimate region 2 DVDs can be had for around $50-60 from import DVD sites like cdjapan.co.jp -- and it has English subtitles.

The only issue (besides the region) is the color balance, which has a slight reddish tint which some people find annoying. Interestingly enough, according to Nausicaa.net, this was done deliberately so that it would look right when played on plasma or lcd screens.

Theater listing for Spirited Away in the U.S. and Canada

-S

Check out Nausicaa.net for more about Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. These people are brilliant, and Disney bought the North American distribution rights because they're (as much as I hate them) good business people. Porco Rosso, Mononoke Hime, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Castle of Cagliostro and Tonari No Totoro are all examples of pure brilliance.

This is what Animation should be. Also, Disney's trailer sucks, ignore it, the trailer for the French release was WAY better, check out the official France site or follow the "La Fiche du Film" link here (they took down the really good trailer, damn). There are other trailers around, anyone got links?

• Ghost in the Shell (DVD): This is a roughly 1.5 hour movie, its Neuromancer mixed with Blade Runner. The English dub of this is good.
• Serial Experiments Lain (DVD): This is an animated series of around 13 episodes 30 minutes each. It is a great neo-cyberpunk story. I would say its Neuromancer meets the X-Files - though these analogies are very crude. Also, stay away from the English dub of this series. Its awkward to say the least. The DVDs let you choose dub or subtitles, so go subtitles with this anime.
• Cowboy Bebop (DVD): This is an animated series of (I can't remember how many) 30 minute episodes. Cowboy Bebop has a lot of everything for everyone. Comedy, action, violence, cyberpunk, mystery, drama, weirdness, etc... This is easy watching anime if that makes any sense. Its got style, thats for sure. The English dub is good, and I recommend it. Also, I recommend that you watch at least the first 4 episodes before drawing your opinion on this fine anime. Its not until then that you start to see the deep underlying plot of the entire series. Cowboy Bebop has lots of sugar and spice, bells and whistles, etc... but it also has a nice strong plotline.

I agree. I am squirming in my seat waiting for Laputa (a decent fan's page here) to get wide release in the US. Apparently, Disney was going to release it in 1999, then in 2000, now I have no idea if/when they will do it.

They do also have to deal with the small problem that "laputa" is a very obscene word in Spanish, hence them just calling it "Castle in the Sky".

I also read that they re-did the music for the American version, because the original Japanese version only had about 1 hour of music in the 2-hour movie, but they feel American audiences can't go more than a few minutes without hearing music in a movie. They were saying how e.g. when an army appears, you have to hear army music, etc. Yeah, makes Americans sound like real idiots. (Ok, you know you wanna respond to that last bit.) The music in the original version is great; it's one of only two anime soundtracks that I just had to buy (the other was Windaria).

here.

Impressions page

Lots of translated German articles from the recently concluded Berlin International Film Festival.

Actually, all the Region 2 native Japanese discs that have been released so far of Hayao Miyazaki's anime also include the English dub and English subtitles (though they're actually "dubtitles," i.e. captions for the English dub--and, in the case of Kiki's Delivery Service, they're dubtitles for the Streamline dub, which isn't even on the disc!).

A lot of anime which have English dubs, such as Giant Robo, include them on the DVD sets as a matter of course, just because, hey, they have the room, and the Japanese seem to think English is "kewl". (Which would also explain why they commissioned Macek to dub and then Japanese subtitle Macross: Love Do You Remember and Megazone 23 Part II--you can still find copies of those subtitled dubs floating around fansub trading circles to this day--and why the Armitage: Polymatrix movie was done only in English, with Japanese subtitles for the folks at home.) Some companies have even started including genuine English subtitles on their discs, though the names of the series escape me (I want to say Gunbuster, though I can't remember specifically).

That being said, gaijin fans have been importing anime from Japan ever since the days of the laserdisc, which didn't even have a capacity for subtitles. After all, if you're going to do a fansub, you want crystal-clear originals--and hey, DVD is even better than laserdisc. There's even a program out there for Windows that lets people view their unsubtitled DVDs in conjunction with downloaded fansub scripts (though it didn't work very well for me when I tried it). And when it comes right down to it, people watched anime in straight Japanese with synopses, scripts, or best guesses for years before fansubbing was even possible.

So claiming that all-region DVD players are not a boon to anime fans because Japanese discs don't have English is a bit misinformed or downright disingenuous. Better do some more research next time.

You might try My Neighbor Totoro. I think my daughter was watching this at around age 2. She's almost 10 now and still loves Totoro (as do I, at 42 :-)

Don't let yourself be put off by the fact that it's Japanese anime. It's an excellent movie for small kids.

