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MIYAZAKI ARTICLES

Subject:  1.) NAUSICAA "video-single" CD review (THE ROSE, 9/91)
L#00079   2.) KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE review (THE JAPAN TIMES, 8/29/89)
L#00174   3.) NAUSICAA & DUNE (JAPANESE ANIMATION NEWS & REVIEW, 7/91)
L#00396   4.) Japanese film [KIKI is mentioned] (L.A. TIMES, 4/4/90)
L#00595   5.) Culled comments from THE ART OF TOTORO re the Totoros' ages
L#00630   6.) KIKI video insert translation (THE ROSE, November 1991)
L#00700   7.) Miyazaki retrospective, i.e. "Totoro Power" (JAN&R, 9/91)
L#00802   8.) PORCO ROSSO preview (THE ROSE, February 1992)
L#00886   9.) Pre-NAUSICAA BOOK 5 Synopsis (ANIMAGE, 4/4/90 [AH, 3/92])
L#01179  10.) PORCO ROSSO & HASHIRE MEROSU (ASASHI EVENING NEWS, 7/24/92)
L#01255  11.) PORCO ROSSO review (THE JAPAN TIMES, 7/28/92)
L#01346  12.) TOTORO review (Steven Feldman, November 20, 1989)
L#01418  13.) TOTORO review (THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, May 7, 1993)
L#01518  14.) TOTORO review (NEWSDAY, May 14, 1993)
L#01575  15.) TOTORO review (THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS; May 13-15?; 1993)
L#01614  16.) TOTORO review (THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 14, 1993)
L#01673  17.) TOTORO review (Robert Plamondon, May 18, 1993)
L#01748  18.) TOTORO review (THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, May 8, 1993)
L#01846  19.) TOTORO review (THE SAN JOSE MERCURY, May 10, 1993)
L#01920  20.) TOTORO review (SISKEL & EBERT, May 9, 1993)
L#02093  21.) TOTORO review (VARIETY, May 10, 1993)
L#02155  22.) Studio Ghibli & Retirement (Rheault Sylvain, 12/15/93)
L#02274  23.) Nausicaa in LUM episode #185 (Jefery Roberts, May 19, 1994)
L#02381  24.) Troma's MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO presskit (from before May 1993)
L#02947  25.) Allegory in LAPUTA (Bryan Wilkinson, January 20, 1994)
L#03008  26.) BATMAN & Fleischer 'toons re Miyazaki (two quotes, 1/13/94)


========================================================================
Subject:  1.) NAUSICAA "video-single" CD review (THE ROSE, 9/91)


    The following review of the "Nausicaa: Seven Times of Fire" video-
  single, written by Jerry Driess, is from page 7 of the July 1991 issue
   (Vol. 5, #28) of THE ROSE (the bi-monthly fanzine of Anime Hasshin):

VIDEO/CD REVIEW
NAUSICAA: SEVEN TIMES OF FIRE
by Jerry Dreiss

     Video singles are a rare format.  These five inch discs are a cross
between laser discs and compact discs, holding up to five minutes of
video plus twenty minutes of digitally recorded music.  The video can be
played only on combination CD/laserdisc players^, but the additional
music can be played on a regular CD player.
     Tokuma Japan Corporation has released one such video single for
Hayao Miyazaki's NAUSICAA.  It features Jo Hisaishi's title music to this
great film.  The music is beautifully recorded.  The sound quality is
extremely good on this disc.
     Unfortunately, the video portion is a let-down.  It is not actual
animation from the film, as I had hoped.  Instead, the makers of this
disc reshot the title artwork with a video camera.  This art, as you may
recall, was a mosaic depiction of the holocaust that destroyed the world.
It featured primitive paintings of the giant God Soldiers destroying
cities, the creation of the fungal forest, and the prophesied blue-clad
savior who, on a sea of gold, would deliver her people.  To give the
feeling of animation, the disc's makers used several video tricks,
including pans, zooms, and split-screen images to tell the legend
sequentially.  While the intention is to give the images some drama, the
effects diminish the understated beauty of the original images.
     A further drawback to this disc is its short length.  It clocks in
at only 3 minutes and 12 seconds, of which 32 seconds are taken up by
credits.  The actual artwork was used in the film for only a minute.
Unlike most video singles, this disc does not include any additional
audio-only tracks.
     While it is an interesting collector's item (video singles in
general are rare, and ones of Japanese animation ever rarer), I found the
disc not to be worth the 1,200 yen (approximately $13.85).  Collectors
and Miyazaki completists should know that this is just the first of four
video singles of his films.

[^ CDV players are not widely available in the US.  The most common
version is made for the Sega game system as an optional piece.  Japan and
possibly Canada sell CDV players.  -- Lynn Savage]

========================================================================
Subject:  2.) KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE review (THE JAPAN TIMES, 8/29/89)


From THE JAPAN TIMES, August 29, 1989:
[This English-language newspaper, published in Japan, is intended mainly
for foreigners living in Japan.]

"`Majo' delivers innovative world of animation"
By MARK SCHILLING

    The Japanese have a huge appetite for animation, as one glance at
a TV or -- at this time of year -- a movie schedule will confirm.
Much of that appetite, of course, is fed with junk: endless recyclings
of superhero fantasy or schoolyard humor.
    But this large potential audience, which includes legions of
junior and senior high school *anime* fans, has given Japanese
animators a creative freedom unknown to most of their American and
European counterparts.  Instead of catering exclusively to the very
young (and their "young-at-heart" parents), they can attempt a more
sophisticated storyline and treatment without worrying about confusing
-- or losing -- their audience.
    One of the most innovative of these animators is Hayao Miyazaki,
who started his career with Toei Animation -- the largest animation
studio in Asia -- more than two decades ago.  In the course of that
career, Miyazaki has developed a highly distinctive style that
combines free-form fantasy with a meticulously observed reality.  His
animals talk and his children fly, but they perform these miracles in
a world where windows stick and the heroine catches cold in the rain.
And his artwork has a lushness and love of detail that rivals classic
Disney.
    In his latest film, "Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service),"
Miyazaki reaches new heights of not only physical but psychological
realism.  His heroine, Kiki, is more than a witch with a shaky command
of her broom (she has a distressing habit of bouncing off buildings).
She is also a very real 13-year-old girl -- and a better actress of
her flesh-and-blood contemporaries.
    Miyazaki, who produced, directed and wrote the script for the
film, explores states usually considered the province of "live"
movies.  Besides showing courage and spunk -- standard stuff for a
cartoon heroine -- Kiki experiences boredom, depression and
embarrassment.
    The last is particularly interesting.  After spending her first
night at the home of a baker and his wife, Kiki wakes up and, still in
her nightgown, steps outside.  From her second-story room, which opens
into a courtyard, she can see an outhouse down below.  She trots down
the steps, dashes into the outhouse and, a few moments later, peeps
out.  To her surprise, she sees the baker -- a young, silent giant --
stretching his muscles and walking slowly across the courtyard toward
a storeroom.  The moment he is out of sight, she runs back up the
steps, dives into her room and shuts the door, breathing hard.
    This scene does absolutely nothing to advance the plot and the
humor in it is low (Disney would reject it out of hand), but in
Miyazaki's hands it wordlessly -- and eloquently -- expresses Kiki's
youth, vulnerability and isolation.  A small triumph of understated
but sharp observation, it allows us, for one clear moment, to see into
the heart of an adolescent girl.
    The movie is sprinkled with similar moments, but it is also very
much an entertainment for kids.  Here again, Miyazaki is successful,
though boys might find Kiki's adventures a little tame.  The story is
a quest: Kiki's mother, a witch, sends her witch-in-training daughter
on a yearlong journey to complete her apprenticeship.
    Kiki, after spending a rough night riding through the rain and
sleeping in a boxcar, arrives at a city on the seacoast.  Here she
finds that policemen do not appreciate her aerial acrobatics and that
hotels do not accept underage witches.
    She is saved from the park bench by a baker's wife, who offers her
a room after Kiki helps her return a pacifier (by broom, of course) to
a forgetful customer.  This gives the baker's wife an idea: Kiki can
pay for her room and board by operating a delivery service.
    Thus title -- and the premise for much of the action.  On her
rounds Kiki meets an 18-year-old artist who becomes her best friend,
an elderly lady who takes an interest in her welfare and a 13-year-old
boy who makes a pest of himself.
    These people become a substitute family, one that she needs very
much when, midway through her stay, she loses her powers.  Her black
cat no longer talks to her, her broom no longer rises into the air.
Miyazaki's depiction of her struggle to regain those powers is his
great achievement in this film, and he shows her desperation, despair
-- and eventual triumph -- with striking vividness.  He doesn't shy
from melodrama, but the most telling scenes tend to be the smaller
ones that, like Kiki's race from the outhouse, contain nuggets of
emotional truth.
    The setting, however, is a complete fiction, with the cultural
coherence of shopping bag prose.  Kiki's city is a jumble of European
styles, with a dash of San Francisco thrown in for good measure.  Time
is also warped in strange ways: The streets are filled with old-time
cars, the houses, with microwave ovens.  All of these "mistakes,"
however, are quite deliberate: They make the city a pleasantly bizarre
blend of old-fashioned charm and modern convenience where a young
witch with a Walkman hanging from her broom can fit right in.
    "Kiki's Delivery Service" is more than a place to park the kids
for two hours -- it is a surprisingly moving celebration of the
animator's art that deserves a wider audience.

