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
Cooler weather is coming to those of us in Texas, or as I like to call it, the Down Under of the US. A friend of mine, who hates hot weather, is always looking for the annual appearance of “pumpkin spice” products around this time. Since I enjoy hot weather but not pumpkin spice products… Read More Ask Sensei: Venti Skim Half-Caff Pumpkin Spice Latte With Extra Whip Edition
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
For episode 63, David, Peter, and Holly join in on Ghibli Month by examining the themes of Spirited Away through its characters. Perhaps not unexpected from Miyazaki and the movie considered by many to be his highest achievement, Spirited Away has a lot to tell us about the human condition through its bath house denizens,… Read More TangleCast 63: The Characters of Spirited Away
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