One of the highlights of our family's vacation in Japan a few years ago was visiting the Studio Ghibli store in an otherwise awful Disneyland ripoff, where my daughter got a stuffed Totoro doll!

He's currently producing Studio Ghibli's next two films. A new Miyazaki-directed film will probably appear in 2004, if he hasn't retired for the third time by then.

Please check the Nausicaa.net news archives for articles on all of the above.

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As expected there are no shortage of posts in this thread that confuse the "anime" of rabid fandom fame with the full-length movie features that Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli produces.

Simply put, they are two different things.

Comparing a regular anime with Totoro is like comparing "Superfriends" with The Lion King. One is churned out weekly in sweatshop production lines using repetitive themes and recycled cells. The other is major production where every cell is a piece of art (and usually ends up selling like it later).

The other thing Ebert neglects to mention is the music. Miyazaki's films have music that uniquely identifies the mood of every scene and which can be listened to endlessly afterwards to re-live the film. Coincidentally I spent part of this afternoon lying on the couch listening to the soundtrack of Kurenai no Buta aka "Porco Rosso". My son asked me why just listen to the music and not watch the movie? My answer was simple: Listening to the music, I don't have to watch the movie. It's that good.

North Americans have only seen two of Miyazaki's films: Totoro and Kiki. However, even better (in my opinion) films have yet to be released:

Kurenai no Buta ("Porco Ross")
Tenku no Shiro Laputa ("Laputa, Castle in the Sky")

If Disney is serious about not releasing any more Miyazaki films it will just prove what many suspected; Buy the rights to a vastly superior product, carry out a half-hearted promotion campaign emphasizing the wrong things ("A-List Voice Talent!" my ass), then bury the rest citing the "poor reception" to the first couple of releases.

The definitive resource for all Miyazaki/Ghibli films remains nausicaa.net.

I just caught Miyazaki's latest film, "Spirited Away" this evening. Absolutely wonderful.

I saw the movie a few months ago at the first screening in New England and it was pretty good! The digital animation is very clean and striking. It's only about 45 minutes long, and I recommend watching it if you get the chance.

My Neighbors the Yamadas is also all-digital, but the way Ghibli (woohoo :) did the artwork, it looks extremely good; it looks like handpainted watercolors. (A great movie, btw.) Pure digital animation has real potential.

I am a HUGE miyazaki fan. Princess Mononoke is very good, but I think some of his older films (Laputa, Porco Rosso) are even better, and it's sad that none of these videos are being released. It IS true that mononoke bombed (well, it made money, but not the kind of money disney expects), and that dissapointed them from releasing Laputa, which was to be their next theater release. Disney also released one of his movies, Kiki's Delivery service, which is also a very good movie. Go watch it, trust me, you'll love it.

The problem is that Miyazaki's company picked the wrong company to do the job. It's not their fault, really; They've had very bad luck with exporting their movies.

To cite an example, his Nausicaa movie was brought over to America by one company. (the manga is better than the movie, BTW, and is commercially available from Viz) That company did a DISQUISTING job of the dubbing, they cut 30 MINUTES of the movie, changed characters names, cut music, dialouge, and did a terrible dubbing job. Ever since then, Miyazaki's lost all interest in bringing his movies over to the states. Then he picked disney, and they botched it too. Sure, they might be the best quality dubbers on the market, but I'd rather settle for a little less quality, and much better consistancy.

I think it would have been better done by a smaller anime company, such as Manga or ADV. Miyazaki would disagree with me, because he wants his movies to be seen on the big screen, not on televisions. This is a perfect death trap for his movies, because, lets face it folks, Miyazaki is great, but he's not mainstream around here. He's not 'pop culture'. All the diva queens are going to go see American Pie 2 instead of great movies like his, and I guess I don't mind. Who wants to share the same favorite movies with people that like having sex with pies, anyways? So I'm snobby, sue me ;-)

As for availability, the bootleg market for that stuff is pretty strong. You can find his stuff on popular movie downloading networks, and places like that. My reccommendations are Laputa and Porco Rosso, but they're all gems. It's a shame that he's retiring.

If you're interested in more info about his movies, go check out http://www.nausicaa.net

-vmalloc

I do actually have a region-free player (I got lucky and got one of the AD-600s before they patched the BIOS), but I'm ashamed to admit I don't know Japanese very well, and don't know how to order from a non-English web site. So maybe it's not as bad as I stated. But I would like to be able to order it from somewhere without having to jump through hoops, you know?

The Disney translations have generally poor voice acting (even by name celebreties) and have every silent gap filled up with music because "That's what American audiences are used to." Baloney.

