Kiki's Delivery Service is one of my all-time favorite movies.
A few years ago, my interest in anime dropped very low with all the recent crap that's come out. I really didn't like the spikey look that anime had aquired in the 90's, such as Dragonball Z and Tenchi Muyo. Artistically, I think it is unimpressive and uninteresting. I didn't buy or watch much anime for a period of a few years, but now that I'm living in Japan I've begun to watch a lot more anime. And also since I bought a DVD player last December, I've bought a lot more anime videos.
The series is presented in a historical account style, much like the movie Tora Tora Tora. Because the characters and locations are so numerous, the names are displayed in both Japanese and German/English. Pacing is either slow or action-packed, so it takes an intelligent viewer to truly appreciate the show. The animation quality is not very exceptional, at least for most of the first season. But it still presents visuals that you've never imagined. If you can imagine fleets full of thousands of capital ships each facing off against each other as if in a strategic, galactic game of chess, then you can imagine what Legend of the Galactic Heroes is like. There is no mecha/giant robots, nor is there pop idol singers or wacky antics. It's a mature space opera set to classical music. The main conflict in the first LOGH movie is paced to Ravel's Bolero. If you're familiar with that piece, it starts out softly and gradually builds to a crescendo. The choice of music is brilliant.
Unfortunately, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is only available in Japan, and translated fansubs are hard to come by. Even in Japan, it is only popular among a small loyal following. Because of the dated style of animation and lack of popularity, and judging what kind of anime sells outside of Japan, I doubt that LOGH will ever be released outside of Japan. I would love it if a subtitling company would obtain the rights to this series, but unfortunately it will probably never happen.
For fans of Blade Runner, Bubblegum Crisis is rather similar, with a bit more of a cyberpunk twist. The Tyrell Corp. is replaced with a bit more scheming and evil Genom Corp. that uses their "robots in disguise" called "Boomers" to assassinate and wreak havoc basically for the purpose of business expansion. It's a story of corporate warfare, with a group of all-female high-tech mercenaries called the Knight Sabers to keep things in balance. The story is set in a dark future with towering buildings, very similar to Syd Mead's dark vision of the future in Blade Runner. The story presents some of the same issues as well. The effects of business getting too big. "More human than human..." Sometimes the Boomers tend to show more emotion than the humans in the series. And of course the question "who is human?" is asked with Sylia, the leader of the Knight Sabers. Is she a Boomer? The characters are full of personality and the fans of the series all have their own favorites. For the longest time, my favorite anime character was Linna, and I even inherited the Net's first homepage dedicated to Linna, the Linna Yamazaki Shrine. Bubblegum Crisis is a cool series.
There's a couple of things that are stupid about the show. Hitomi has some magical powers, which are cool and all. They could've used the typical ESP type thing that's typical of anime, but instead they use tarot cards. I personally think that tarot cards are ridiculous and had a hard time taking their role in the story seriously. It's somewhat popular among pinheads in America who allow a stack of paper placebos to dictate their lives, and I think that all "psychic" stuff they advertise on TV is a load of crap. Horoscopes and all that are all a sham. But as a plot vehicle, the tarot and the dowsing stuff works okay. The biggest offense is the stupid cat girl who acts like a complete nitwit the whole time.
Of Miyazaki's works, probably Kiki's Delivery Service is my favorite. And although it's not purely a Miyazaki movie, If You Listen Closely (Mimi wo Sumaseba) is a favorite movie between me and my wife. Kiki's has been released by Disney outside of Japan, and of course I recommend the subtitled version. Unfortunately it's only available on VHS and Laserdisc so far, but in Japan it's available on DVD. I'm considering getting a Japanese DVD player...
It's about a girl named Chihiro who is moving to a small inaka (countryside) town and she's pretty depressed about leaving her friends. While searching for their new house, her father takes a wrong turn down an unpaved road and finds a strange building at the end of the road. Her parents want to explore inside, but Chihiro just wants to go because the place gives her the creeps. They walk through a long, dark tunnel and come out into a fantasy land town on the other side with nobody around. Her parents start eating at a restaurant while she insists on going back, and they turn into pigs. Once the sun sets, she finds herself trapped in this fantasy world and is forced to find a job. There's a huge sento (bathhouse) where all the monsters and forest gods go to take a bath, and she is given a job and a new name (Sen). She sees many monsters and some other humans who live in the fantasy world. Naturally, the story is about her trying to adjust to this new life and at the same time rescue her parents who have been cursed into being pigs (which reminds me of how Porco Rosso was cursed into being a pig, except that Porco was at least still half a man).
The characters in the movie are easily recognizable as being Miayazaki. Just as the fox/squirrel Teto from Nausicaa makes an appearance in Laputa, the dust bunnies from Totoro make an appearance in Sen to Chihiro. They work as slaves for a six-armed man who looks very similar to the air pirates in Porco Rosso. Large bird chicks with leaves on their heads, very reminiscent of Totoro, are seen in the bathhouse. And Chihiro/Sen makes friends with a boy who turns into a dragon that looks very similar to the wolf goddess Morrow from Mononoke.
The music is very recognizably Joe Hisaishi, who has always done music for Miyazaki's movies. Maybe a bit too recognizable, because it seems like I've already heard the main theme before. The ending theme isn't very cool... too folk song-ish for me. I hear this song almost every day in the underground bicycle parking garage when I come back from work, making me wonder if this song is played nonstop in the afternoon.
This is an interesting story and the monsters are just crazy... it's a very surreal movie. I liked it.
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"You can judge a man by the cartoons he watches."
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