| 1. | (5 posts) | Pushing Bellows, Blowing Out Knees |
| 2. | (34 posts) | Mehve Lives! |
| 3. | (5 posts) | Videogame Influences |
We looked at 78 posts by 45 different contributors.
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you're not too stuffed from eating turkey and whatnot.
Peter Blundell wondered, "anyone else see the women of Tataraba operating the bellows, and think to themselves, "In a couple of years, their knees will probably be shot-to-hell." Wouldn't Eboshi have forseen this?"
Stefano Marone replied, "Until the last 50 years, there was no consideration of this... working was taxing for the worker, and it was considered just as fine. . . Let's not apply western modern day way of thinking and needs to middle age people.... remember that we live in a far different (and easier) world than that of our grand-grandfathers. . . . Their knees wold be arthritic in quite a few years... but would have continued to work, just as the coughing miner, the bent farmer, and their rachitic sons. For the alternative was only one: starvation."
Chi Chung Tse echoed Stefano's remarks, "In the old days, it was just a way of life for all the lower and grass-root class people... the world wasn't very "ergo friendly" until last forty years."
I don't recall the original, but Andrew Osmond posted, "A friend pointed out the following address:
Judge for yourselves...
Marc Hairston pointed out, "I hate to spoil it, (but then I'm a physicist and that's my job sometimes ^_^) but that won't work as a mehve. The airboard is a one person hovercraft and it floats on a cushion of air. . . So you *could* put wings on the side of it and zip around at altitudes of 4 to 8 inches looking like a mehve"
Thread over? Nope. It swung to a discussion of dynamically unstable aircraft and computers. Those arguments were played out over the background of Nausicaa. Michael Wojcik wrote, "Miyazaki merely indicates that they have access to technology they don't understand; he doesn't delve into the details. . . If we're going to grant the survival of the engines (pretty damn unlikely, in my view, but it makes for a nice story) then we might as well grant the survival of embedded computers in the aircraft, too. . . I don't buy the unstable-mehve-with-computer-control, for aesthetic reasons. The beauty of mehve is that it's so simple. That it's unworkable is a minor point."
There were other threads centered around ceramics, nanotechnology, fusion, and perpetual motion.
Kyle Pope commented, "The Miyazaki aircraft most likely to fly (outside of those based on real aircraft as in Porco Rosso) would be the flapters from Laputa. Getting them to function as ornithopters is not yet feasible given current technology but in the fixed wing thrust mode one could fly."
Noah Selsby gushed about the Miyazkai influences in the Dreamcast game "Skies of Arcadia", "The machine, character and plot design are suspiciously similar to something that Miyazaki would have come up with. . . plot is a mixture of Laputa. . . and Nausicaa. . . The other aspects have to do with the idea of "air-pirates." Like the Dola clan of Laputa and Mamma Aiuto of Porco, the air-pirates are seen as these dashing sort of robin-hoodish sort of characters. . . if you like Japanese RPGs (as I do) I think you might get a real kick out of this game." Hey Noah, can I borrow the game when your done? ^_^
Michael Johnson added, "The 1980s laserdisc game "Cliffhanger" didn't have to borrow at all. It contained the EXACT footage from the Clarisse-in-a-wedding-dress car chase scene from the beginning of the film _Castle of Cagliostro_." He also mentioned two PSX games with Ghibli influences: Jade Cocoon (character designs by KONDO Katsuya), and Tail Concerto.
Zach B. wrote, "a Playstation 2 game entitled "Sky Gunner" is due out in Japan this Winter, and they say that the ships look really similar to those in Laputa, and even have a blurb about Laputa itself." Noah replied, "I've seen video of this game and it does have a very Laputa/Nausicaa feel to it. Unfortunately, it is a "shooter" so I suspect there will not be much in the way of plot." Noah gave links to two movies of "Skies of Arcadia" gameplay [Movie 1] - [Movie 2]
Run for your lives! A 5-foot tall San made out of. . . LEGOS! Tom Wilkes found out that Otto Carius is still around. David Athay spotted several cameos in "Panda! Go Panda!". Ryoko Toyama put up a page of Studio Ghibli Halloween costumes. Kyle Holt vouched for the reliability of CD Japan. Chi Chung Tse commented on the various Studio Ghibli VCD and DVD sets he's seen.
I conclude that Boehms Encores taste really great!