Here are my thoughts on some anime movies that I own. The only real note I should put beforehand is that I watched many (perhaps most) of these with only my own translations (my japanese is pretty mediocre), so my understanding of a few of these was pretty lousy. (In particular, my comprehension of Mononoke Hime was almost non-existent.)
Also, I'm attempting to not put spoilers here, but there might be small ones. Caveat emptor, and all that. Also, just in case people are curious, these pictures are scans from the covers of the import laserdiscs for each of these movies (except the Macross, DYRL and ShinKOR pictures, which came from inserts included with the LDs).  If some of the page looks a bit garbled, it's probably caused by my giving names in Japanese as well as english.  If your system can't handle Japanese, this will look pretty strange.  If so, you can try taking a look at Shodouka.
One last note to keep in mind. This page is, even more than most of my pages, a work in progress...  Note that most of these movies were made by Studio Ghibli, probably the premier animation studio in the world (even if Disney would argue).   Further information on Ghibli can be found at Nausicaa.net.

Grave of the Fireflies
Hotaru no Haka
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This is a very sad tale based on a book by Nosaka Akiyuki. It was a historical tale of his childhood, growing up in WWII Japan. While I think very highly of this movie, the story is so depressing that I have only seen it once (despite now owning two copies...*sigh*)

I Can Hear the Sea
Umi ga Kikoeru
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Must put some text here!

Kiki's Delivery Service
Majo no Takkyuubin
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This is a wonderful coming-of-age type of story by the continually amazing Miyazaki Hayao (µÜºê½Ù).  Kiki is a young witch who has just turned thirteen.  In her milieu, all witches must leave on a night of a full moon when they are thirteen, and find their own place.  The movie starts with Kiki finding out that that night is supposed to be a clear one, so she decides to leave (instead of waiting for the month after, as originally planned).  She sets out with her black cat, Jiji (pictured above), to find a city without a witch in it.

Her arrival in the town where she settles is a bit rough.  She gets in trouble with the police for flying through traffic.  She doesn't have a place to stay.   Also, because her only talent is flying (her mother brews potions as well), she is at somewhat of a loss for what she should do to earn a living.  An encounter with a friendly baker (in whose spare attic she ends up living) gives her the idea of delivering things.

The movie continues by following her process of becoming adjusted to where she is.   This is a great movie to which I would give an overall rating of 8.5 out of ten.   For reference, it was based on a novel by Kadono Eiko (³ÑÌî±É»Ò).  It is now available in english subtitled or dubbed, from Buena Vista Home Video (Disney).

I Want to Return to Those Days
Ano Hi ni Kaeritai
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As I have mentioned elsewhere, I'm very fond of Kimagure Orange Road.  This movie attempts to finish up the TV series.   Theoretically, it tied together the endings of the manga and the TV series, but I don't think the movie made a whole lot of sense following up the manga.

In any event, in this movie, Kyousuke and Madoka have finally admitted their feelings to one another, and need to resolve how they will deal with the third member of the trio.   I have heard Kyousuke's actions in this movie called cold, but I really can't say as I agree with that assessment.  He found himself in a somewhat untenable position vis a vis Hikaru.

Of course, I must admit that I found Hikaru, in the TV series, frightfully annoying.   It's very difficult to say, watching that, that there was any reason for Kyousuke to have any doubt which of the two women he would prefer to be with.

Overall, I'd give the movie about a 7.5 out of ten.  If you really want to know how the series turns out, this will tell you, though I've heard some people call this movie gut-wrenching and painful.  Personally, I thought it needed to be done.   This did still have pretty much all of the same people (cast and staff) of the original series.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Tenkuu no Shiro: Rapyuta
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This is another wonderful movie by Miyazaki. Sheeta is a young girl who has been kidnapped by a man named Muska. He wants to know about the sky-stone that she holds, and what her connection to Laputa, the castle in the sky is.
Laputa is a reference to Swift, and Gulliver's Travels, but not much else in the movie is. The 124 minutes of footage comprising this movie are really action-packed, although there are quite a few wonderfully amusing scenes interspersed. The scenery in the movie (always a strong point of Studio Ghibli's movies) is based on South Wales, although I don't think the mix of technologies evinced has ever been extant anywhere. :>

The music in this movie is fantastic.

Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Rupan Sanzei: Kariosutoro no Shiro
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Unfortunately, this was another one that I had a great deal of trouble following... It is definitely on my list of movies to watch again. Like most Lupin, I found this a lot of fun to watch regardless, however.

Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Makurosu, Ai Oboete imasu ka?
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This movie was a later recap of the old Macross TV series. It was updated with much better artwork (it is nice to have a bigger budget), and a slightly modified storyline. The altered storyline was later worked into the official Macross timeline by Kawamori-san by saying that it was a movie done about the war by the survivors of the war much later.
I mostly enjoyed this movie because of the slightly different portrayal, as well as the (much) better artwork. They managed to not reuse footage in this one (a pet peeve from the original series was the extensive reuse of video).
It also has a great shot of a beer-can missile. (When my video capture board arrives (soon), I'll see about putting a shot of it here. :)

Overall, I'd rate this movie as a 5 out of ten, based largely on nostalgia and art.

Macross Plus, Movie Edition
Makurosu Purasu, MOVIE EDITION
¥Þ¥¯¥í¥¹¡¦¥×¥é¥¹ MOVIE EDITION

If you've seen the OVA series, Macross Plus, this one is very similar. It is based on a one-time love triangle, between Isamu, Myung, and Guld. Isamu and Guld were once the best of friends, but their rivalry over Ming led to them fighting. Having not seen each other for several years, they are now rival test pilots, with Isamu being the bold, reckless, instinctive pilot, and Guld being the cold, calculating pilot with the higher-technology plane. The testing is set up so that one of the mecha will be chosen for the final military design.

The movie follows their conflicts, especially when, unexpectedly, Myung comes to their planet. She is now the manager for the virtual idol Sharon Apple (a singer).

Art is about as interesting here as it was for Macross: DYRL. The mecha designs and such were quite good. The character designs, however, were a bit distracting (although not as much as Armitage III), as the noses of many of the characters were absolutely huge. It also has a bit of the same trouble that El Hazard does, in that they try to draw hands very realistically, but they never come out quite right.

Other than the small problems I had with the art (and they were small), this movie is technically very good. It has some interesting use of CGI for some rather intriguing sequences that would probably be far more interesting while intoxicated. I wouldn't say that the CGI is blended in with the cel painting (it definitely isn't), but it is used very well. It also had very good music (the opening song, "Voices" just has to be heard. It is absolutely fantastic.), mostly with a classical feel. It also had a very good surround mix (unusual for a Japanese movie; most of the Japanese surround mixes I've heard I would definitely rate as sub-par). Overall, I'd rate this one at about a 8.5 out of ten (one of the points comes directly from that opening song.  The soundtrack, btw, is available domestically from JVC, and is highly recommended).

Maison Ikkoku Movie (Kyouko's Secret)
Kyouko-san no Himitsu
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This movie takes place between episodes 92 & 93 of the TV series. Warning: spoiler for the TV series here! This movie takes place just before Kyouko and Yuusaku get married. Interestingly, the character Nozomu Nikaido, who doesn't appear in the TV series, appears here. Mostly, this story involves everyone sitting around talking about the upcoming wedding. It does have Mr. Ichinose talking to Mr. Chigusa (Kyouko's father) for a good part of the movie, as well.  This movie is also on my "Must watch again" list.

My Neighbor Totoro
Tonari no Totoro
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It might sound silly for a 25-year-old computer programmer to say, but this movie is one of my favorites, of any genre. It's about Satsuki and Mei (pictured above, with the hat), two young Japanese girls, who move to the countryside. At the time, their mother is in the hospital (most likely with TB).