The Castle of Cagliostoro disc is a good buy however, it is released by Manga Entertainment, not Disney. (it's a pre-Ghibli Miyazake film)

The Japanese Miayzake DVD's are becoming the definitive item to have for the Miyazake collector. Original everything, plus English DVD captioning.

Also, if you're a huge fan of Laputa: Castle in the Sky like I am, you can get the (surprisingly good!) Streamline Pictures dub on the analog tracks of the Laputa laserdisc in the Miyazake box set. That being said, I now have two pristine fan-subtitled versions as well as the old dub in my hands, so I'm happy for the time being. (please don't email for copies) Streamline was run by Jerry Beck (famed animation historian) and Carl Macek (of Harmony Gold/Robotech fame) which is why you will hear robotech voice actors in their Laputa dub, including none other than the voice actress known as Reba West (English Minmei in Robotech) as the voice of Sheeta. Laputa enjoyed a small art house run in America during the early 90's. Most people don't remember this, but I have all my flyers and and newspaper articles saved. :) Aside from the occasional horrible one-liners, it's a good view. ("We can go all the way...")

Regarding Miyazake's reluctance for video release, yes, old-time anime fans will remember the horribly slaughtered New World Video release of Nausicaa, a.k.a. Warriors of the WInd, with none other than June Foray (the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirell) as Nausicaa. I don't think she did a bad job, it's just that New World cut 1/2 hour out of the film, removing all the important bits about the overall plot and theme. It's a travesty.

Cheers, and happy Miyazake-ing,

--Mike

This is clearly not the solution for everyone, but, if you can live without English, the Archives of Studio Ghibli is the way to go. This regionless DVD boxed set was released in Asia by Animation Japan International, Inc., and has ten Ghibli films, Japanese language track, with Chinese subtitles that can't be turned off. The films are:

1. Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (1984)

2. Laputa (Castle in the Sky) (1986)

3. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

4. My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

5. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

6. Only Yesterday (1991)

7. Porco Rosso (1992)

8. Pom Poko (1994)

9. Whisper of the Heart (1995)

10. Princess Mononoke (1997)

Bought mine on Amazon for $75, still in the shrinkwrap. I've been watching them with the translated scripts, which you can get from Nausicaa.net, and I'm very happy with them.

Whether this is positive or negative depends on your point of view, but I don't think any money from this collection goes to Disney.

But nothing. We still have their wonderful Mononoke DVD release, and the so-so pan and scan of Kiki, of which every copy I've seen is too bright. They also distributed a widescreen Japanese-language Kiki with English subtitles -- but on VHS only. When I want to see any other Miyazaki films, I have no choice but to view pirated versions.

So is it any wonder that fans of these movies pirate them when there's no legal option for obtaining them? Even Miyazaki fan sites, like Nausicaa.net denounce piracy. But it's sort of two-faced, because that's the only option THEY have for watching the films too. It's very frustrating.

Also, it's worth noting that one reason Nausicaa.net denounces piracy is that they sort of have to, if they want to remain on good terms with Studio Ghibli and those people close to it, who are the ones who provide them with their information.

I first saw a fansub of Nausicaa in the eighties at GenCon, and though already a fan of anime, had never seen something so beautiful. Like many others, I fell in love with it, and wanted more.

Thus the problem. How do you get a copy of a film that no one will distribute here? I'd be thrilled to pay just about any amount of money if someone would just sell the thing. Instead, we're forced to sneak around just to enjoy the art. I wrote Disney a letter thanking them for releasing Mononoke and Kiki (charming movie, even with Phil Hartman's Gigi), and telling them I hoped they would do the same high-quality releases for Miyazaki's other films.

But nothing. We still have their wonderful Mononoke DVD release, and the so-so pan and scan of Kiki, of which every copy I've seen is too bright. They also distributed a widescreen Japanese-language Kiki with English subtitles -- but on VHS only. When I want to see any other Miyazaki films, I have no choice but to view pirated versions.

I know my complaints are old, but they're also current. I am going to watch the movies, even if it means breaking the law. Isn't that a hoot? Having to break the law to watch a family-friendly animated movie. Of course Disney would throw a fit, and Studio Ghibli sure doesn't like it either, but I'm ready, willing, and able to give them money -- even if they want to overcharge -- but they won't sell them!

So is it any wonder that fans of these movies pirate them when there's no legal option for obtaining them? Even Miyazaki fan sites, like http://www.nausicaa.net denounce piracy. But it's sort of two-faced, because that's the only option THEY have for watching the films too. It's very frustrating.

