As a fan of both anime and manga, I enjoy multiple series from Dragon Ball to Tenchi Muyo, but one of the things I love the most is anime films. Personally, as a filmmaker and an avid collector of different films of multiple genres, I love to sit down either in a movie theater or in the comfort of my own home to watch a full-length feature film, especially if it's an animated film. Ever since I was a child, I loved watching animated movies from the works of animation masters such as Walt Disney and Ralph Bakshi, but when I gotten more into anime when I was a teenager, I discovered the works of another animation master. That person was none other than Hayao Miyazaki.
The first time I ever heard of Miyazaki was when I was introduced to his Oscar-winning film, Spirited Away, in my freshman year of high school. I watched the film on Toonami, and found the animation and story to be both beautiful and creative. I looked more into Miyazaki, and found out about some of his other works. As of now, I have seen all of his films that are currently available on the home video market here in the United States, and I've enjoyed every film that he has both written and directed. Sadly, I haven't seen some of the other films that he was involved with, like the 1995 film, Whisper of the Heart, which he only written for the director, Yoshifumi Kondo, to work on.
Last Summer, Miyazaki released his long-awaited animated film, The Wind Rises, a film based on the life of aircraft designer, Jiro Horikoshi, and it had a successful release in Japan. However, Miyazaki officially announced his retirement in September, and said that his recently released film would be his last. I, along with other Miyazaki fans, were shocked and saddened to hear the announcement, but we all had a feeling that he would probably do so since he put his a lot of his artistic effort in multiple projects throughout his life. Since he began his animation career, Miyazaki worked with many companies like Toei Animation, Nippon Animation, and TMS Entertainment (where he got the chance to direct his first feature, The Castle of Cagliostro) until he finally co-founded Studio Ghibli with his good friend and fellow director, Isao Takahata, in June 1985. Of course, this February, Touchstone Pictures will be releasing an official English dubbed version of Miyazaki's final masterpiece, and I will be one of his many fans to see it on opening day.
I plan on doing a two-part series of mini-reviews of the ten available films that Miyazaki wrote and directed before the anticipated North American release of The Wind Rises. I will be reviewing his first five films (Castle of Cagliostro to Kiki's Delivery Service) in part one, and his other five films (Porco Rosso to Ponyo) in the second part. Hopefully, it won't take me too long to do the reviews, but I know that it'll be pretty fun to put my opinion about the films of one of my favorite anime directors.
Written by Nolan Schmidt
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