While opening up their house, they run across these little black dust motes (makkuro-kurosuke, literally "Ebon Black-thingies"; translated as "dust bunnies", which they do resemble), which run away from them. The next day, while Satsuki is in school, Mei explores the yard. She discovers several creatures, forest spirits, called Totoros. The rest of the movie follows the girls' adventures with the Totoro's, as well as their mother's health.

This is a wonderful movie for reminding one of the wonders of nature, and the world. I would rate this movie as a 9.5 out of ten. As a children's movie, I would rate it as a perfect ten.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa
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This movie was Miyazaki-sensei's first.  It was based on his manga of the same name (serialized in Animage), although, because the movie was made long before the manga finished, there are very significant differences in the plot.  Also, to make the whole manga series into a movie would have required a work as long as a TV miniseries.

Anyway, all that being out of the way, Nausicaa is a young princess from the Valley of the Wind.  This is a post-apocalyptic world, where much of the world is covered by a poisonous miasma. In these forests live enormous insects, the chief of which is called the Ohmu (²¦êµ; the meaning is 'king insect', but the reading comes from the japanese pronunciation of 'worm' (think Dune)).  Nausicaa seems to be able to communicate with the insects in some limited form, and tries to make sure that her people live in peace with the forest.  Trouble starts, however, when a plane from a nearby kingdom (Pejitei) crashes in the valley with valuable cargo.  A princess (Kushana) from another neighboring kingdom (Tolmekia) invades to get the cargo.

Can Nausicaa keep everyone from killing each other (and the bugs from killing all of them)?  This is a very dramatic tale that is quite deep (and the manga is even deeper).  I would give the movie an 8 out of ten.  The manga is available in translation from Viz Comics, and is even more highly recommended.

Only Yesterday
Omohide Poroporo
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This is a quiet, introspective film from Studio Ghibli, directed by Takahata Isao (¹âȪ·®).

Pompoko
Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pompoko
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This was a fairly odd movie following a tribe of tanuki (japanese... almost raccoons) who are trying to protect their forest from being developed into houses.  These tanuki, however, have magical powers, so they actually do have some ability to get their way.  (Unfortunately, I ran into the limit of my Japanese trying to figure out where those powers came from, so I don't know.)

Most of this movie was pretty fun, although the ending was somewhat bittersweet.   Still, it is a very enjoyable movie, and I'd recommend it quite highly.  The music was also quite good.  It was Japan's entry for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award for 1994.  I'd rate it as an 8.5 out of ten, personally.

Porco Rosso
Kurenai no Buta, Porco Rosso
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Porco is a biplane-flying pig. If that isn't a strange enough precept, I don't know what is.

Princess Mononoke
Mononoke Hime
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Must watch again, preferably with better understanding.

Ranma Movie 1 (Super Decisive Battle at Nekonron China)
Big Trouble in Nekonron, China
Chuugoku Nekonron Daikessen
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Like most of Ranma, this movie is very silly, but a lot of fun. It starts out with a great scene involving the whole cast of the series chasing Happosai, who is out chasing after women's underwear, as usual. The scene is broken up by a new character, Lychee, and her pet elephant. She accuses Happosai of something along the lines of stealing her innocence when he gave her a (seemingly magical) scroll some time ago. She throws it at him, and it bounces into Akane's hands. On cue, an airborne ship shows up, bearing the seven gods of fortune and good luck, whose leader chooses Akane as his fiance, based on her possession of the scroll.

The rest of the movie follows the cast trying to save her. I would rate this movie as a 6 out of ten.

Ranma Movie 2 (Final Fight for Peach Paradise)
Nihao, My Concubine
Kessen Tougenkyou! Hanayome wo Torimodose!!
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This is another really amusing and silly Ranma movie.  Kunou invites Akane and Ranma (in girl form, of course) on a cruise on his new boat.  The rest of the gang invite themselves along, so everyone goes sailing.  A storm hits, the Gilligan syndrome sets in, and everyone is stuck on a deserted island.   Shortly, the women, starting with Kasumi, start disappearing.  The men, despairing of ever eating decent food (Akane, being the last to vanish, has volunteered to cook), search desperately for the women.

