Crespo, Spirited Away

catsmeowmoviecritic.com

Spirited Away is an awesome, fascinating and moving story, which includes awesome graphics, art style and plot.

Spirited Away is about a young girl named, Chihiro, who finds herself trapped in the spirit world after they get lost trying to find their new house and wind up passing a red house. This passing of the house, caused Chihiro’s parents to enter the spirit world and turn into pigs, because they began eating food that wasn’t theirs. Chihiro lefts alone in the spirit world, is helped by Haku, who is a water spirit, and is told to get a job in the bathhouse to be able to survive. She then signs a contract with the witch, who rules the bathhouse, Yubaba, and signs away her name.

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During the plot of the movie, which is for Chihiro to leave the bathhouse and save the parents, there are many themes shown: like compassion, bravery, friendship, loyalty, and personality growth.

Compassion is shown when the lets no-face enter the bathhouse, when she lets him go with her to Zenibas, Yubaba's twin sister, home to solve a problem created by Haku. And when she takes care of Haku and gives him the   seed, given to her by the river spirit, to cure him.

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Bravery is shown when Haku insists on getting a job in the bathhouse, when she goes and save Haku who is about to die from a curse. Also when she goes on the adventure of returning something Haku stole from Zeniba and when she confronts no-face, who has become bigger and evil.

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Loyalty is shown the way she trusts Haku and is always by his side. She always believes in him and does whatever he says. For example, when Chihiro she eats the pill in the beginning, or when she insists on getting a job etc.

Finally personality growth is shown thorough the entire movie little by little. One example of this is when she returns the stolen object to its rightful owner and apologizes on behalf of the one who stole it. Also when we see her work, we notice that she becomes more responsible and mature, and caring over not only her problems, but also the problems of others.

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Crespo, Nausicaa

Nausicaa, is about a young girl who lives in a peaceful place called, Valley of the Wind. In this valley there is no pollution in the air, technology is not the primary thing, and even though they don’t like the bugs, who invaded most of the planet, they respect them and leave them alone.

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The movie is mostly about how a powerful empire tries to take over the world and destroy the bugs, which inhabit it. But in the end Mother Nature wins and the empire looses.

Nausicaa and San, are very similar in many aspects. Some of these aspects are that they want to protect nature and all living things. They understand nature and realize that the humans are the real problem not nature. For example in Nausicaa, Nausicaa realizes, while experimenting in a secret laboratory, that the plants are not really toxic, that it’s the soil that’s toxic and because of this the plants release poison into the air. This is because humans have polluted the earth with their technology and don’t to anything about it.

Another similar aspect is that they never give up, they fight with the humans, but in the end succeed. 

One thing they don’t have in common though, is how they approach the problems. Nausicaa prefers peace and non-conflict, although at the end she gets a little violent. The scenes that show this is when Nausicaa gets in front of the bugs to save her people, and dies. Another scene in the movie, that shows how Nausicaa approaches her problems, is when they crash in the forest and instead of killing the bugs she talks to them and explains herself to them.

San, in Princess Mononoke, is all about solving her problems by killing the humans, especially, Lady Aboshi. This is shown in many scenes in the movie, but one of them is when she enters the village and attacks lady Aboshi with a knife to kill her.

In conclusion both girls show how nature should be protected and preserved at all costs, and that also nature will reward you and thank you for it at some point in your life. The movies also show us that nature is necessary for not just animals but humans. And that it’s an irreplaceable source of food, water, medicine, etc.

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This picture is when Nausicaa died, and the bugs everyone hated in her village saved her life.

Crespo, Ah! My Goddess

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Ah! My Goddess is a movie about how angels are sent to earth to grant one wish to a human being who is living a sad existence. In this show Belldandy, who is one of the best goddesses in heaven, goes to earth to help a sad boy called Keiichi, who is starting college. 

This movie shows many themes like love, jealousy, and the struggle between what is right and wrong. 