That remind me of the time I was in a store and I saw the subtitled tape for "Kiki's Delivery Service" and someone asked me if this ``Disney'' movie was any good ... there are days where I wish not everybody always think that since it is animated and released in the US, it is a Disney cartoon.

You know I sometime wonder why some of us fight to try to explain to people that contrary to common belief Japanese Animation is not only Violence and Sex ... and that if they could only lay your eyes upon such fantastic movies made by Studio Ghibli as Kiki or Laputa, Nausicaa or "Omoide PoroPoro" as well as "Mimi wo Sumaseba", people's mind would change for sure.

I am only very happy that all those fantastic movies are finaly coming to DVD (See http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/video/release.htm l for more details).

As for Nadia, this show is a favorite of mine, and even if I am not sure I want to get into the Disney/Anime rant party, let me just tell you that if you want to see a great show, see Nadia ...

Btw, for a few anime links, try my bookmark section on my web page ;)

I haven't seen Nadia yet, though I do intend to start getting the DVDs, since the first one was just released. But in my opinion the whole "they ripped off Nadia!" deal is the work of a few sad sacks who simply don't like Disney and will look for whatever reasons they can find to bash it. Either the resemblances come from plot points commonly used by a lot of other stories, or else they're sheerly superficial.

Look at common plot points. If the movie "ripped off" anything, it would be Stargate, Laputa, Titan A.E., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a bit of Castle of Cagliostro, some Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a few other things. If I wanted to get really anal, I could go into all the old-timey radio shows that featured wisecracking switchboard operators like the one seen here. But really, what's the point?

The thing is, there are a lot of commonly-used ideas in here. Submarines, giant sea monsters, ancient relics that could do incredible damage in the wrong hands, greedy fortune-seekers wanting to put their wrong hands around those relics, giant monsters attacking ships, and so on. As Shakespeare said, there really is nothing new under the sun. It's all been done before, in some form or other--and the most successful tropes tend to get used over and over again, just because they are so successful.

And as for superficial coincidence . . . consider the case of Nancy Stauffer, author of some rather obscure childrens' books back in the early 1980s, and her claims of infringement by J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. There are an awful lot of coincidences there--use of some similar names, such as a character named "Larry Potter" who wears glasses and has a cousin named "Lilly"; use of the term "muggles," which Rowling says she came up with on her own--but most of the "coincidences" she cites are just plain silly--such as the fact that both books have castles by lakes in them! The books weren't even widely known--the most they ever got was small-press publication, in America--whereas J.K. Rowling was writing her stories ten years later in England. It's unlikely in the extreme she could possibly have seen Stauffer's books--but she wrote what she wrote anyway, and golly gee, there are all these coincidences--but most of them, such as castles and lakes, are found in a lot of fantasy novels, not just the two of theirs, so it's not surprising that two unrelated fantasy novels would both have them.

As I've said, I haven't yet seen Nadia, but I really believe that most of the similarities between them are just that sort of coincidence. Either they're trappings common to many of those stories (just as fantasy stories or Westerns often have similarities), or they're outright coincidence.
--

Anime usually doesn't go through the MPAA rating system. This means that all the adult (I use the term loosely) film is mixed in with the other stuff, and a person who doesn't know much about anime is likely to get burned. That isn't a good reason to trash a whole genre...the reasoning you've presented would ban every form of art in existence.
While there is lots of nasty anime out there, there are also works of sublime beauty. I recommend just about anything by Hayao Miyazaki (here's a good fan website: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/). His stories are beautiful, well thought out, and suitable for just about any age range. As for Akira? Yes, it has violence, but at the same time it tells an exciting and thought-provoking story about the abuse of human potential.

The article also mentions Themestream, a site which has earned me a good bit of money (and enabled me to make a couple hundred buck donation to help keep Nausicaa.net going). Too bad it's now only paying two cents per hit...
--

I still think Nausicaa is a MUCH better flick. Mononoke is great. I watched it many times in the theater and have the DVD in hand, but I still find myself drifting back to watch Nausicaa on an old crappy fansub I bought years ago.

Nausicaa is being released on DVD in Japan around 9/2001, but that will not do much good here. But on the bright side, they don't get Mononoke on DVD until 11/2002.^_^

I first saw the feature in the theater when it was out in limited release earlier this year. I was awed and impressed by the complex story and the depth and richness of the beautiful animation.

Miyazaki deserves much praise for his unique artistic vision. Here's a guy who can tell and visualize fantastic stories and entertain kids and grownups both without pandering or patronizing. I'm not really a big fan of anime in general, but you absolutely don't need to be, to appreciate this beautiful movie, and several others by the same director. His comic books are equally expressive and intelligent.

