Review: Nostalgia

Would you just look at that name? Nostalgia. This is a game begging to stir the signals in your brain and mash enough of them to recover something from your childhood; something you loved and enjoyed. When we feel nostalgic we get this weird feeling of maybe being somewhere, maybe back home. It makes you feel comfortable and happy. Nostalgia for the Nintendo DS does not make me feel nostalgic or fuzzy. It makes me feel frustrated and like I just wasted 20-something hours of my life. Go figure!

Nostalgia is a Japanese RPG for the 3DS that was released back in 2009 in North America. I absolutely love the JRPG genre but this title does absolutely nothing to be original except in setting. Your name is Eddie and you are the teenage son of the famous adventurer Gilbert Brown. Gilbert gets caught up in some trouble as usual and saves a girl named Fiona from the Ancient Cabal. The guys dressed in black are always the bad guys, right? So Fiona has lost her memory and you as the hero take on the task to help her not only get her memories back but also go on a mission to save the world by collecting powerful ancient tablets. Joining you along the way is a mage named Melody and a marksman named Pad. You have the perfect, four-person party with a swordsman (Eddie), gun support (Pad), black magic (Melody), and white magic (Fiona). On a scale of 1 – 10 I would give the story a 3 or a 4, but only because Nostalgia takes place in an alternate steam punk history.

In the game you have access to an airship right from the beginning and you zip around the world fairly quickly to collect each tablet. I came across Egypt, a cape town in Africa, London, and New York City to name a few. The sad thing is each of these towns/cities are all mostly copy and pasted with updates to their visual textures. Each location feels the same with hardly any effort given to distinguishing culture beyond simple features and NPC names.

The battle system is not unique whatsoever as it harkens to the most basic of turn-based RPG combat. You mainly bash A the entire game without much thought. The top screen of the DS is used to show you the combat while the bottom screen outlines which character is up next to take their turn. It simply allows you to strategize so that you will never lose, because honestly you sort of have to try to get a game over in Nostalgia. You make enough gold in the game to never have to worry about healing items so battles will be a breeze.

But what frustrated me the most in Nostalgia was how sometimes it would take the liberty to become extremely difficult for no reason. This mainly happened when I would fly my airship around the world and encounter air battles. It sounds cool right? Skies of Arcadia had an excellent combat system set up and airship battles in that game are now nostalgic. Well, Nostalgia falls flat because the creators for some reason decided to make airship enemies extremely strong. In fact, I made sure to save after every battle while flying because you never knew if you were going to encounter another airship that could blow yours out of the water in just two hits. If the rest of the game was so easy why were they making airship battles so challenging? Because enemies in the air took longer to defeat the fast pacing in the game was lost to silly air battles.

In addition to these low-quality attributes the creators did try to add some extra features to Nostalgia to keep you entertained… That’s if you could stand the general gameplay on its own. The game has over 30 sidequests for you to try out at the Adventurers Association but it seems the rewards were never really worth it. They mainly consist of flying somewhere, talking to an NPC, going to a location you have already cleared, finding something, fighting a boss, and then returning that item to whomever asked you to go on such a boring quest. Because the locations aren’t very entertaining to travel through the first time around, why would you want to go back for a reward that doesn’t even make the journey worth it? There are also landmarks in the game that you can fly your airship around to find, but the best prize comes after finding all of them and to me that’s a waste of time. In fact, I only did one quest in the Adventurers Association and that was all.

One element that made Nostalgia completely broken was the fact that when you saved your health and magic points were always completely healed. So if you were in an area with monsters giving high EXP you could just train for 20 minutes and level up substantially. This is probably the easiest game that I have ever had the privilege to play where I could level up so quickly, and bosses were usually a breeze because of this. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, airship battles were actually more challenging than most boss battles. Why would the game be made like this?!

Nostalgia was developed in part by Matrix Software, the people behind the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV. Now those were alright looking games but they were successful because they had a great story behind them. Nostalgia looks alright but the gameplay and story are so basic that Matrix’s contributions to the game are a sad sight to see. There are a few in-game animations that are hardly impressive to say the least, and the only potential I saw in these animations were at the very end when the story actually briefly became interesting. I’m sorry to say that yes, it takes until the very end for the game to become interesting in its storyline. Such a shame!