The theme of love is shown in the relationship of Keiichi and Belldandy, who lost her memory, but thanks to the help of Keiichi she begins to remember happy times, like how they won a race and everyone was cheering for them.

Another thing that shows the theme of love is how the gods are the ones to decide if you are together. The test for this is to pass through a gate and if one of the people has doubts about their love, the gate kills them. 

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Jealousy is another mayor themes in this movie. This theme is shown in the scene when Keiichi is curing the enemy and she asks him, that if Belldandy hadn’t existed would he have fallen for her. There is also the consequence of this, which is when Belldandy saw Keiichi and the enemy kiss, and she began to cry and ran away. 

The final theme the battle between what is good and evil is shown in how Celestine, although wants to help everyone and treat everyone equally, he wants to achieve this by destroying heaven.

Finally in this anime women are shown to be much stronger than men in all aspects like, beauty, strength, confidence, and talent. But they also show how even though they have all of this they still have feelings and are vulnerable.

Crespo, Evolution of Anime

Today I went to an Anime seminar given by a Japanese and Biology mayor student.
He started by saying one of the most known quotes in anime, which said: " Im living in the dream I'll never wake up from". This quote is from cowboy bebop.

He then started explaining what is anime?
-According to the Anime News Network anime is an animation of Japanese origins or animation of a particular style.
His definition for anime is: animation of Japanese origins, in which characters develop.

After this he started explaining Anime Aspects of Focus
-Art: most apparent characteristic to track change in time
-Music: when you listen to music, you return somewhere
-Plot: basically what makes an anime

He then went to the History of anime
-The first animation to appear in Japan was Momotaro in 1995. This anime was meant to be propaganda for World War II and boost moral.
After this came Astro Boy the first animation series created by Osami Teska, who is considered the father of anime.
He then showed us the intro for the original Astro Boy, in which the music was very patriotic.

Then he discused Mizuki Shigeru, who was the first person to have his manga made into an anime.

After this we went into the 1980, which was the Golden Age of anime.
-Color is introduced
-The genre Mecha was introduced with Gundam
-Plots become more complicated
-Music is used more; this was introduced in the anime Maccro

But the most important thing that happened in this age was the appereance of Studio Ghibli and the most important anime director Miyazaki.
He made some of the best anime movies of all time. Some of these are:
-Grave of the Fireflies
-Princess Mononoke
-Spirited Away
-Ponyo
and many others.

 wikipedia.org

We finally talked about the 1990's, which was the time in which many genres appeared.
-sports genre
-Psychological genre (Evangelion)
-Detective genre (Detective Conan)
-Sci-fi genre (Cowboy Bebop)

And the thing I love most about this era is the creation of Mahou Shoujo's. These were shown and perfected in two shows: Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura.

I learned that anime although is a form of entertainment it has very deep root on Japan economy, culture, music and art.

 myanimelist.net

Crespo, Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies, was the saddest and most moving animated movie I have ever seen.

( manuxgfx.net)

This movie tells the story about a young boy called Seita and his sister Setsuko, who become war orphans, after their parents are killed by American troops.

After they become orphans Seita, who is 14 years old, begins to take care of his 4 year old sister Setsuko. This makes him take the responsibilities of an adult and change his priorities.

After the ”Kobe Firebombings”, which destroyed their house, Setsuko and Seita move in with their aunt. Unfortunately their aunt begins to steal food from the children, treats them with disgust, and is annoyed by their presence. She especially complains how Seita isn’t working or going to school. But this is not because he doesn’t want to, it’s because he has to take care of his sister Setsuko who cannot be left alone.

After some time they decide to live in a bomb shelter and for a time they were happy. This is thanks to the money their mom had saved up in the bank. Unfortunately people were not selling their crops because of the food shortage and Seita began to steal. In the end Setsuko was not receiving the right nutrition and died from malnutrition. Seita as we see in the movie also died of malnutrition sometime after Setsuko died.