=========================================================================
Subject:  3.) NAUSICAA & DUNE (JAPANESE ANIMATION NEWS & REVIEW, 7/91)


The following article is reprinted from JAPANESE ANIMATION NEWS & REVIEW
(The Official Newsletter of Hokubei Anime-kai [North American Anime
Circle]) Vol. 1, #4 (July 1991), pages 4, 5 & the bottom 2/5 of page 10.

                        "NAUSICAA" AND "DUNE":
        THE INTERTWINED WORLDS OF FRANK HERBERT AND HAYAO MIYAZAKI

By David Moisan

     Many readers of this fanzine have read Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of
the Valley of the Wind."  As Miyazaki relates in Part 1 (Book 3, "On
Nausicaa," p. 48), Nausicaa was inspired by a 5th-century Japanese
princess who loved insects, and the girl of the same name that rescued
Odysseus in Homer's "Odyssey."

     Many of you may also know Frank Herbert's "Dune," one of the great
masterpieces of science fiction.  Ever since I saw the film version of
"Nausicaa," I have always wondered if Miyazaki took his inspiration from
Herbert's novel.

     One wonders: how can a story about a desert planet, a galactic
empire and an emerging messiah be like a story about a toxic forest, the
remnants of humanity and a girl trying to understand her world and save
her kingdom?  After reading both books, I've concluded that "Dune" was
indeed the catalyst for Miyazaki's work.  (Note: I'm referring to the
graphic novel version of the story.)

     Consider first the ecologies of the two stories.  What impressed me
most about the stories is the sheer intensity of the portrayal of their
respective ecologies.  Herbert's Arrakis is a desert planet almost devoid
of water; its inhabitants, the Fremen, wear stillsuits that recycle their
bodies' moisture.  Water is life; water is wealth.  The quest to conserve
water has driven the Fremen to become the greatest practicing ecologists
in the Imperium.

     Compare this with Nausicaa's world: 1000 years after an apocalyptic
war (the Seven Days of Fire), Earth is buried under a great toxic forest
whose atmospheric exhalations are poisonous.  An entire ecosystem has
evolved--giant insects roam the forest.  The few humans which have
survived wear masks against the poisonous atmosphere and guard their soil
and water against poisonous spores.  In the depths of the forest, a
tribe--the Forest People--has learned how to live with the forest and the
insects.

     Arrakis has its "makers," huge sandworms that move through the
desert, devouring all in their path, including humans.  Makers are part
of a complex ecological cycle that produces melange, that unique spice
that prolongs life and brings prescient visions and makes Arrakis the
richest planet in the empire.

     Earth's toxic forests are home to the Ohmu, giant (100'+) 12-eyed,
sentient insects that also play an active role in their ecosystem; every
300 years, in the "Daikaisho" ("Great Wave of the Sea"), enraged Ohmu and
other forest insects thunder through human settlements in great herds.
The Ohmu then die from exhaustion, toxic plants sprout from their
corpses, and the forest expands its boundaries.

     Furthermore, the forest is also changing.  Gradually, the trees of
the jungle are absorbing the toxins in the soil and disintegrating,
leaving a desert with clean air.  Both Yupa and Nausicaa have discovered
this, and both wonder about the implications.

     Let's now turn to the people of "Nausicaa": in Miyazaki's Earth,
three groups predominate: the Dorok Principalities, the Torumekian Empire
and the Periphery, the small kingdoms (including Nausicaa's own, the
Valley of Wind) that were once part of Eftal.  As mentioned earlier, the
Forest People live in the depths of the toxic jungle.  The Torumekians
are at war against the Doroks, for reasons unexplained, and the Doroks
are waging an especially brutal counterattack.  The Periphery tribes,
officially affiliated with Torumekia, are caught in the middle.

     The Dorok Principalities have a ruling priesthood that is not unlike
the Bene Gesserit, adepts who could detect falsehood and control others
by the sound of their voice.  Most tribal priests are telepathic, and
have other similar talents.

     But the real power of the Doroks lies in their research on genetic
engineering, which plays a large role in Miyazaki's story.  Remember the
Bene Tlielax from "Dune"--they were mercenary, amoral scientists who
didn't concern themselves with the consequences of their work as long as
they profited from it; they specialized in the creation of synthetic life
(like "twisted" Mentats, killer Suk Doctors and so on).

     The Dorok scientists are just like that.  There's a crucial scene in
Part 2 (Book 2, p. 41) where Charuka, the warrior-priest charged with
finding Nausicaa, is talking to one of them about a newly-developed spore
that is more poisonous than anything in the toxic forest, and gets a
reply that suggests that the scientists were not thinking of its possible
effects.

     Indeed, this is borne out when one of the spores escapes from a
Dorok air-monitor and grows to an enormous size on the surface--putting
the entire Earth at risk!

     Taking the place of the Imperium is the Torumekian Empire.
Actually, the Torumekian royal family has many of the attributes of House
Harkonnen: they are brutal fratricidists who've no compunctions about
turning family members against one another for personal gain.  It helps
that the Vai Emperor, and the Three Princes all resemble the Baron in
physique!  (Baron Karkonnen was that "floating fat man" who needed
suspensors to support his great weight.)

     On the other hand, Princess Kushana, fourth daughter of the Emperor,
is quite different from her brothers.  She is a brilliant tactician who
trained her army, the 3rd, into the finest of Torumekia in much the same
way that Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck trained the Duke's army.
Despite having been betrayed by her father and her brothers by having her
army stripped from her, she still maintains a great sense of honor and
integrity that Duke Leto might have understood--like his, her army's
loyalty to her is legendary.

     There are further parallels--like the Fremen and the Forest People.
On Arrakis, the Fremen dream of making the planet green.  Pardot Keynes,
the Imperial Planetologist, taught the Fremen about their planet's
ecology, and set into motion a plan that would make Arrakis green within
500 years.  The Fremen are secretive about their plans--they bribe the
Spacing Guild to keep weather satellites from the skies.  The Fremen are
underestimated and underrecognized by both House Harkonnen and the
Emperor, to their peril.

     The Forest People have a similar history.  During the last
Daikaisho, 300 years before the events in the story, they were subjects
of the Kingdom of Eftal, destroyed in a brutal civil war that sparked the
Daikaisho.  They were led into the forest by the "blue-clad one," who
showed them how to survive there.  One can easily imagine that the Doroks
and the Torumekians would have the same disregard for the Forest People
as House Harkonnen and the Emperor had for the Fremen.