Nostalgia is a fake title for an RPG that is so basic it should be renamed “How to Play a JRPG” or something to that like. I know this review is entirely negative but there really isn’t anything nice to say about it. Okay I can find one complement: the artwork for the game is nice to look at. You can see it in the intro movie and at the very end. Whoever drew those pieces did a good job at portraying a concept for what should have been a good game. The characters actually look like they have some life behind them, instead of the simple-minded drones that we got in the game. The one thing that may have been nostalgic was how quickly the characters were able to get over a death or some grand emotional moment and move on in the quest at a fast pace. This reminded me of Final Fantasy IV for example, but then I realized these scenes were more comical instead of nostalgic to watch. I’m sorry Nostalgia, but you are nothing that resembles the name.

Title: Nostalgia

Developer: Matrix Software, Red Entertainment

Genre: Japanese Role-Playing Game

Year: 2008 (JP) 2009 (NA)

Platform: Nintendo DS (Played on a Nintendo 3DS)

Completion: In-game timer states that I played for roughly 21 hours, but my 3DS stats application says I played for over 24 hours; this is due to dying a few times in ridiculous airship battles. Did not attempt any sidequests as the main adventure was more than enough, although rewards for these quests are additional character information, gold, and weapons/armor.


-Jared Cyhowski

Review: Hoshi o Ou Kodomo (Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below)

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, or, the longer named Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below, is the famed director Makoto Shinkai’s latest work. Shinkai is famous for titles such as 5 Centimeters Per Second, Voices of a Distant Star, and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. Each of his previous major releases consist of similar themes including separation in friendship and love, while Hoshi o Ou Kodomo largely steps away from these themes. Children Who Chase Lost Voices centers on themes of life and death as Shinkai twists the narrative with a fantastical flare. Known for amazing beauty in his prior films, Shinkai has made sure to bring back his sweeping visual vistas that simply feed our hungry minds for beautiful art. But as Shinkai steps out of his comfortable realm of characters affected by distance, how does he fare in a setting that is usually touched upon by the likes of Miyazaki?

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo features a young and largely independent girl named Asuna. She is usually on her own throughout much of the day as her mother works nights and her dad passed away when she was a toddler. She has her own spot out in the woods where she collects things and stores food, high up so she can listen to a small receiver for, well, anything. The day she finally hears something a boy named Shun arrives and eventually saves her from a monster. Almost as fast as he appears, Shun is discovered dead in the river but Asuna simply can’t believe it. Around the same time she meets a new substitute teacher at her school named Mr. Morisaki, who is clearly interested in Shun and wherever he came from. Asuna meets another boy named Shin, Shun’s brother, and learns that he’s from a realm underneath the earth called Agartha. Asuna, Morisaki, and Shin each make it down to Agartha where magic exists and the power to bring people back to life awaits as the narrative continues to unfold to an epic state. And that’s all in the first act! Shinkai really wanted to flesh out the storyline, separating his newest work even further in scale from his previous films.

It’s so striking to see Shinkai attempt telling a story that is different from the projects he has done in the past. Taking his work into the genre of fantasy was always interesting from the project’s announcement. It was time for something new, and he certainly delivers on that scale. By taking Asuna, Morisaki, and Shin into an underground world, Shinkai had the ability to create whatever came to his imagination. When you go to a setting like that, you as the creator have the responsibility to do whatever you want. You can ignore physics, the laws of nature, and anything else your heart desires. But with that creative control comes a responsibility to tell a story, and I believe that Shinkai has done that successfully with his characters. Asuna struggles with the death of Shun and the short but large impact that he had on her life, and Morisaki is a man who is controlled by his own desires. Shin is conflicted with the death of his brother and the laws of Agartha. The theme of bringing back someone from the dead has been seen in countless works of the past, but Shinkai is able to tell his unique take on the event through these characters.

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is different from Shinkai’s previous works, reflected in not only story but technical design as well. There are fewer of the “default background image” landscapes that are found in other films, but in a way this technical merit has been softly kneaded into every frame. There are still those amazing views of the stars to behold, but I think Shinkai has found a way to blend the most gorgeous scenery of his previous films to a toned down experience. This is not a bad thing because it’s completely required for the kind of film that Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is. Previous films would play heavily with emotions that are hard to just have characters express. Feelings like love, compassion, and distance could be shown with swirling colors and massive vistas at any time. And because Shinkai is so talented we would recognize these images as something to strike our hearts in resonance. Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below follows a more linear plot that takes a theme and uses it as a plot device, and so the imagery is just more simplified and toned down.