I had never heard the japanese language version, but I didn't like the English dubbed voices. They seemed inappropriate. Billy Bob Thornton and the voice of San were both completely wrong for the movie. I'm glad that Miramax included the original japanese language track on this DVD, even if I don't yet understand a word they're saying - that's what the subtitles are for. :) (There's naturally also the English dub track on the disc.)

The proper way to enjoy a movie like the film maker intended is to hear the voices of the original actors. You get appropriate inflections of the voices, you get lipsync, and you give the screen actors the dignity of not having half their performance erased and dubbed over by anonymous local actors.

Remember the scene from European Vacation with the Griswalds in Paris, where they watch an american movie on TV dubbed to French? That's how I feel about dubbing in general.

My English and German is pretty decent for a non-native speaker of either language, and I picked up both initially by watching movies in those languages, with subtitles. The more I watched as I grew up, the more I learned. Kind of like language lessons and entertainment at the same time. :)

I'm very thankful that it is not customary in my country to dub movies. It seems awfully emberrassing to hear the lines of well known screen actors spoken by nobodies with totally wrong voices.

The most important point about choosing sub over dub, is that once you begin to understand the language of the movie, perhaps thanks to the subtitles, you also 'get' the words spoken unfiltered by the translator's subjective interpretation or clumsy attempts at converting humor and untranslatable cultural references to your own language.

The DVD format allows the inclusion of multiple language, video and subtitle tracks, so at this point there's really no excuse to release a foreign language film to an U.S. audience with only the dubbed version included, when you can let the viewer choose which version to watch.

As for the subtitles, there's two English tracks to choose from - a literal translation from the spoken Japanese, and Neil Gaiman's translation of the screenplay. They're not so subtly different, since Gaiman had to fit words in that meant the same, but could be spoken in English in the same time and rhythm of the faster multisyllabic Japanese. Sometimes meaning was lost in that translation.

The literal japanese track makes the most sense even if it's kind of stiff. It's nice that they provided both tracks .. it is unfortunately still not universal standard practice among DVD makers to provide an English language subtitle track on all movies - it's really helpful to the hearing impaired to have the subtitle track going on the screen, even if you speak the language and can hear most of the dialog. Whenever there's a word you missed, you can just read the subtitles. And sometimes for whatever reason you might want to watch a movie with the sound off and just go by the subtitles. The flexibility of DVD in this regard is great.

The 5.1 digital surround sound track has identical mix on the Japanese and English versions, and it sounds GREAT. The surround effects used to great effect in the forest scenes, are scary-realistic. Even on my modest system the sense of being in the middle of the forest with things brushing through the undergrowth, was very powerful. There's mesmerizing moments of deep silence followed by subtle sound effects accenting the fluid, immersive screen action.

The picture on the disc is of nice quality, great color, super sharp detail and no digital compression artifacts to see, even in dark scenes. The widescreen presentation is anamorphic, i.e. the full vertical NTSC resolution, all 550 lines or so, are used to contain the widescreen image on 16:9 TVs.

Other than these amenities, Miramax didn't spend too much time and money on this release. Simple static menus, for what they're worth, and no extras except for the US theatrical trailer and interviews with the voice actors of the English dubbed version. It's a little bit insulting that they only thought to provide these interviews as if Billy Bob Thornton as gravely miscasted voice actor is any kind of authority on this Miyazaki masterpiece. I would much rather know about the film makers and how the movie was made, stills and special effects and storyboards and so on. But there's nothing like that on the disc.

I rank the movie among my 10 favourites, but the Miramax DVD is nothing more than mediocre; about on par with the disappointing Blade Runner DVD.

IIRC, ever since the hatchet job done on Nausicaa was made known to Studio Ghibli, they have refused to license their productions without a guarantee that there would be no re-editing of the material.

For much more concrete information, it would be worth having a browse at the comprehensive Miyazaki Hayao fan website.

The whole story is at Nausicaa Net

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I'd have to say that I can deny it. ;-)

The greatest Anime ever is actually another one by the guy who did Princess Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki. It's called Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.

Many of us consider Nausicaa to be Miyazaki's masterpiece. It's simply amazing. Check out nausicaa.net for more information on Nausicaa, and the rest of Miyazaki's films.

All the info on the Voiceovers, and staff can be found here: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mh/credits.html Gillian Anderson plays Moro the Wolf. She's easily recognizable, even behind the reverb effects.

You're thinking of Grave of the Fireflies. _Very_ different kind of movie from My Neighbor Totoro. Though they were both made by Studio Ghibli (Totoro by the great Miyazaki, Grave by Takahata). For a lot of really good information about all Studio Ghibli films, check out www.nausicaa.net