| 1. | (7 posts) | Miralupa - What's with the Bathing? |
| 2. | (7 posts) | What Makes a Ghibli Film go, Drawings or Stories? |
| 3. | (6 posts) | Subbed Nausicaa |
We looked at 47 posts by 30 different contributors.
Not much happening this week, but I'm expecting a flood of messages in the next two weeks as the Princess Mononoke VHS nears release (Aug 28).
CAUTION: Possible Nausicaa manga spoilers!
Akira asked, "Was is ever revealed in the manga why the Younger Dorok Emperor Miralupa suffered from the affliction that causes his body to disintegrate if left untreated?" Julio Bruna replied, "I don't think it is told. I think it's due to their special caracteristics : much psychic, less physical constitution. As I can remenber, they lifes are very long, and I thought the bath to be a sort of youth bath." Ketcha wrote, "I recall the elder brother had many surgeries (Like their father) to replace their old bodies with younger ones, so they can live longer, and be immortal. At least thats the idea that I got. The younder brother was affraid of the transplants, and opted for the 'baths' that kept his flesh from rotting."
City Girl (hey, I can't make this stuff up!) pondered, "can it be there's nothing really outstanding about the drawing of the characters? That's what i felt, it's the background (and the stories) that matter in ghibili movies." Chris Wallace wrote, "I find that the animators seem to be able to really capture, and express, emotion with the characters. . . As for the backgrounds, *no one* does them better than Ghibli. . . And stories... Well... *grin*"
Griffin Waldau replied, "anyone who has ever tried to draw characters in Miyazaki's style will agree with me that their design is deceptively simple. . . All the curves of the cheekbones, the placement of the eyes and nose and other facial features are all perfectly balanced underneath their facade of simplicity. . . But I think that it all comes together in the end, not one thing is more important than the other." Griffin's excellent Nausicaa artwork is well worth a visit (go ahead, this page isn't going to disappear).
Julio Bruna chipped in, "In animation you can't draw complex characters, because you need to animate them. In this case all the things wich are animated are simplified (for exemple Ghibli noses are really simplified). But Ghibli knows how to animate things with life, they put life in their animation. . . Their animation style, really let feelings pass through the screen. They don't draw what they saw, but what it's in their mind when thinking of running or laughing, they draw the idea, people are thinking of, the image we have in mind, and not the reality, I think this is why it is more expressive."
Sophia Elanor Rogers wondered, "I just want to know if it's possible to get a subbed copy of Nausicaa through legitimate means. . . Untranslated is alright, too, if necessary." A slew replies highlighted stores that stocked the raw Japanese VHS. Aaron Meyers replied, "You can get the original Japanese edition at Sasuga Bookstore (www.sasugabooks.com) for the pretty hefty price of $59." Albert Brown wrote, "I bought my copy (VHS) from http://www.japanvideo.com . If you buy from them, don't do it through the net, call them up." Michael Johnson brought out the disclipine stick in his message. He also put down the definitive guide to what versions of Nausicaa exist:
* Dubbed VHS: This would be "Warriors of the Wind", a version Miyazaki himself would prefer everyone forget ever existed.
* Subtitled film: This official translation appeared in London a couple of years ago [2], and has also toured the world [3] in film festivals.
[2] http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/asbel/uk.htm
* Dubbed film: There is no English-dubbed version on film, as far as I know.
* Original Japanese VHS/LD: Information about these versions is available on the _Nausicaa_ availability page [4].
[4] http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/nausicaa/availability.html
* Other languages: Please see Matt Francis' Studio Ghibli Worldwide page [5].
[5] http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/asbel/main.htm
* Subtitled VHS: No legitimate commercially available copy exists. Any copy you might have heard of was probably a fan subtitled version.
[3] http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/films/festivals.html
Marc Hairston spotted an, err, interesting costume from Princess Mononoke at Otakon. Tobias Reich posted the release date for Goshu the Cellist DVD (Region 2 unfortunatly). Gilles Poitras liked Otakon.
That's all he wrote. All issues have been updated with semi-intelligent titles, so the search page should be more useable.