It’s difficult not to compare Hoshi o Ou Kodomo to Shinkai’s other films because what else can you do when the young director hasn’t explored new themes before? Branching into a new direction is a risk worth taking, and I think Shinkai is completely successful in doing so. He’s keeping us on our feet with what to expect next. But for now he’s been traveling around the globe and promoting his film to audiences everywhere. Will he follow another fantasy-driven tale or craft something similar to his previous works? What if next we receive something of a period drama or maybe a war narrative? It sure is an exciting time to be a fan of Shinkai. And to think how far we’ve come in just 10 years since the release of Voices of a Distant Star. This auteur sure has enough time to expand and grow into any genre he wants.

-Jared Cyhowski

Review: A Letter to Momo

A Letter to Momo has yet to be released in Japanese theaters nationwide, and so I am quite privileged and lucky to have seen the film at this year’s New York International Children’s Film Festival. A letter to Momo is Hiroyuki Okiura’s first film since Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade; a stark contrast to the simpler and brighter themes of Momo. But this is only because Jin-Roh was an adaptation of Mamoru Oshii’s graphic novel series while A Letter to Momo was written by Okiura himself. He has directed a film that explores the theme of death quite heavily and delves deep to show us a struggling teenage girl’s heart. Her name is Momo, and the day her father died he left a letter in his desk that only said “Dear Momo.” Imagine if this happened to you. Wouldn’t you want to know what your parent was going to write to you just before they passed on unexpectedly?

The film opens with Momo and her mother moving to the small Japanese island of Shio. Momo’s mom grew up on the island, and so they live with the grandparents of the family. As Momo steps off the boat a drop of water accidentally hits her on the head. This water droplet and two others are actually spirits from up above, and because they landed on Momo she can see and hear them. They each have their own distinct behavior: Kawa is tall and lizard-like and has a never ending appetite, Mame who is short, tiny, and innocently playful, and the broad shouldered giant Iwa. Momo is at first terrified of these spiritual creatures, but she soon adapts to their ridiculous antics on the island.

Momo is young and seems to act her age, but at the same time she shines with moments of maturity. She is a character that adults can relate to in that she is dealing with the death of someone very special in her life. Children will see Momo as a girl who likes to have fun exploring the island and hanging out with trouble-causing spirits, likely only briefly recognizing some of the major themes in the film. The last thing Momo said to her dad was that she hated him. Kids will naturally see this differently from their parents, and so Okiura has crafted a rare film that can truly speak to an audience of different ages.

The story is strong, but the artwork and animation are even stronger. Production I.G. has done an excellent job at creating an atmosphere that is quiet and relaxing on the island. The water is beautiful, the characters are consistently drawn well, and scenes in the middle and ending of the film go through a grand amount of detail to show us a large rain storm in Japan. The film takes on a fairly natural and realistic color atmosphere that is well-adapted to the themes of death, life, forgiveness, persistence, and youth that are seen throughout A Letter to Momo.

But the best part of A Letter to Momo is how it ends. The final act reveals a number of truths to Momo and it opens her eyes to see more of the world around her. I will admit that some of the narrative may feel cliché at times, but the ending uniquely solidifies it as a film that’s not afraid to take that extra step and tell a story in whatever way it wants. Okiura could have gone for something generic but instead he aims ever so higher than that, and in effect you may shed a tear. I know this because I looked around the theater and some were teary-eyed. The emotional connection that you feel with Momo and her mother is unique and strong, and there’s no avoiding the acknowledgement of their bond.

A Letter to Momo has only currently played at a number of festivals throughout the world, and so it is currently fairly difficult to catch a screening of it. But next month on April 22^nd the film will be opening to over 300 theaters in Japan and will likely receive some form of home release after that. It’s a wonder if any American distributors would attempt to pick it up for home release or possibly even a few screenings. If the word is strong enough then maybe a company like Sony will come along and add Momo to its small collection of anime releases. Whatever may happen, I hope you find a way to watch a film that was seven years in the making.