     They also seem secretive.  When Yupa meets the Forest People for the
first time, he asks one of them, Selm, about the change in the forest:

     "As the trees fossilize and crumble, the cavities should expand
upward from the roots of the forest.  What happens when they reach the
surface?  Please . . . tell us!  It's been a thousand years since the
forest was formed--somewhere on this planet must be lands where it has
already happened."  (Part 2, Book 2, p. 48)

     Selm rebuffs him: "It is forbidden to speak of these things."

     We now come to the real pivot of both stories: Nausicaa and Paul
Muad'Dib.  Throughout Herbert's story, Paul Atreides struggled to learn
his true purpose, and we see him evolve from a naive son of a duke, dimly
aware of life's realities, into the Kwisatz Haderach, the man who can see
all realities, past, present and future.  Paul glimpses his "terrible
purpose"--a jihad, and tries in vain to stop it.  Paul, like his father,
has tremendous personal magnetism which he uses to unite the Fremen and
overthrow the Emperor.

     Nausicaa apparently follows a similar path.  Like Paul, she has an
uncanny ability to lead and direct; but, like Keynes, she is also one
with her environment, able to communicate with the Ohmu and the other
insects.  Nausicaa has a talent much like the Voice, the Bene Gesserit
means of command.

     Gradually, Nausicaa realizes that she has a purpose, though she
doesn't yet know what it is.  At first, when the Torumekians order her to
war as the representative of the Valley, she's afraid, both of the war,
and of what she might herself do in anger--she killed a Torumekian
soldier with Kushana's search party at the beginning of the story.  After
her encounter with the baby Ohmu in Part 1, Book 5, she becomes
determined to find her purpose.

     There's something else:  Herbert developed the concept of racial
memory; the Fremen are able, under controlled circumstances, to directly
experience the memories of their ancestors, aided by the Water of Life,
the exhalations of a drowned Maker.  Paul uses the Water of Life to make
his final transformation into the Kwisatz Haderach.

     As we've seen in "Nausicaa," the Ohmu are sentient and telepathic.
When Nausicaa is unconscious under the forest, an Ohmu speaks to her:
"Little One, our race has known of your coming since years gone by . . .
Our hearts speak across time and space . . ." (Part 1, Book 3, p. 22)
So, the Ohmu are telepathic and possibly prescient!  Midway through the
story, the Dorok priest of the Mani tribe has a vision of the "Blue-Clad
One"--Nausicaa!!  When the Forest People mention the "Blue-Clad One,"
Yupa wonders:

     "Is the Blue-Clad One just the hope passed down by the aboriginal
Dorok religions based on an historical person?  Or are they real people,
created by the very lifeforce of our species, *reaching across space and
time* in our moment of need . . . ?" (Part 2, Book 2, p. 50, emphasis
added)

     It would seem that Miyazaki is headed for a conjunction of events
that is every bit as portentous as the final chapters in "Dune."
Whatever happens, like the Daikaisho, there'll be a wave like the one
that made Paul Muad'Dib Atreides into the Emperor of the galaxy.  Of
course, there's much in "Dune" that is unlike "Nausicaa"--CHOAM, the
Great Houses, and the Spacing Guild are among many things that don't
appear in the story.  Paul Atreides was brought up in a militaristic
feudal society; Nausicaa, in a peaceful agrarian society (the Valley of
Wind).  Both are products of their respective societies.  It's unlikely
that Paul and Nausicaa even have the same philosophy; Nausicaa probably
wouldn't want to be Emperor any more than Paul would want to study the
trees and the forest.

     However, Miyazaki, like Herbert, understands the most important
principle behind ecology: the study of consequences.  And he is, in his
own way, exploring the messianic impulse as Herbert did.  Ecological
messianism is the "real" parallel between "Nausicaa" and "Dune."  It's a
great example of literary cross-pollination--what a shame that Herbert
and Miyazaki will never meet!  (Frank Herbert died of cancer in 1987.)

                              END


     If you enjoyed the article above and are interested in joining
Hobukei Anime-kei, below are the particulars for facilitating just this
very thing (requests for additional information should include an SASE):

       Bill Ames               ñ$14 per year in USA, A.P.O.s & F.P.O.s;
       Hokubei Anime-kai        $16.25 per year in Canada; $24 a year
       POB 279                  elsewhere (via airmail).  All payments
       Botsford, CT 06404       must be made in US funds drawn on a US
       [phone]           account, or by postal money order.ç

                 -- Steven Feldman <[e-mail]>, 3/29/94

========================================================================
Subject:  4.) Japanese film [KIKI is mentioned] (L.A. TIMES, 4/4/90)


From the L.A. TIMES, April 4, 1990 (Section F, page 1, column 4):

JAPAN'S MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY IS LEARNING THAT THE SUN ALSO SINKS FILM:
Despite the reputation of it's classic cinema, the business is starving
for good scripts but churning out plenty of movies that rarely make a
profit.

