A girl, precocious and young, wanders through the woods and into empty villages with her guardian—but this adult is no normal man. “Teacher,” as Shiva calls him, is an “outsider,” a tall, black creature with a beak like an eagle and long horns protruding from his head. In this world, it is taught that outsiders… Read More Review: The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún (Vol. 1)
At the beginning of the month, we started with all 21 movies in Ghibli’s canon and added would-be canon film, Nausicaa, to the mix in our tournament to decide the best Ghibli film. It was a tortuous tournament for Ghibli lovers—how can you decide between Spirited Away and Howl’s? Between Grave of the Fireflies and… Read More Ghibli Month Comes to a Close with the Ghibli Tournament Winner!
Before we bring Ghibli Month to a close, I want to thank everyone who joined us for this month-long celebration of all things Ghibli. We had a lot of fun with it—besides the articles here, we posted memes on Facebook, let you enter a Spirited Away contest on Twitter, and reblogged fan art over on… Read More Ghibli Month in Review
This article was originally printed on December 5, 2016 in Area of Effect magazine. It is reprinted here with permission. If you enjoy this article, we recommend you check out the Area of Effect anthology, containing pieces similar to this one and many more written by a cacophony of wonderful (and nerdy) writers. Princess Nausicaa… Read More Choosing Peace In Nausicaa’s Wake
One of Miyazaki’s hallmarks is to feature heroines as protagonists. There are a few exceptions, though—namely Porco (Porco Rosso), Jiro (The Wind Rises), and Ashitaka (Princess Mononoke), but even the latter is overshadowed by the pair of women with central roles in Princess Mononoke who are considerably more complex and interesting as characters. Still, Ashitaka… Read More Ashitaka and Porco: Ghibli’s True Believers
We’re finally here—the final round to determine the best Studio Ghibli film! Spirited Away takes on its immediate predecessor, Princess Mononoke in the final round! If it means anything, I think you guys got it exactly right as I ranked these films as the top two (Ranked: Every Studio Ghibli Movie) in the studio’s canon.… Read More Studio Ghibli Tournament Final: Spirited Away v. Princess Mononoke
Because of some technical difficulties that prevented our Spotify listeners from tuning in, we’re reposting this episode from a week or two back. No changes for our iTunes, blog, and Sticher listeners. But stayed tuned, because tomorrow we’ll have a new episode, just in time to catch the end of Ghibli Month! Back from a… Read More REPOST—TangleCast 62: Too-Perfect Tanjirou
Today’s guest post is by Kaitlyn Ugoretz, a PhD student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara whose research focuses on the globalization of Shinto through popular and digital media and the growth of online Shinto communities. Since childhood, my life has been suffused with… Read More As the Spirit Moves You: How Studio Ghibli Films Leave Room for A Range of Religious Interpretations
I would be remiss if Ghibli Month on Beneath the Tangles went by without us doing a post specifically about fan art! There are a lot of wonderful pieces out there created by the fabulous community of artists who enjoy Ghibli films, but perhaps none as lovely (to me at least) as these pieces by… Read More Friday Fanart: Studio Ghibli in Silhouette
As we continue our month-long celebration of Studio Ghibli, we’re proud to present guest piece by Tonie, a close friend of the blog and frequent contributor through Facebook. “In this world, there’s an invisible magic circle. There’s an inside and an outside. Those people are inside of the circle. And I am outside.” These are… Read More Ghibli Month Guest Post: When Hannah Was There