They find out that the women are on the next island over, but can they get them back?   This movie actually has Ranma saying something sensitive.  Will wonders never cease.

Overall, I liked this movie a lot.  It does have even stronger hints of actually pairing off the main characters than the manga manages in its (IMO, rather lame) ending.   I'd rate this as a 6.5 out of ten.

ShinKOR: That Summer's Beginning
Shin-Kimagure Orenji Roodo: Ano Natsu no Hajimari
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This was a movie that I found very disappointing. KOR is one of my favorite series, but I was not all that thrilled with what was done to it in this movie. First, and most painfully, the gorgeous character designs by Akeda Takemi (ÌÀÅÄÉðÈþ) were replaced with newer, supposedly more mature-looking ones by ??.   They also did not get Wada Kanako (ÏÂÅĶâ»Ò) to do the music, and that definitely detracted.  One of the bigger pulls of the original series was the fantastic music (there is a reason that I have six or seven of the original's soundtracks :).

Second, the story was mucked with a bit. In the novel on which this movie was based, the three main characters are never actually together, but in the movie they seem to be opening up the possibility that the triangle will be reestablished. That would be painful enough after seeing the first movie, but it really doesn't make sense after reading the manga.

Overall, I'd give this movie a 4 out of ten. Nostalgia, and such, give it one or two of those points. I should point out, though, to be fair, that what I mentioned bothered me much more than it did most of the people on the KOR mailing list. YMMV, of course.

Tenchi Muyou in Love
Tenchi Muyou in Love
Å·ÃÏ̵ÍÑ in Love

This was a fairly odd movie based loosely on the OVA's. Unfortunately, there were already two separate continuities, one for the OVA's and another for the TV series. Instead of deciding to use either of those, they created a third one. This means, among other things, we needed a third introduction for everyone. The story here focused on Tenchi's mother, in some sort of time travel paradox loop (ok, I need to rewatch to remember the details).

Whisper of the Heart
Mimi wo Sumaseba
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This is a very gentle movie directed by the late Kondo Yoshifumi (¶áÆ£´îʸ), with character designs by Miyazaki. Shizuko (above, right) is a young girl in middle school. She lives with her head in the clouds, always reading books, usually of mythology or fairy tales. Eventually, she notices the name Amasawa Seiji (above, left) is on the check-out card of most of the books that she is reading.

One day, on an errand, she runs across a cat on the subway. Curious, she follows the cat to its home. The house she discovers is at the top of a large hill, overlooking the city where she lives. She meets Seiji there, and finds that he already knows what he wants to do with his life. He wants to make violins, and is soon to go to Italy to become much better at that.

The movie, from then, follows her following her dreams. With some encouragement from her father, and Seiji's grandfather, she explores her dreams a bit. I'd rate this movie as an 8.5 out of ten (bonus half point or so for the excellent Dolby Digital mix).

Wings of Honneamise
Ouritsu Uchuugun ~ Oneamisu no Tsubasa
‰¤—§‰F’ˆŒR`ƒIƒlƒAƒ~ƒX‚Ì—ƒ

This was a movie that I need to watch again.  It was a very good movie byGainax, about the race for space.  Shirotsugu is a pilot in the Royal Air Space Force, who has dreamed about going into space.  The movie is about his following his dream.  It is a very slow, quiet movie, with pretty decent music.   Not recommended if you're already feeling tired, however.

Still, I did enjoy this movie.  It is also one of two movies about which I'll say that I liked the dub. (The other being Totoro.)  I'm told, however, that the message delivered at the end of the movie is radically different in the dub.  Overall, I'd rate this movie as about a 6 out of ten.

This page brought to you by Dave Clemmer. Last modified on Nov 12, 1999.