does anybody else feel like "studio ghibli" being shorthand for "cute, comforting, safe" is tremendously reductive-nigh-insulting considering their output? Nausicaä? Princess Mononoke? Grave of the fucking Fireflies??
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Eh I mean it's all relative. Like it's not toothless treacle but it's still mostly family films, even Grave of the Fireflies is a family film. They ain't out here making the next Gantz or anything. And stuff inspired by it tends to be super twee and cozy so I get it.
His interpretation of Howl is not just a cottage core fantasy romance about Howl and Sophie! It's about power corrupting, in every aspect, and how good intentions can lead us astray! and the pointlessness of war. its gorgeous and tender, but also heartbreaking.
thinking about Howl also, the moment of peace up in the field, it gets taken out of context as cosy/cottagecore etc but it's kind of heartbreaking in context? that peace exists, it's so close, but it cannot last. A warship flies over the same field! It's not subtle!
Someone did tell me they didn't like ghibli films because they were all sentimental happy ending shlock so I asked them if they watched the one where two children at wartime died horribly for nothing and mourned by no one. The shop selling the totoro key chains did not appreciate this conversation
that's sooooo weird of them! like, did they watch the movies??? Totoro is vague about whether their mom will recover, Laputa has to be destroyed, Chihiro's still leaving her friends behind, Kiki's cat stops talking. fundamentally so many of them are about letting go of something important to you
Yes. The cute comforting vibes are usually tinged with some manner of violence or pain. Howl’s Moving Castle was aesthetic but it was also very much about the impact of war.
But so is the solution! No "Do this! Learn something! Push yourself!" Instead, it's "Enh, just be chill and see if the problem sorts itself out." So much wisdom there!
The Boy and the Heron opens with scenes of wartime Japan on fire as a child searches for his dead mother! I feel like there's always this darkness underlying them, and always this *profound* anti-war sentiment.
Your mother being hospitalised and undergoing treatment for a deadly disease is one of the most frightening things ever for a child and adults watching it seem to miss that
that one scene where Satsuki finally breaks down crying gets me every time, im crying a little just thinking about it lol. like good god, she's like TEN and she's been holding shit together for SO long because she's the big sister, and she has to be the mature responsible one and it's crushing 😭
imagine an adaptation of Lord of the Rings where Frodo and company reach Rivendell and the Elves happily chuck the One Ring into their own convenient little Crack of Doom
also Gollum's role gets handed to Merry and Pippin for some reason?
basically every Ghibli movie has at least one moment they are NOT FUCKING AROUND, even the sillier adventure-y ones, and yeah i'm tired of seeing it all reduced to just... "wow... there's grass... just like studio ghibli"
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(Jurassic Park 3 lol)
if it's shorthand for anything it should be "anti-war" but people have stripped away 'the aesthetic' away from its substance once again
i cannot enjoy the movie because i read the manga first and THE MANGA IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE MOVIE I AM NOT FUCKING KIDDING
also Gollum's role gets handed to Merry and Pippin for some reason?
THAT was the Nausicaa movie experience for me