A Letter to Momo is a unique project that is ultimately helmed by Okiura. He devoted a chunk of his life to writing the screenplay, drawing storyboards, and directing a project that comes straight from his creative mind. The narrative he has crafted will teach you about your own life and you will think about the ones you love. Maybe this was Okiura’s goal all along, to have the audience think about their families and loved ones in their lives and to be reminded that, well, our loved ones can leave us unexpectedly.


-Jared Cyhowski

Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was hailed as Nintendo’s last great game to be released on the Wii in North America. Well that was until Xenoblade and The Last Story were announced, but that’s another story. Regardless, Skyward Sword is indeed one of the last good games to be released on the Wii, and dare I say one of the few. The Wii has had its championing days in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it never had a true and proper Zelda title released to the system. Say what you may of Twilight Princess, but there is no denying its Gamecube roots. And so we have the one and only true Zelda title for the Wii, completely catering to the system’s core gameplay aesthetic of motion control. Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime stated that he didn’t know if “there’s going to be a video game in history that’s going to be able to compare to Skyward Sword," clearly pushing the title to be one of the greatest of all time. Hmm… let’s take a look and see.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword features the main characters we are used to in every Zelda game: Link and Zelda. Link is training to become a knight of Skyloft, a rather large and floating island in the sky. Zelda has been chosen to be a part of a ritual for the Goddess of Skyloft, and so it is her duty to sing and sew a blanket. Okay just kidding! On the day of the ceremony Link must prove himself to be a knight to Zelda, or rather pass a few challenges to be worthy of the ceremony. In these events Zelda falls through the clouds to the land below and it is your job as Link to save her.


The game goes on to reveal that you are the hero of legend and that it is your duty to save and protect Zelda, similar to other Zelda games in the past. Overall the story is good and well worth completing to the end. That said, Skyward Sword is rightfully hailed as an origin story for the series. The ending explains what the Legend of Zelda truly means, and that alone is worth playing through. Although the story also has its weaknesses that are primarily featured in structure and not quality. Much of the game feels like you must do this to get this and to get here. You then repeat this process throughout much of the game. It’s not a terrible structure but it slopes to being repetitive and somewhat tiresome.

Thankfully the dungeon designs are well fleshed out and truly fun to experience. Although none of them are extremely challenging, some areas will have you thinking for quite a while. I will admit that I looked up what to do at least twice when I was stuck, and each time it was for a silly reason. Most of the time the game is smart in making use of the equipment you have, and as long as you don’t forget what options are available to you the game will be fluid in its challenge.

Battling a foe in Skyward Sword is different from any other Zelda because of the Wii Motion Plus sensitivity to your hand and arm movement. Whichever way you swing your hand Link’s sword will also move that way. It’s an incredible feature that can’t be taken lightly. If you plan on playing Skyward Sword by waggling the Wii-Mote around, you will soon learn that you won’t get very far. At first it’s challenging to get used to the necessity of swinging your sword in a particular direction but over time you adapt. In fact there are a handful of enemies that will block your sword if you strike a certain way. And so you have to constantly think of a new strategy to defeat such foes. Some of the more challenging boss fights in the game utilize these concepts to their fullest potential.


Aside from the main quest there are a number of mini-games and sidequests to explore. The mini-games are okay and I only dabbled in them a bit but sometimes they have good rewards. The sidequests in the game mainly originate with the people of Skyloft and the various issues they may be having. Whether it be the young love between some of Skyloft’s students or the request to clean a woman’s house, you will dabble in the many facets of life on a floating island.

A strong issue I do have with Skyward Sword is its graphical presentation. It’s entirely difficult to judge Wii games on the basis of graphics because it’s as if we need to place them in a separate category. The Wii is not an HD system, so technically the games will never be in a higher resolution. Skyward Sword has a beautiful art direction that’s entirely gorgeous, yet unfortunately the Wii holds the game back. Colors become blurred and washed out, objects aren’t sharp like you would want them to be, and playing the game on an HDTV only makes these imperfections more obvious. I started playing Skyward Sword on a standard definition TV and the game was nice to look at and everything was fluid. But in transitioning to my flatscreen a lot of the game’s atmosphere was stripped of its virtual beauty. It’s a shame, really, and I do hope the next Zelda title makes great use of the current technology at hand.

