On cultural criticism: Thinking through Miyazaki’s latest and last attempt, the animated film The Wind Rises

In Daniel Clowes’ Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art—a brilliant graphic novel that unveils the medium and functions of comix broadly through a simple explanation of lines, panels, and colors—there is one particularly moving sequence. In it he describes the distinction between the hyperrealism of some comics, and the effectiveness of simplicity. He says, in three squares: “Something as simple and as basic—as a cartoon . . . When you look at a photo or a realistic drawing of a face—you see it as the face of another. But when you enter the world of the cartoon—you see yourself.” This last sentence is accompanied by a simple line drawing of a circle with two dots (for eyes) and a straight line for a mouth. The insightful comment Clowes is making here is that the simplicity of the drawing allows the viewer to project themselves onto the image they see on the screen. They convert themselves into what they see. They project their images of themselves onto the reality of the screen.

So too in Hayao Miyazaki’s supposed swan song The Wind Rises. This film is by the founder of the famed animation studio Ghibli, which produced such films as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Both of these latter films are surrealistic dream worlds, with larger than life animals and spirits playing a part in human quests and affairs. Though animated, these films attract a wide audience. Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan, eclipsed only by James Cameron’s Titanic. This large attraction attests to the wide commercial appeal.