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Shelf Life - Culture Club

You can recommend (Ghibli films) to anyone – in fact, they are more than recommended, they are required viewing for all anime fans.

Did Disney do the restoration and conversion onto Blu-Ray or was it done by Studio Ghibli? Say what you want about Disney but their Blu-Ray releases are the best looking ones out there, there restoration of 1937's Snow White is unbelievable.

Disney's exceedingly respectful 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is almost as striking as the film's soaring visuals. Colors aren't as vibrant as some might expect, but there's a solemn strength, a sand-swept beauty and an organic restraint to Miyazaki's dusty watercolor palette that, in many ways, is far more evocative and arresting than the alternative. Detail is just as admirable. Every fluid stroke of the animators' lineart has been perfectly preserved, their ink-work is deeper and cleaner than it's ever been, and their hand-drawn backgrounds and airships are a stunning sight to behold. Moreover, the film's fine grain structure is intact and, despite its prominence, both consistent and attractive, lending each scene a filmic quality that only showcases the transfer's cinematic integrity. Yes, a number of soft shots pepper the proceedings, slight telecine wobbling is apparent, and negligible cel nicks and specks, as well as some minor print imperfections, appear throughout. However, each and every quote-unquote issue traces back to the original source and very few instances, if any, detract from the overall impact or authenticity of the presentation. The studio's encode warrants even higher praise. There isn't any significant artifacting, banding, ringing, compression anomalies, aliasing or, really, anything at all that might distract seasoned videophiles from Miyazaki's remarkable imagery.

To be clear: Nausicaä doesn't look as if it rolled out of an animation studio yesterday, a fact that will probably elicit apathy from viewers hoping for a water-into-wine redux. But as twenty-seven-year old anime classics go, Disney's reverent high definition transfer makes it that much easier to sink into Miyazaki's dazzling vision and float away.

I question the 'nerdiness' of your friends if they do not have (or cannot instantly get) the necessary codecs.

Yeah, same for me! I absolutely love Princess Mononoke, surprised it wasn't in Erin's top 5. Any particular reason why? I think for me, Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke are my favourites because they both have quite a bit in common.

Good ole' Nausicaa, the Miyazaki movie I consider to be the therapeutic antithesis to Princess Mononoke. Both movies have the same general story--a princess tries to save a natural world from plundering invaders, but both stories having completely different outcomes. As much of a "masterpiece" as people make out Mononoke to be, I'll always prefer the first original classic.

Honorable mention to Panda Go Panda! which was probably the funniest miyazaki film I've ever seen (The UK dub).

If we should come across a person who is not motivated to experience Ghibli films, but who nonetheless takes a noticeable interest in numerous works of Japanese animation aside from these, it seems unintuitive to suggest that this person fails one of the requirements of being an anime fan. (The fact this person is a fan of anime is alone sufficient for her to claim this modest title, I say.)

Nausicaä represents the highest possible technical achievement in cel animation, and it was made in 1984! All of the flying war machines and giant pillbug-like Ohmu move as background elements, without the aid of CG. Perhaps Nausicaä and Akira (1988) are the very highest high points of Japanese animation, created at the height of Japan's economic bubble. Maybe it is appropriate that both stories have apocalyptic visions; the bubble was about to burst.

ss-hikaru wrote:

Yeah, same for me! I absolutely love Princess Mononoke, surprised it wasn't in Erin's top 5. Any particular reason why? I think for me, Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke are my favourites because they both have quite a bit in common.

I was going to reply, but pachy_boy says it better than I could below:

pachy_boy wrote:

Good ole' Nausicaa, the Miyazaki movie I consider to be the therapeutic antithesis to Princess Mononoke. Both movies have the same general story--a princess tries to save a natural world from plundering invaders, but both stories having completely different outcomes. As much of a "masterpiece" as people make out Mononoke to be, I'll always prefer the first original classic.

Interestingly, on the new extra, Miyazaki talks about Nausicaa's happy, cathartic ending, and says that after Nausicaa he wanted to get away from such cathartic endings.

For someone who advocated peaceful coexistance with nature, what she did in Volume 7 just rubbed me the wrong way.

if I want more moral complexity I'll read the manga that grew out of it.

Quote:

Nausicaä represents the highest possible technical achievement in cel animation, and it was made in 1984! All of the flying war machines and giant pillbug-like Ohmu move as background elements, without the aid of CG. Perhaps Nausicaä and Akira (1988) are the very highest high points of Japanese animation, created at the height of Japan's economic bubble. Maybe it is appropriate that both stories have apocalyptic visions; the bubble was about to burst.

Ah... whaaa? Nausicaa is the highest possible technical achievement in cel animation? Umm... how much high budget animation have you watched? I'm all for celebrating how awesome Nausicaa is, but it still doesn't beat the fact that Nausicaa was a low budgeted movie with frame rate limits compared to just about everything Disney did before Beauty and the Beast (where they first started using CGI - and it was only for the ballroom scene). Akira - yeah, I can agree Akira was pretty much the top of the tier in technical achievement with Japan's cel animation, but to completely disregard each and every other animation studio in the world? I'm sorry, but Nausicaa's animation looks aged, and like crap compared to most every other cel animated feature since, especially other Ghilbi films. Outside of Nausicaa's glider, the Ohmu and giant air ships never really ever changed their angles. Disney easily has Nasuicaa beat in technical achievement with 101 Dalmations alone - 1961 with car chases and more - all without cgi.

Disney easily has Nasuicaa beat in technical achievement with 101 Dalmations alone - 1961 with car chases and more - all without cgi.

Ah... whaaa? Nausicaa is the highest possible technical achievement in cel animation? Umm... how much high budget animation have you watched?

I'm all for celebrating how awesome Nausicaa is, but it still doesn't beat the fact that Nausicaa was a low budgeted movie with frame rate limits compared to just about everything Disney did before Beauty and the Beast (where they first started using CGI - and it was only for the ballroom scene).

I'm sorry, but Nausicaa's animation looks aged, and like crap compared to most every other cel animated feature since, especially other Ghilbi films. Outside of Nausicaa's glider, the Ohmu and giant air ships never really ever changed their angles. Disney easily has Nasuicaa beat in technical achievement with 101 Dalmations alone - 1961 with car chases and more - all without cgi.