By Karl Schoenberger

     TOKYO--After nearly 11 years of reviewing Japanese films in a weekly
column for the Asahi Evening News, critic Alan Booth threw in the towel
last December with a one word verdict on the latest Godzilla movie:
     "Monstrous."
     He went on to pan the state of contemporary Japanese cinema.  Booth,
a trenchant British writer who first came to Japan in 1970 to study noh
drama, confessed that he enjoyed only a couple dozen of the 510 Japanese
movies he had reviewed.  A mere handful had been "memorable."
     "Most of the time, buying a ticket and going into a cinema has been
a chore, not a pleasure,"  Booth wrote.  "In all honesty, I think that a
weekly review of Japanese films is an unnecessarily promiscuous use of
recycled rain forest timber."
     Such peevishness may seem at odds with the international reputation
of Japan's classic cinema.  Only the other day, Hollywood paid homage to
one of the great Japanese directors--the venerable Akira Kurosawa, 80,
creator of "Rashomon," "Seven Samarai" and "Ran"--with an honorary Oscar
for lifetime achievement.
     But from the vantage point of the theatre seat in Tokyo, Kurosawa
and his ilk are phantoms of the past.  The Japanese motion-picture
industry is now at its nadir, starving for good scripts, stifling
creativity with miserly production budgets and churning out a lot of
trashy movies that rarely make much money.
     Consider last year's No. 1 box office hit, "Kiki's Delivery
Service," which pulled in about $35 million in ticket sales.  This was an
animated film about a clumsy adolescent witch who delivers packages by
broomstick.  Animator Hayao Miyazaki lumped dirigibles with television
sets in an oddly incoherent European landscape, where signs at the
boulangerie are written in [missing part here, I don't know what
happened...a Times boo-boo I think].
     Miyazaki's fable about the rite of passage into teen-age self-
confidence still managed to outshine most of the rest of the domestic
film industry's 1989 crop, at least in terms of screenplay and production
quality.  And Kiki's acting was arguably more realistic than the
melodramatic outbursts of her human colleagues.
     "Why is it that contemporary Japan is so advanced economically, but
has so few serious movies to show the world it's culture?" asked Kazuki
Komori, a veteran film critic and James Dean fanatic who visits her
idol's grave in Indiana every summer.
     "I see a lot of foreign films, so when I review Japanese productions
I've got to lower my standards drastically," said Komori, 81, who wore
gold tights and pancake makeup during a recent interview at the "movie
cafe" she runs in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district. "The scripts
are so bad to begin with [that] there's not much you could do, even with
the best of actors."
     Japan's most prestigious film of 1989 was "Black Rain" (Kuroi Ame),
in which director Shohei Imamura ministers over an agonizing, sentimental
adaptation of Masuji Ibuse's classic novel about a family's suffering
caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
     "Black Rain" swept the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards,
garnered two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and drew enthusiastic
audiences in Paris and New York.
     Curiously, the movie's cinematographic style--grainy black and
white--is a throwback to the 1950s.  The viewer looks back with nostalgia
to the "golden era" of Japanese cinema, when directors like Kurosawa,
Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu attracted international acclaim--Imamura
himself did some of his better work.
     Although the A-bomb melodrama was an artistic success, it put on a
flat performance at the box office.  "Kiki," the colorful cartoon movie,
took in 27 times more in receipts than "Black Rain."  But the little
witch earned only half as much as the top imported film of last year, the
latest Indiana Jones installment, according to the trade magazine Kinema
Jumpo.
     "You have to be a little crazy to make quality films in Japan,"
Imamura said the other day. "My work may have a high artistic reputation,
but I don't make any money at this.  I'm not starving, but I have lots of
debts."
     Imamura, 63, lives on a modest salary from a filmmaking school he
founded.
     Ironically, while independent producer-directors like Imamura are
struggling to raise cash for their films, a surge of Japanese capital
is now flowing into Hollywood.
     Last year Sony Corp. raised xenophobic hackles about "buying the
soul of America" with its $3.4 billion takeover of Columbia pictures.
Sony's avowed aim was to satisfy an itch for American software to
complement its formidable hardware capabilities in VCR technology and
high-definition television.
     Likewise, another major electronics maker, Victor Co. of Japan Ltd.
(JVC), invested more than $100 million last year in a new US film
production company, Largo Entertainment.  JVC had earlier funded director
Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train"--starring a young Japanese couple in
search of Elvis.
     Such corporate largess has so far eluded Japan's most reputable
filmmakers.  Kurosawa, for one, has been forced to go outside the
Japanese industry to finance his films for nearly two decades.  At home,
his genius is considered too expensive--and too risky.
     Juzo Itami, the satirical master who directed "Tampopo" and "The
Taxing Woman," had to morgage his house to finance his first film.
Luckily it was a hit.
     "A film like 'Seven Samurai' could never be made today," said Haruo
Mizuno, prominent film critic and loquacious TV movie host.  "The great
directors can't make movies anymore because producers are afraid they'll
have no control over how much money they'd spend.  As a result, there's
no big work being done in Japan, only small work."
     Mizuno speculates that "a lack of social tension" is partly to blame
for a kind of creative bankruptcy among today's younger screenwriters and
directors.  It was no accident that the "golden era" of film coincided
with the turbulent postwar period, he said.
     But money--or the lack of it--undoubtably is a key to the artistic
tailspin that Japanese cinema went into precisely about the time Kurosawa
started going abroad to finance his films.
     With the advent of television, Japan became a nation of what might
be called "tatami potatoes" [tatami are the straw mats covering the
floors of traditional Japanese homes].  Movie fans abandoned the big
screen and stayed home to watch their televisions and, later, VCRs.
     The movie market peaked in 1958, when Japanese bought 1.3 billion
cinema tickets.  Last year attendance was down to 143.5 million--13% of
the peak--and only 1,921 movie houses remained in business.
     Pinched by the loss of revenues, the major movie studios have almost
entirely gotten out of the business of producing feature films and
diversified into such enterprises as pornographic videos, bowling alleys,
real estate and off-track bicycle-race betting.
     In a few cases, companies outside the entertainment industry have
stepped in to underwrite film projects, with dubious results.
     The most notorious example of this genre was "Dun Huang," an
extravaganza period drama filmed along the Silk Road in China with
thousands of horses and extras in battle regalia arrayed across the
desert.  The heroes of "Dun Huang" emoted by screaming their lines at the
tops of their lungs.
     The $40 million production took in $30 million in film rentals in
1988, a "big hit" in Japan but apparently a disappointment as an
investment--despite aggressive ticket sale campaigns by two of its
corporate backers, Marubeni Corp., the trading company, and Dentsu Inc.,
the world's largest advertising agency.
     "'Dun Huang' was childish, below the common demoninator, a lousy
picture--and everybody knew it from the beginning," said Donald Richie,
the former film curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art and one of the
foremost authorities on Japanese film.
     Yet the Silk Road saga signaled a new direction for the film
industry.  C. Itoh & Co., another major trading house, helped finance
last year's "Rikyu," a lavish, dull production about a 16th century tea
master and his samurai political entanglements.  Hiroshi Teshigahara, a
star avant-garde director of the 1960s, returned from 17 years of silence
to make the film.  Theaters filled up largely because tea-ceremony and
flower-arrangement societies hawked tickets, critics say.
     How Japanese corporate cash will behave in Hollywood will be a
matter of keen interest.  Although Sony has vowed to take a hands-off
approach to managing its new studio, Richie is skeptical about the
Japanese company's ability to resist the temptation to meddle.
     "I believe the genius of the Japanese is to never take their hands
off things, to always be tinkering and making it better," he said.  "Will
they [Sony executives] start giving orders?  I can't imagine them not.  I
can't imagine any boss not giving orders."
     Meanwhile, in the anthropology of bad movies, Japan is a field
worker's dream.
     Last year, for instance, Japanese films dissected small-town
electoral corruption ("Conditions of a Virtuous Man"), transplanted
the "Rocky" boxing myth to a seedy section of Osaka ("Dotsuitaru-nen!"),
illuminated the stinking internal politics of a big newspaper ("Corporate
Funeral"), offered a guided tour of heaven--and hell-- by an actor famous
for playing gangsters ("The Great Spirit World") and proved that the
murderous leaders of a failed 1936 military coup were really sappy,
sentimental family men ("Four Days of Snow and Blood").
     The ultimate in Japanese cinema kitsch is the "Tora-san" series, a
maudlin comic drama that Japanese have been returning to every summer and
winter for 21 years.
     Director Yoji Yamada has racked up 42 installments so far of "It's
Tough to be a Man," a mark in the Guiness Book of World Records that not
even India's prolific film-makers seem close to challenging.  The films
are so safe that they are among the few still being produced by a major
studio.  (Each installment earns Shochiku Co. about $10 million in film
rentals.)  Kiyoshi Astumi stars as Torajiro Kuruma, or Tora-san, the
wandering peddler who strikes a chord in the nation's heart because he is
so carefree, unattached and independent--characteristics that are exactly
the antithesis of socially prescribed values.  Tora-san is the inverse
image of Japan's group-oriented, sacrificing Everyman.
     Until last January's No. 42 in the series, each film had the same
aging cast of characters and basically the same plot.  Tora-san returns
from his travels to a long-suffering family, falls in love with a new
woman, gets rejected, passes her on to a rival, then takes the road
again.
     "Seeing these films should be like wearing an old shirt," said
Yamada, Tora-san's creator, scriptwriter and director.  "People go to the
theatre to meet Tora-san, like a friend."
     There are signs now that the nostalgic ritual is finally winding
down.  In the latest film, Tora-san's nephew takes the lead, while he
steps back into an avuncular supporting role.
     What makes the Tora-san formula work so well isn't entirely clear to
Yamada, but that doesn't stop him from being philosphical.
     "Tora-san doesn't like to ride the bullet train--it goes so fast it
leaves his spirit behind.  He prefers to walk," Yamada said in an
interview.  "The Japanese have forgotten something in their hurry to
advance.  Tora-san is going back and picking up what we lost, so we can
go forward."

 END

========================================================================
Subject:  5.) Culled comments from THE ART OF TOTORO re the Totoros' ages


By Bryan C. Wilkinson (October 17, 1991):

     The Art of Totoro has a section at the beginning regarding early
conceptual work, some dating as far back as '79 when he was finishing
Cagliostro.  It is interesting to note the original character seems to be
a cross between Satsuki and Mei, and at an age between the two. Also
interesting is that the Susuatari had bodies and feet, and also existing
were "kobito"--little people resembling Chibi

     Miyazaki HIMSELF names/ages his proto-totoro critters thus (w/
current names for comparison):

Totoro: Miminzugu

O Toto: Ootouen, 1302 years
         (miminzug)
Chu Toto: Touen, 679 years
         (zugu)
Chibi Toto:  name ungiven, 109 years
         (min)

     The names in parentheses are written below the names, in dark
pencil, suggesting they were thought up and tacked on at a later time,
though it may be the other way around.  I suspect totoro's age is that of
the forest, and that Chu toto's corresponds to the camphor tree (which
looks about that age, I think), and Chibi is representative of the latest
generation of bigger trees.