 (thisdistractedglobe.com)

Many of the scenes shown in the movie had symbolic meanings. This is something common in animated series and films. Unfortunately these symbols can only be seen if you have a common knowledge of Japanese myths, stories etc.

First are the fireflies that represent the shortness in life and foreshadows how the happiness of the children will not last long. This can be seen when Setsuko is burying the fireflies after only just one day of capturing them.

 (blogspot.com)

The important scene is when Seita is shown dead at the beginning of the movie. This intensifies the beauty of their short life and it also makes the movie more tragic.

 (moviespad.com)

Another important thing that happens in the movie is the red filter, which differentiates the flashback and the spirit world.

The final scenes I'm going to mention is when Setsuko is taken to the doctor, but the doctor instead of helping her just gives her the diagnosis and does nothing to help. And the last one is when Seita is taken to the police and the police officer instead of helping Seita further just lets him go.

 This movie shows us how war, not matter where it is, can cause sadness, indifference, and destruction.

Crespo, Harp of Burma movie

This wednesday we saw Harp of Burma. This short film was about a Japanese battalion who is struggling for its life and running away from enemy forces. But this isn't a normal battalion it's also a corus. This is because the commander studied music and to help the soldiers feel calm and clear of mind, he taught them to sing. The battalion also has a member that instead of singing plays a harp.

This movie show us many moral values that the Japanese of these days had. For example the Japanese would never give up. They would fight to the bitter end. This is because of their honor, and love for Japan.
Another thing soldiers did in the battlefield was sacrifice themselves just so they could change the tide of the battle. This is shown in another movie we saw about Japanese warfare called Letters of Iwo Jima.

We also see in this movie how the Japanese to defend their honor and help their comrades prefer to kill themselves or be killed by their comrades. This is something we don't see everyday, the practical thing to do is face the consequences of your actions and survive. But the Japanese to preserve their sence of honor in this life commit suicide.

Crespo, The mind and technology in Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Perfect Blue

This week im going to talk about three films we have watched before fall break. These movies are Perfect Blue, Akira and the most recent Ghost in the Shell.
In this blog im going to more or less compare these movies and how the show different themes like fear of technology, and the mind. But remember these are not the only themes seen in these movies, its just that I'm only going to mention these two.
In Akira we can see that technology has taken over the city, people and government. Some examples of these are how the government uses more money in science and technology than the society and its people. You can see this all throught the movie. The city is filthy, the schools are a joke, there is no freedom of speech or change, the young generation is corrupt and always hangs out on the streets and many more. 
In Perfect Blue it can be seen in how Mima is corrupted by the internet and how it began to take over her life and mind, to the point that she began to have amnesia and went to the website to learn what she had done the day before.
In Ghost in the Shell this can be seen the best. Technology not only is part of life and everything revolves around it, but techonology becomes part of you. Cyborgs are the new thing in Ghost in the Shell some may be more humans than others, like the Commander and his partners, which are more human than her. Also we see how technology begins to have a mind of its own and has a soul, which is called a ghost.

Now in relation to the mind Akira shows this in the character of Tetsuo in which he looses control of reality and changes into a power craving teenager. Because of his psychic powers Tetsuo begins to lose himself and begins to think he is the greatest being in the planet and can do whatever he desires.

In Perfect Blue the mind is the main theme of the movie. Mima who was raised in the country came to a big city to be a pop-idol, but the change of an innocent job to a more adult job came at a big price. She was in a way forced to change into an adult, when in reality she was a young girl. She is also stripped of her innocence in live television and depicted as a sex object.

This and the website lead Mima into becoming delirious and losing grips with who she is and what will become of her.
Finally in Ghost in the Shell the mind may not be the central theme but it is seen when the garbage man is stripped of his memories. This tells us that the mind is no longer private and can be controlled just like any other computer.