Like the majority of Zelda titles, this one shouldn’t be missed. I don’t believe that Reggie was right about Skyward Sword being one of the best games ever made, but I do believe it’s one of the finest in the series. It has an extra dash of heart that adds to the characters and the way they interact with one another. Story is a key element in an enjoyable video game, and I believe The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has mastered this art. A few tweaks to the game’s progressive structure and a warning that you’re playing a game that’s not up to snuff with the current generation of gaming consoles would have put a little more oomph into this installment of the franchise. Regardless, I believe it will sustain in being a title worth comparing to future installments and it has the aura to be a classic.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Developer: Nintendo

Genre: Adventure/Role-Playing Game

Year: 2011

Platform: Nintendo Wii

Completion: Beat the game in roughly 55 hours and erased the file to make room for Hero Mode. Collected the majority of Goddess Chests, had four bottles, and was missing one item pouch. In the treasure display I was missing two items completely. Fulfilled a number of sidequests but didn’t attempt to win any of the mini-games. Could hold 5,600 rupees at end game and was missing two full hearts.

-Jared Cyhowski

Review: The Secret World of Arrietty

Arrietty, The Secret World of Arrietty, The Borrower Arrietty, Kari-gurashi no Arietti; whichever name you choose, is the first Studio Ghibli film to receive a wide scale theatrical release of over 1,500 theaters in the United States by Disney. And while it doesn’t quite compare to the high standards set by other films in the Japanese company’s beautiful catalog, Arrietty does hold up on its own. An adaptation of Mary Norton’s novel “The Borrowers”, the film follows the survival of a miniature girl named Arrietty. And when I mean miniature, I mean only a few inches tall! She and her family face the struggling fact that they may be the very last of their kind, all while facing the looming threat of being discovered by a human being. Yet with Arrietty being the adventurous type, it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before her existence becomes a reality.

Arrietty, her mother Homily, and her father Pod are known as “borrowers” and they only take what they need. They live in a small dwelling underneath the floorboards of an older Japanese countryside home. It seems they are the only borrowers left in the area, but that doesn’t stop the curious Arrietty from wanting to go out on borrowing missions with Pod. One such mission leads to Arrietty being discovered by the young boy Sho, who is staying at the house to rest from a heart sickness. Sho’s discovery of the borrowers leads to the threatening situation that Pod, Homily, and Arrietty must decide whether or not to leave in order to avoid any problems. Human beings are one of the largest threats to borrowers, and while Arrietty wants to become friends with Sho, her parents strictly forbid her from doing so.


Arrietty was released in Japan in 2009 and has had 2 years to garner releases in multiple countries before making its appearance in the United States. This means the film has been translated into multiple languages, and it’s the first Studio Ghibli film that has differing English dubs between the United Kingdom and the United States. Although not a huge issue, the names of some characters in Disney’s North American dub have been altered. For example, Sho is known as “Shawn” and the household’s maid “Haru” is known as Hara in North America. This is a small attempt to make the film have a more westernized appeal, which makes sense in a way as the only clues that Arrietty was made in Japan come from Japanese text that appear on newspapers and food labels.

While the film has a plot, the antagonist in Arrietty becomes a threat fairly late in the story. I am not sure if this is similar to the plot found in the original novel or if this is director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s visualization of the screenplay, which by the way was written by longtime Ghibli veteran Hayao Miyazaki. I both like and dislike the idea of having an antagonist have no real presence until the later half of the film, as it allows for Arrietty to have this natural feeling that gives a “day in the life” presentation of the borrowers. Unless the fact that Sho discovers them is meant to be the main source of conflict in the film, which in a way it is, Arrietty may have more of a plot than I am giving credit. Yet Sho’s easygoing and simple-minded character trait that he only wants to help people dissolves this conflict greatly. In my opinion, the non-existence of a serious conflict somewhat deviates Arrietty from other Ghibli films, and this is why I do not see it as strong as them. Compare the conflict in Arrietty to Chihiro trying to find her parents in Spirited Away, Sasuke looking for his mother and saving Ponyo in Ponyo, or Satsuki’s determination to find her missing sister Mei in My Neighbor Totoro and you will see what I mean.

Yet Arrietty retains those few key moments that make the film feel like something from Studio Ghibli. They may be few and far between, but they are there. They are the moments that remind you what it feels like to be a child, expressing a simple feeling of warmth that touches your heart. The curious mind of the 14-year-old Arrietty reminds you of what it was like to be her age, which is why Arrietty appeals to both younger and older audiences. Children will enjoy it for its adventurous tones and expressive female lead, while adults will be reminded with the nostalgic feelings of growing up. While Arrietty may not be the strongest Ghibli film in recent years, it does possess the qualities of a fun and entertaining film.