The Infamous "Baron M."--
Bryan Wilkinson

=========================================================================
Subject:  6.) KIKI video insert translation (THE ROSE, November 1991)


The following is reprinted from THE ROSE Vol. 5 #30 (Nov. 1991), page 18:

KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE Video Insert
Translated by Kenskaa L. Takazaki
[Transliteration of names from kanji may not be accurate. -- KT]

KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE
directed by Hayao Miyazaki

     NAUSICAA, LAPUTA, TOTORO -- all famous works by Miyazaki which will
remain forever in anime history.  Finally, here is his latest work and
his first "girl movie".
     The original author, Kakuno Aieko*, has won a series of awards,
including the Children's Literature Award, Shogakukan Literature Award,
and the International Anderson Award.  Aieko's story is about a 13 year
old girl who struggles between "independence and dependence" and matures
from a child to an adult.  Showing interest in this novel, Miyazaki
commented how "it is a rare opportunity to create an animated production
directly from a children's novel."  Saying so, he made a script in which
a single person would have three separate roles.  His target is to
illustrate to the audience the "common loneliness and the uncertain
future that little girls feel when moving into a big city from the
countryside."  It is this point which makes this work into a "girl's
movie".
     Once 13, a witch must go by herself to a place where no witches live
to seek maturity for one year.  The main character, Kiki, can use only
one magical power, the ability to fly.  She makes use of it by working as
a delivery service girl.  It is here that she experiences the "loneliness
of the city".
     Yes, Kiki is indeed a witch.  However, her "ability to fly" is
parallel to each person's "special talent".  Anyone who struggles to
accomplish things bumps into the same wall Kiki bumps into.  To tell the
truth, the novel of KIKI is recent, and therefore today's youths will
discover the over-lap of similarity between his/her maturing experiences
with Kiki's.
     Observe the scenes of Kiki flying freely in the sky.  The audience
is pulled into these scenes and is made to feel the sensation of flying
over the village and the forests.  This sensation is truly characteristic
of Miyazaki's works.  The animated view of Sweden is one that can't be
missed.  The lifestyle between the witch and the human gives the audience
a sense of reality.  And as always, Miyazaki prepares that last thrilling
suspense at the end.
               *                *               *
     Miyazaki always gathers the best representatives of the anime world
for his staff members.  This time he has included many talented youths.
The character designer is Konfushi Shonari* (born 1963) and the voice
director is Katafuchi Sugichyoku* (born 1960).  The characters help add
to the sensation of the theme.
     The music producer is Kobosekijio*, who produced the music to
NAUSICAA.  The artist is Daino Kakushi* of LUPIN-CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO and
AKIRA.  The setting is produced by Konfushi Shonari plus Ohzuka* of
TOTORO.  One must not forget the music director, Takahata Isao.  He is
known by the famous music works LITTLE HEIDI OF THE ALPS, JALINKO CHIE
and FIREFLY'S GRAVE.  As a producer, he has helped Miyazaki with NAUSICAA
and LAPUTA.
     The significant difference that distinguishes Miyazaki's previous
works is probably the fact that he used the hit songs by Yumin* and Arai
Yujitsu*.  The two songs, "The Legend of Rouge" and "Being Surrounded by
Warmth", create just that "girl movie" atmosphere.
               *                *               *
     In addition to previous action themes by Miyazaki, KIKI'S DELIVERY
SERVICE focuses on the birth of a heroine, Kiki.  Miyazaki's powerful
theme and the different style appealed greatly to the audience.  A
staggering number of over 300 million people were attracted to this
masterpiece.

========================================================================
Subject:  7.) Miyazaki retrospective, i.e. "Totoro Power" (JAN&R, 9/91)


     The following article is reprinted from page 1 of the September,
1991 issue (Issue 5, Volume 1) of JAPANESE ANIMATION NEWS & REVIEW: THE
OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF HOKUBEI ANIME-KAI (NORTH AMERICAN ANIME CIRCLE).
The Editor (-in-Chief) is Mark A. Weiss, and this issue actually came out
in November -- despite the cover-date (because it's an AnimeCon Special).

HAYAO MIYAZAKI: A RETROSPECTIVE OF HIS FILMOGRAPHY
by Takatomo Nakagawa

Editor's Note: Takatomo Nakagawa is our Japanese correspondent.  His
writing appears in our publication from time to time in the form of an
open letter.  For the most part, I have made it a point to reprint his
writings in their original form.  As a result, some expressions may seem
unusual to our stateside readers, however, one should keep in mind the
perspective of the writer.  We are fortunate (and honored) to have the
first-hand information from Mr. Nakagawa appearing in our publication.  I
feel that his understanding of Mr. Miyazaki's work is enlightening, as
well as a treatise to help us understand the Japanese way of thought.

     I'm writing about Hayao Miyazaki.
     It is needless to write that he is the best anime maker in Japan; in
fact, he is the best and most popular "film" maker.  His popularity as a
film maker is as well as Akira Kurosawa's.  For example, TOTORO is the
second most popular movie of the Japanese, according to questionnaires
sent by the largest TV station -- NHK (the first is Samurai directed by
Akira Kurosawa).  And according to questionnaires sent by the largest
magazine -- PIA, NAUSICAA is the third of all (the first is E.T.).  As
above, people are divided into two factions, the NAUSICAA and the TOTORO
ones, but "Miyazaki-anime" finally has high popularity.  Not only anime
fans but also others love him.
     At first, he leapt into fame by LUPIN III THE CASTLE OF CALIOSTRO
(I don't know the spelling of it) in 1979.  This is an action movie of
good quality.  Some of "007" series, I have heard, were made after the
model of it.
     Before, he made a TV anime series FUTURE BOY CONAN in 1978.  This
anime was popular, but Mr. Miyazaki didn't become known to the public
yet.  CONAN is a compilation of anime making, drawing and direction.  So
this is a textbook for anime makers.
     Next, he made NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND in 1984.  This is a
monumental work for him.  It made a great sensation and moved us to
tears.  This movie and the heroine -- Nausicaa have continued to be
judged "The best of successful anime" and "The best of successful
character" in Anime Grand Prix in Animage since then.  It enabled anime
to be on equal footing with live action.
     Next, he made LAPUTA, THE CASTLE IN THE SKY in 1986.  This movie has
the highest quality of his anime.  It is compilation of his
entertainment; an exciting story, a skillful direction, excellent music,
refreshing scenes of flying, and an aura that invites us to a joyful
ocean of teardrops.
     Next, he made MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO.  This movie also made a great
sensation because it expressed the scenery which Japanese had forgotten
for growth and an adult had done for growth.  The scene of TOTORO is a
suburb of Tokyo in the 1950-60's.  The scenery of TOTORO is the origin of
Japanese soul.  Though we had forgotten it, TOTORO showed it to us.  So
it also moved an adult, though it was made for children.  It won most of
the Japanese movie awards for 1988.  Well people say that Totoro changed
children.  Children believe Totoro to live in a tree, so they conduct a
mass protest movement against cutting down tress.  Not only a forest but
also a roadside tree was preserved by them.  People call it "Totoro
Power".
     Next, he made KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE in 1989.  This movie drew the
most audience of a Japanese movie.  It was made for teenagers who worry
about our future; independence or identity.  This is a cheering movie for
them.  Talking by Kiki and Urusra in the cottage gave them courage.
     In my case, I knew him first for NAUSICAA.  I watched it on the
school event.  I was astonished and moved.  This event proved to be the
turning point in my life.  By the way, in 1984, NAUSICAA, U.Y. 2
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER and MACROSS (ROBOTECH) were put on the screen.  That
was a bumper year for the anime movie.  Next, LAPUTA was put on the
screen, but TOTORO is more important for me.  TOTORO is the best movie
for me.  I was moved with pureness of characters.  Mr. Miyazaki expressed
the feeling carefully, which we used to have in our childhood.  We used
to be interested in everything; a tadpole, an acorn, and small things.
We may have seen TOTORO, usuwatari, or Neko-bus (Cat-bus).  When I
watched TOTORO, I thought, I may have forgotten very important things.
So I cried in the theatre and was suffering from wiping out tears.  And
further, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES was another movie put on the screen with
TOTORO.  My tears were the flood and the flood purified my mind.  Next, I
watched KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE.  I was 17 years old at the time.  This
movie supported my mind.  I thought I watched a fit movie on the fit
time.  And now, he is producing a new movie OMOIDE PORO PORO.  I have no
words to describe my thanks for him.  I think we are very happy because
we can live with him and watch anime shows of him.
     How about the above.  Now I'm making a list of LDs.  Next time, I'll
write the list, a composition about Gainax studio which made SECRET OF
BLUE WATER, etc.  All for now.

