Kiki’s Delivery Service

Hey minna,
back with my second feature film of the 12 Days of Ghibli, Kiki’s Delivery Service.  Kiki’s Delivery Service follows the story of a young witch, Kiki, and her pet cat/assistant, Jiji as she sets out on her own, as is tradition for young witches when they turn 13.  Kiki settles for the seaside city of Koriko where she finds her place as a delivery girl, given her speedy trips atop her trusty broom.  Along the way, she mets all sorts of people and makes many friends, including a local boy who takes quite the liking to her, and can usually be found looking for her when he’s not working on his homemade airplane.  Unfortunately, Kiki’s problems escalate when it seems she starts to lose her witch powers and even becomes unable to fly.  But she overcomes her doubt and fear when the young boy becomes endangered by a crashing dirigible.

While, at its core, this film is most certainly a “coming of age” tale, detailing Kiki’s matriculation from child into responsible adult with childlike qualities, there are other themes to give this film depth as well.  Like the balance of creativity and talent in one’s life and how one lives it.  Kiki, thrust out on her own, must find a unique way to profit from her own specialized skills, much like we all must at some point in our lives.

Just as with facing life choices, we must also deal with disappointment and not-so-good times, like Kiki does when her magic seems to leave her.  Her flight becomes grounded and Jiji, normally talkative, falls silent to her ears.  Only when a dire situation arose did Kiki find the willpower to get up and try, to give her best.  Only then was she able to (sort of) recover her ability to fly, and even talk to Jiji again.  Showing that it’s in our darkest hours that we learn to shine the brightest.

Like all Studio Ghibli films, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a “children” movie, perhaps more so than Spirited Away. But I don’t think that should prevent adults who enjoy an all-around inspiring movie from finding this film very moving, perhaps even tear-jerking (or maybe that was just me).  The climax of saving Tombo from the jaws of peril had me, personally, on the edge of my seat, and I think there are plenty who can attest to this as well. The animation is as expected from Ghibli, very well done, as with the music and voice acting (both Japanese and English).  Recommended to anyone who wants a nice, family film with a very heart-warming (but not too deep, or socially critically) story.

Until next time,
- BeldenOtaku

Spirited Away

Hey minna,
it’s time to get into the Christmas spirit, and what better way to celebrate the true reason for the season, than watching anime movies? From now until Christmas, I’ll be taking a look at 6 or 7 movies from one of my favorite animation studios, Studio Ghibli.  Today, I’m watching Spirited Away, a movie a lot people are probably familiar with.  Originally named “The Mysterious Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro”, Spirited Away was released in  2001 and became one of the most successful films in Japanese history, grossing $274 million worldwide.  Passing Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all time.  The english dubbed version was done by Pixar Animation Studios in preparation for its American theater release and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

Spirited Away follows the story of Chihiro, a young adolescent girl, picked up as she’s arriving to a new town after moving away from her childhood friends.  Chihiro’s slight insecurities make way for real disaster when her parents suddenly turn into pigs after helping themselves to food at a nightstand in an abandoned theme park they’ve stumbled upon.  To return her parents to normal, Chihiro befriends Haku, a dragon learning magic from an evil witch, Yubaba, who runs the bath house that she allows Chihiro to work in, granted she changed her name to Sen.  While working in the bath house and meeting all sorts of people and monsters along the way, Chihiro learns the responsibilities to growing up and also that she doesn’t have to face life’s challenges alone.

Sprited Away also contains a plethora of subtle themes and cultural critiques. From the coming of age of Chihiro to the struggle of Japanese society losing touch with its traditions.   Chihiro even spends time in an abandoned theme park, a reference to the break of the bubble economy of the late 20th century.  But one doesn’t have to know the deep intermingling themes or references to enjoy Spirited Away.

 

The animation is top notch, as expected of Studio Ghibli, and the english dubs (I’ve seen both original Japanese and English versions) for this movie are one of the few I’ve actually been very pleased with, the transition was done very well.  And all around great movie for kids and adults alike, also a great movie if you want introduce someone to anime films.  HIghly recommended to anyone look for a family-friendly movie to enjoy with friends of any age.

Until next time,
- BeldenOtaku

Unwanted Downtime…

Hey minna,
my apologies in advance, but due to finals and heavy workload, not to mention a butt-load of stuff to take care of, I can’t manage any time to watch and review anime for a few days. But don’t fret!  Finals will be over (for me) on Friday, and I’ll be going back home Friday too.  So it’ll be Saturday at the latest that I’ll have the free time to catch up.

With a month of free time coming up, I’m happy to announce my project for the holiday season: “12 Days of Ghibli”. If you’ve seen my FanArt page (go look at it now, I’ll wait, the link is in the tabs under the banner, or just click here)……*waiting*……*letting the growth in skill over time really sink in*….Okay, you’re back, impressed? I know, right. Now that you’ve seen the page, you’ve seen the banner for “12 Days of Ghibli”. Well, “12 Days of Ghibli”, in a nutshell, is me reviewing several Studio Ghibli movies. You may have heard of a few, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro. I’ll be watching and reviewing these and more (probably starting December 13th, and leading up to Christmas, to make it, y’know, an actual 12 days of Ghibli) in addition to regular episodic reviews.  If I manage as much time as I think I’ll have, I’ll also pick up a few completed series and do a review on those too.

Some other bloggers have also suggested that I do an editorial-type post of something other than a specific anime series. I’m currently working on it, the hard part is that I’m actually being very self-critical and am not sure where I want to go with, but it IS in the works, so expect it some time soon.

Until next time,
- BeldenOtaku

NewAnimeThursday – Downtime Report/Thought Synopsis

Hey minna,
my sincerest apologies for the downtime this past week or so, but due to circumstances beyond my control (mostly stupid people who should never be in charge of technology) I was not able to watch new episodes nor reach my new post page on wordpress to even fill time with thoughts and ramblings until now.

Sidenote: never underestimate the power of unplugging something, and then plugging it back in, in order to fix it. I really wish I had tried that at first.

Though frustrating that I couldn’t keep up with new anime, and sometimes not even able to check other blogs (Emptyblue probably has 50-75 views that came from me trying to refresh the page so I could either read the post or make a comment), the downtime did give me the time to think about where I’m going with NewAnimeThursday in the coming season.  I’ll be posting thoughts on the series list for the Winter 2011-12 season, but, at the moment, I’m not expecting to be watching much, especially compared to this season.  So I’m thinking I’ll probably go back and catch some series I missed in past seasons, I’ve already nearly completed Steins;Gate and plan on posting a final review soon.

Another idea I’ve had is a Christmas-themed movie marathon, although the only thing Christmas has to do with it is the name…”Twelve Days of Ghibli”, I’ve made a list of Ghibli films, such as Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Ponyo, that I plan on watching come winter break.

As for now, I plan to use my time to catch back up, and I apologize in advance for the episodic review dumps in the days to come, I typically don’t like posting more than one a day, two at 12-hour ends at most, but the level of catch-up requires multiple postings and probably double-feature posts.

Until next time,
- BeldenOtaku

(If you care, I finally took the time to create an official MyAnimeList page, http://myanimelist.net/profile/BeldenOtaku, I’ll try to keep it updated)