-Jared Cyhowski

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

It had been a long while since the last time I saw Laputa, maybe six or seven years ago. It was probably around the time I wanted to see more Ghibli films after the encapsulation of Spirited Away. All I was able to find, though, were Kiki’s Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky at my local movie rental store. At that age I was able to enjoy Laputa with the mindset of a 14-year old. Now in 2012 I am 22 years old and I appreciate the film with so much more depth and meaning. I had forgotten the struggles of Pazu and Sheeta, and the mind-blowing quality of animation that is precedent in so many of the film’s scenes.

Castle in the Sky was released in 1986 and the film has aged well over time. The tale is a classic but I will recount it anyway. The mysterious Sheeta falls from the sky and is surrounded by a blue light, allowing her to float to the ground with a graceful essence. The power of her necklace protects her in times of need, but it’s also the main source of conflict throughout the film. Meanwhile, the energetic Pazu is there to catch her from the sky. He’s an orphan who prides himself on the fact that his father once saw the famed ancient city Laputa while flying in the sky.


There are two main organizations who are after Sheeta and her necklace. One of them is a crew of sky pirates led by the granny-like Captain Dola. The other is the military, headed by an investigator named Colonel Muska. Dola and Muska’s objectives differ significantly, or so it seems. Dola seems to want the necklace as it’s a valuable treasure to steal while Muska believes it will lead him to Laputa where he will gain access to great destructive power.



One great element that is featured in Laputa is its set up of characters and what Miyazaki does with them. He crafts them in such a way that you care for them and you want to support them in their struggles. The antagonists are molded into beings that we want to see defeated, and then Miyazaki has us question the morals of others. Captain Dola is an example of a woman who is revealed to be kind at heart even though she is first presented as a pure antagonist. Muska is pure evil and his facial expressions alone reveal his obsessions for power.


I have yet to see every Ghibli movie, but of the moderate selection I have seen there are not that many male protagonists. As Studio Ghibli’s first actual film, I wonder if they experienced difficulty with balancing between Pazu and Sheeta. Sheeta is a strong character but she relies on Pazu for portions of the film to help her get through situations. Pazu has his own flaws but comes through for Sheeta as he learns about himself and grows into a fine young man. Sometimes he is typical of a male antagonist, diving into the fray to save the princess. He is the determined hero who guides Sheeta to safety. But he’s also so young that he is learning that he himself may not be the bravest person, but that he can still make up for his faults. This is why he returns to Sheeta to be her knight in shining armor, except the armor is replaced with a miner’s clothing.



Another element that defines Laputa as a Ghibli film is the connection to nature and humankind. I’m not sure how well Disney’s dub tried to match the original Japanese language track, but clear references are made to respect the planet as it will protect you back. Miyazaki also shows a Laputa overrun with plant life as a result to some great calamity in the skies from years ago. This must mean that the flying islands of old warred with one another until Laputa was the only nation left standing. And the result? A once lively culture bereft of human beings where only defunct robots lie in a rusted sleep.


Our senses are teased with warm feelings as atmospheres of green habitat caress our eyes. But in a turn of grief the Laputa civilization is lost and Sheeta is alone in her lineage. So instead of just toying with our emotions, Miyazaki uses transitions in emotion to teach us valuable lessons in appreciating family and nature. And if you were to take a look at other Ghibli films you will see similar themes across the board.

More can be analyzed in Miyazaki’s Laputa, but it is these simple elements that come together to create a great film. The friendship that is formed between Sheeta and Pazu is unique in that they are both carefree (to certain extents) and that they have conveniently found one another at just the right time. Sheeta literally fell unconscious into Pazu’s arms for crying out loud! We can wrap Laputa’s themes and characters into a presentation of lessons and entertainment, but Ghibli never quite seems to just want to make a piece of throwaway fun. They want to walk with us as we grow, remaining a part of our lives throughout.

I believe this has happened with my experience with Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and I sincerely hope that you rewatch it every now and then to be reminded of a companion film in your life. It’s fun, entertaining, imaginary, and full of things to help you reflect on yourself. Ghibli may not be the only ones to do this, but they are certainly masters of it. So enjoy it while you can.

-Jared C.