                         [END OF ARTICLE]

     If anyone is interested in Hokubei Anime-kai and JAN&R, here's some
pertintent information:

      Hokubei Anime-kai      [$14 per year in USA, A.P.O.s & F.P.O.s;
      Bill Ames               $16.25 per year in Canada; $26 a year
      P.O. Box 279            elsewhere (via airmail).  All payments
      Botsford, CT 06404      must be made in US funds drawn on a US
      [phone]          account, or by postal money order.]

========================================================================
Subject:  8.) PORCO ROSSO preview (THE ROSE, February 1992)


     The following article is from pages 12 & 13 of Anime Hasshin's
newsletter, THE ROSE (Vol. 6, No. 31):

A NEW FILM BY HAYAO MIYAZAKI: KURENAI NO BUTA, OR PORCO ROSO
by John Ott

     News of a new Hayao Miyazaki animated feature is enough to excite
most anime fans, but sometimes spreading the rumors can be just as
entertaining.  It was only a few months after the release of the
Miyazaki-produced OMOIDE POROPORO (REMEMBERING TEARS aka ONLY YESTERDAY--
a "questionable" Miyazaki film, since it was directed by Isao Takahata)
when rumors of a new film started again.  One correspondent in Canada
said it was going to be a NAUSICAA sequel.  Another in Tennesee had a
perfect argument for it being another Kiki story.  Another speculation
was that Miyazaki would remain in the background from now on, producing
"serious" anime like OMOIDE PORO-PORO.  After all, how many hit films can
one man make?  Somebody else opted for pigs, as in Miyazaki's old 1970's
feature ANIMAL TREASURE ISLAND.  *That* story got a laugh.  Then came
news of PORCO ROSSO . . .
     The movie is KURENAI NO BUTA (THE CRIMSON PIG, aka PORCO ROSSO), and
from the advance press, it looks be to be a lighthearted comedy-action-
adventure more like CAGLISTRO'S CASTLE than any other recent Miyazaki
film.  It's got lots of flying, hot racing planes, a period setting,
typical Miyazaki heroines and villains (of the human sort). . . and a
pig--yeah, a pig--for a hero.
     Here's the setting: Italy in the Roaring 20's went more air-crazy
than any other country in Europe.  Italian engineers designed and built
the hottest aircraft anywhere.  While the rest of the world went
puttering around in flimsy biplanes, Italian companies like Macchi-
Castoldi, Savoia-Marchetti, Caproni, Reggiane, and Cantieri Riuniti dell'
Adriatico were turning out sleek-looking monoplanes and seaplanes built
for speed and *machismo*.  It was the era of the annual Schneider Trophy
seaplane races, won, often as not, by bright-red Italian planes piloted
by flamboyant gentleman-aviators like Air Marshal Italo Balbo.  It was
also an age of political turmoil--Mussolini and the Fascists were taking
over, and across the sunny Adriatic Sea, the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian-
Albanian coast of the Balkans fumed with revolutions, assassinations,
terrorism, piracy, and wars scheduled every Thursday.  (Some things never
change.)  There was no shortage of bad guys.  Some up-to-date miscreants
even took to the skies, becoming history's first air pirates.  And into
this flying-happy scene steps . . . Porco Rosso!  The Crimson Pig!  A
perfect caricature of those swashbuckling, scarf-waving Italian pilots.
     So, we've got all the elements for a successful Miyazaki movie in
place.  Red-haired heroine who flies?  Check.  Her name's Fio, age 17.
Chief bad guy who flies?  Check.  He's Curtis, the rival air ace,
piloting (appropriately) an American-built Curtiss RC3-2 Schneider Trophy
Racer.  Team of awful air pirates?  Check.  The Manmaiutto Gang flies a
scroungy Dornier-Wal flying boat and raids passenger ships on the
Adriatic Sea.  Picture-postcard-pretty setting?  Check.  Can't beat
Venice and the white cliffs of the Dalmation seacoast.  Flying machine
that upstages everybody?  Check--that's gotta be Porco Rosso's crimson
Savoia S.21 seaplane.  Slickest thing on wings.
     A Miyazaki film will always have a few "trademark" themes--attention
to period costume and detail, a love for illustrating machines at work, a
delight in living things and nature--but the theme closest to his heart
is the one most important here in KURENAI NO BUTA: the fantasy of free
flight.  Characters in Miyazaki's films take to the air effortlessly and
often, in all variety of aircraft, autogyros, hang-gliders, ballons,
dirigibles, flapters, flying castles, cat-busses, and broomsticks.
Nausicaa's jet-glider *Meve* was the next best thing to angel's wings.
The giant dirigibles and tiny two-man flapters in LAPUTA look so well
engineered that it was hard to believe that they had no reality outside
of the film.  The clouds in any of Miyazaki's movies are drawn as finely
detailed and realistically  as any earth-bound landscape.  Nobody in the
history of *all* films has so eloquently communicated his own sense of
wonder at the notion of flight.  It must be the desk-bound animator's
vision of paradise.
     But . . . a pig?  A PIG?  A *pig pilot*?  Of all the off-the-wall
ideas. . . . It bothered me for days, until I thought of the old saying
used to express something absolutely improbable--*If pigs could fly!*
Suddenly, it all made sense.  Pigs *can* fly in Miyazaki movies . . . and
so can everything and everyone else.  Makes me wonder if that old saying
is current in Japanese, too.

                               END

   This review posted courtesy of the Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group
  <nausicaa@brownvm>.  To subscribe, send e-mail to <listserv@brownvm>
  and make the message read "subscribe nausicaa userid@node Real Name"

========================================================================
Subject:  9.) Pre-NAUSICAA BOOK 5 Synopsis -- * SPOILERS! *


Date:         Thu, 12 Mar 1992 22:27:25 EST
Reply-To:     Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group <[e-mail]>
From:         "Steven Feldman,
              Miyazaki list administrator" <[e-mail]>

Dear People,
     STOP THE PRESSES!  The following article is really dynamite, as it
contains lots of NAUSICAA trivia that most American fans of the manga
have never heard of. . . . and yet only the end of said article contains
spoilers.  The spoiler section begins with the heading entitled "THOROUGH
EXPLANATION OF THE REST OF THE STORIES," so if you don't want to "spoil"
this part of the story for yourself, stop reading at the end of the
chapter with the heading, "THE VISCOUS FUNGUS."  You've been warned.  8)

                          -- Steven Feldman <[e-mail]>

-----------------------------cut here-----------------------------------

Subject:  9.) Pre-NAUSICAA BOOK 5 Synopsis (ANIMAGE, 4/4/90 [AH, 3/92])


ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED in the April 4, 1990 issue of ANIMAGE.
TRANSLATED by Masashi Suzuki in early 1992.
TRANSLATION PUBLISHED in Anime Hasshin's "All Miyazaki Packet," 3/92.
TRANSLATION SCANNED IN by Young Su on March 12, 1992.
TRANSLATION REFORMATTED AND EDITED by Steven Feldman on March 12, 1992.

     The following article first appeared in English in March of 1992 as
part of the Anime Hasshin-published "All Miyazaki Packet."  (All the rest
of Anime Hasshin's available "packets" are "synopsis packets.")  Most of
the remainder of the contents of this packet are culled from the Hayao
Miyazaki Discussion Group <[e-mail]> computer mailing
list.  This article is not to be copied for profit and all parties must
be credited if this article is reprinted . . . or Chikuku will get angry.


SPECIAL EDITION: MANGA - NAUSICAA IN THE VALLEY OF THE WIND

from ANIMAGE magazine, April 4, 1990
translated by Masashi Suzuki

     The following 8 pages will show you everything about the manga
NAUSICAA and provides a thorough explanation of its characters and story.
     At last, NAUSICAA is resumed after a 3-year discontinuation.
Because it might be difficult to remember the story, we recommend that
you review this explanation in order to fully enjoy the manga.

THE CHARACTERS IN THE NAUSICAA WORLD

     First of all, let us review the main characters, including Nausicaa
herself.  NAUSICAA is about the invasion of the kingdom of Doruku by the
kingdom of Torumekia amid the presence of insects that live in the
Decayed Sea.

THE VALLEY OF THE WIND

     NAUSICAA - She is the daughter of Jiru, the chief of a small kingdom
called the Valley of the Wind.  After Jiru was killed, Nausicaa and her
troops joined the Torumekian force according to a treaty signed long ago.
Nausicaa meanwhile discovered that the Decayed Sea cleaned up the
contaminated world, and by communicating with the Ohmu, the giant
insects, she foresaw the coming of a great disaster.  She fights bravely
and hopes to witness the coming of a new world.
     YUPA MERARUDA - He is considered the best knight in the Decayed Sea
region.  He is skilled in both the long and short swords and tries to
solve the secret of the Decayed Sea by traveling around the world.  He
is Nausicaa's teacher and Jiru's best friend.  Yupa hopes to find out
if humanity is destined to perish or not by the Decayed Sea.
     O-BABA (BIG GRANDMA) - She is the oldest woman in the valley,
possibly over 100 years old.  She is the teller of history since she is
the most knowledgable person in the valley.
     MITO - He is one of the 5 castle keepers.  He has worked for the
castle for a long time and leads the valley's troops.
     JIRU - the chief of the valley.  He died in bed after being
contaminated by the poisoned air.  He worried about his daughter,
Nausicaa.

TORUMEKIAN KINGDOM

     KUSHANA - the 4th princess of the Torumekian kingdom.  She is the
only princess who is a relative of the former king.  She is on quite bad
terms with her brothers.
     KUROTOWA - He is Kushana's staff officer and is not of noble blood.

THE OTHERS

     OHMU (BIG INSECT) - huge insects that live in the Decayed Sea.
These insects have as many as 14 eyes that turn red when they get angry.
Called the masters of the Decayed Sea, they appear whenever people burn
the Sea.  They have a very firm outer shell.
     GIANT SOLDIER - These are creatures created by the biotechnology of
the industrial civilization that perished in the past.  They are the
formidable weapons that burned the whole world during the Seven Days War.
     WOOD PEOPLE - They are noble people who ceased using fire and live
in the Decayed Sea quietly.  It is said that they are the first people
who were able to handle the insects.
     CHIKUKU - a child who lives in a village in the territory of Doruku.

PEJITE

     RASUTERU - a daughter of the chief of Pejite and younger sister of
Asuberu.  She died when she escaped with the secret stone that could
restore the Giant Soldier.
     ASUBERU - a brother of Rasuteru.  A man with passion and temper.  He
shot at the Torumekian carrier with his gunship but was assaulted by the
enemy.  He was later helped by Nausicaa.

DORUKU

     THE FIRST PRINCE - the successor of the royal family of Doruku.
Since he has no psychic ability, he was forced to give up power to his
brother.  He yearns to dominate the world by restoring the Hidora and the
Giant Soldier.
     THE SECOND PRINCE - The ruler of Doruku.  He has a strong psychic
force but barely stays alive with the use of medicine.
     CHARUKA - The bishop of Doruku's religious institution.  He was an
advisor for the Second Prince, but after having been saved by Nausicaa,
he tried to solve the secret of the mutant created by the mucous germ.
He realized that it was foolish to extend the Decayed Sea artificially.
     HIDORA - Soldiers who used to be in service when the holy emperor
conquered the land where Doruku exists now.  They are immortal unless
their heads are damaged.

*THE STORY* FROM THE TOTAL WAR TO RETREAT

     Now let's review the general story contained from Volume 1 to Volume
4 of manga.  The story begins on a barren earth, burned during the Seven
Day War.  Nausicaa, who lives in the Valley of the Wind, sees a shell of
an Ohmu in the forest called the Decayed Sea.
     The industrial civilization that was born on the western edge of
the Euroasian continent, spread throughout the world within several
hundred years.  Devastating the earth and polluting the atmosphere, the
civilization reached its peak but soon started to decline.  The war
called the Fire of the Seven Days devasted the cities and emitted harmful
substances into the atmosphere.  The highly complex technology systems
were lost, and most of the land became barren.  Afterward, the perished
civilization was not restored, and humanity was forced to confront the
era of twilight.

THE VALLEY OF THE WIND

     After the industrial civilization was lost, the earth was covered
with the forest called the Decayed Sea which emitted poison air.  People
lived in the places around the Decayed Sea and established individual
kinqdoms.  One of the them was the Valley of the Wind.
     One day, Nausicaa was asked to keep the secret stone by Rasuteru, a
princess of Pejite City, which was covered and devastated by the Decayed
Sea.  The stone was a part of the Giant Soldier that destroyed the world
1000 years ago.  Although there were many fossils of the Giant Soldiers,
the last one was buried and has survived in the ground.
     The princess Kushana, who attempted to get the Torumekian throne by
using the Giant Soldier, found that the secret stone existed in the
Valley of the Wind.  When she met Nausicaa there, the Torumekia War broke
out involving the nations around the Decayed Sea.

TORUMEKIAN WAR

     There are many countries small and big around the Decayed Sea, and
they are divided into two sides, Torumekia and Doruku.  Countries such as
Pejite City and the Valley of the Wind are the allies of Torumekia.  The
two superpowers were under tension and broke out into war when Torumekia
invaded Doruku.
     Nausicaa participated on the Torumekian side but was soon shot down
by a survivor of Pejite - Asuberu.  She was barely able to make a forced
landing in the Decayed Sea.  She then saved Asuberu from an attack of the
Ohmu, and they escaped, only to become the prisoner of the Doruku.
Meanwhile, Doruku surrounded Kushana, who landed in the acid lake with
the Ohmu.  Nausicaa, who barely escaped, rejoined Kushana.

THE JOURNEY OF NAUSICAA

     Kushana returned to the castle of Doruku's Sapata - a strategic
location.  Nausicaa fought at the battlefront on the condition that
prisoners were to be released.  Kushana was triumphant, although she lost
her horse, Kai.  After the promise was kept, Nausicaa left Kushana and
went south where the Ohmu were headed.  After landing in a small lake,
she met a monk who worshipped the native god and was told that the old
world perished and a new world would soon be recreated through
purification.  A swarm of insects passed above them.  After she chased
them, she found that Doruku's battleships emitted a poison gas.

THE VISCOUS FUNGUS

     After approaching the battleships, Nausicaa discovered that they
were emitting poison air created by a viscous fungus used to extend the
Decayed Sea artificially by the Doruku, who were in a disadvantaged
position.  In the battleship, she found that no one could control the
viscous fungus, which was mutant.  The ship's commander, Charuka, decided
to dynamite his battleship as a last resort and was successfully rescued
by Nausicaa.  He gave up his attempt to spread out the fungus which would
totally devastate the land after he realized that it was meaningless.  He
decided to save the soldiers from the fungus.  In the meantime, Torumekia
also encountered the swarm of insects.  As a result, the second force was
destroyed and the third force was forced to retreat.


















SPOILER ALERT  [this is your last warning]












THOROUGH EXPLANATION OF THE REST OF THE STORIES

     This part is taken from ANIMAGE COMICS, unpublished sections, and
the manga series for ANIMAGE from February 1986 to June 1986.
     The war between the superpowers Torumekia and Doruku was deadlocked,
but gradually it appeared that Torumekia, which possessed more weapons,
could win.  The number of victims increased in both countries.
     However, a terrible thing happened while both were engaged in the
tragic war.  In the emperor's battleship of Doruku, the new and unknown
viscous fungus was created which emitted an unknown poisoned gas.
     Meanwhile, Kushana, who led the surviving soldiers, met Yupa while
retreating.  Nausicaa, together with the monk of Doruku, chased the
fungus.  The fungus, gradually becoming more intelligent, multiplied
and extended its territory in spite of the bombing.  The four newly
created fungus moved toward each other to join together.  Nausicaa found
that their rendezvous point was Sapata's granaries and that the world
would be on the brink of ruin because of the fungus.  Is the ruin of the
world the process of the purification of the earth?

NAUSICAA FINALLY FOUND OUT THE SECRET OF THE FUNGUS!

     The viscous fungus moved over the spreading Decayed Sea.  The
resulting damage was about to spread throughout the whole territory of
Sapata.  Nausicaa flew out in order to save the people from the poison
air.  Chikuku also helped her to save people by using supernatural power
and evacuated the people of the village.  The Doruku territory of Sapata
was about to be covered with the fungus.  While flying, Nausicaa
witnessed insects meeting at the rendezvous point of the fungus.  In the
sky, she found a swarm of flying insects; on the ground she saw Ohmus.
Since the insects couldn't eat the fungus, they extended the Decayed
Sea by making their own bodies seedbeds.  She was stunned by the act of
nature.

THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER EMERGING IN DORUKU BROUGHT A THREAT.

     Sapata, threaten by the spread of the Decayed Sea and the fungus,
had a new threat!  Is there a way to save the world?  What will become of
Nausicaa, who tried to witness the future of the world at the rendezvous
point?
     Another threat was coming to the granaries Sapata threatened by the
Decayed Sea and the fungus.  The Second Prince, who possessed the
dominion of Doruku and had the supernatural power, killed his brother,
the First Prince, and headed for the battle front, declaring himself the
emperor of Doruku.  He attempted to invade Sapata having ambition to
violate the taboo - to revive the Giant Soldiers for conquering the
whole world.
     Nausicaa landed on a hill close to the rendezvous point to quietly
witness the change of the world.

    [The next chapter of the manga appeared in this very same issue of
ANIMAGE, i.e the April 4, 1990 issue.]

------------------------------cut here----------------------------------

     The following is the relevant entry in the Miyazaki Manga-ography
maintained by the Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group computer mailing list:

                      MIYAZAKI MANGA-OGRAPHY

1990: ="Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" in ANIMAGE: April [4-page insert
         summarizes five missing chapters which will be revised & restored
         when entire series reaches book form (explains why Viz hasn't put
         out a "Part Three" of English translations!)] -December.

========================================================================
Subject: 10.) PORCO ROSSO & HASHIRE MEROSU (ASASHI EVENING NEWS, 7/24/92)


[this review is stored as it appeared on the Miyazaki list]

Subject: JAL, ANA Compete With Animation (from Asahi Evening News)
X-Topic: Entry #1907 of LISTS.NAUSICAA

Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 1992 22:25:28 +0900
Reply-To:     Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group <[e-mail]>
From:         [e-mail]

(This article is from Asahi Evening News, July 24, 1992.  It is a
slightly abbreviated translation of an article which appeared on Asahi
Shimbun evening edition, July 23, 1992.  Enjoy!)


JAL, ANA Compete With Animation

    Stirred by the huge success enjoyed by Japan
Airlines in screening the popular animated cartoon
"Kurenai no Buta" (Crimson Pig), on its
international flights, All Nippon Airways is to
feature the just-released "Hashire Merosu" (Run,
Meros), also a work of animation, on its
international flights from Aug 1.
    The competition in animated films is an
extension of the fierce competition between the
two airlines over improving business performance,
recruiting new employees and expanding
international flights.
    ANA decided in the beginning of this month to
screen "Hashire Merosu" on its international
flights, instigated by the fact that JAL's
"Kurenai no Buta" has proved very popular before
and after release.
    It decided on "Hashire Merosu," which was made
by the Asahi Shimbun and other companies, for
in-flight viewing during summer vacation.  Whereas
JAL participated in the production of "Kurenai no
Buta" and screened it on its international flights
prior to its release in theaters---a first, ANA
will show "Hashire Merosu" one week after it hits
the theaters.
    Director Hayao Miyazaki wrote the original
story and script for "Kurenai no Buta," which is
an action romance about a middle-aged air force
pilot who turns into a pig and fights air pirates
while flying a crimson plane.
    According to distributor Toho Co., the
theaters showing "Kurenai no Buta" from July 18
have been full, with about 220,000 people seeing
it in the first three days.
    Director Masaaki Ohsumi wrote the script for
"Hashire Merosu" on the basis of an original story
by Osamu Dazai.  As music director, Kazumasa Oda
wrote the theme song.  Singer Akina Nakamori
recorded the voice of the heroine.
    According to JAL and ANA, this is the first
time that a movie has been available for viewing
on flights prior to theater release and also the
first time that a movie playing in theaters will
be concurrently screened aboard airliners.
    JAL estimates that 360,000 passengers will see
"Kurenai no Buta" by the end of August, while ANA
calculates that 120,000 passengers will enjoy
"Hashire Merosu" up to the end of September.
    According to those connected with movies, the
two animated cartoons have big differences in
style, but on the basis of their directors and
staffs, they are both masterpieces dividing the
animation world in two.  It is hard to tell which
will emerge victorious in the battle of the summer
skies.

========================================================================
Subject: 11.) PORCO ROSSO review (THE JAPAN TIMES, 7/28/92)


From THE JAPAN TIMES, July 28, 1992:
[This English-language newspaper, published in Japan, is intended mainly
for foreigners living in Japan.]

Red Pig rushes to the rescue
By Mark Schilling

   Japan, as most of us know, has a deep-rooted cartoon culture and
legions of devoted cartoon fans of all ages.  Not only the kids, but Dad
stretched out on the tatami with his Kirin and edamame watch manga on
the tube.
   According to a recent survey by A.C. Nielson, the highest-rated
program for men aged 35 to 49 is "Sazae-san."  "Chibi Maruko-chan"
follows in seventh place, ahead of "Pro Baseball Sunday Nighter."
   So it should come as no surprise that top anime director Hayao
Miyazaki ("Tonari no Totoro," "Majo no Takkyubin," "Omoide Poroporo")
has made a film aimed, as the director said in a memo to his animators,
at "tired, middle-aged men."  His film, "Kurenai no Buta (The Crimson
Pig)," stars Porco Rosso, an Italian World War I flying ace of the
porcine persuasion.
   Though approaching middle age, Porco is hardly tired; instead, he
flies his snazzy red hydroplane, scouring the skies for air pirates.
The year is 1920 and the air space over the Adriatic Sea is infested
with gangs of cashiered fliers who prey on cruise-ship passengers.
Porco makes his living by saving the pirates' victims and collecting
rewards.
   Yes, Miyazaki's is a Mickey Mouse world, where history and reality
take a partial vacation.  But though the hero may be a pig, he is no
cousin to Porky.
   How many kiddie cartoon characters smoke cigarettes with a
Continental insouciance, carry a torch for a thrice-widowed chanteuse,
and live alone in a tent on a desert island, in a disillusioned retreat
from the world?
   And how many start life as a dashingly handsome man, in love with a
pretty young girl (the chanteuse), and later decide, by means of
unspecified magic, to grow a snout and triangular ears?
   This, in other words, is no ordinary anime and Miyazaki is no
ordinary anime director.  Like that other master of the medium, Walt
Disney, Miyazaki is something of a genius and something of a flake --
and sometimes it is hard to tell which is which.  Was it the genius or
the flake who decided to abandon his hugely successful chidren's anime,
including "Totoro," for more "adult," "personal" themes?
   Commercially, this move was an undoubted stroke of genius.  "Omoide
Poroporo," his first anime targeted squarely at adults, was a monster
hit last year.  Artistically, however, I have to wonder.
   Stripped of its wonderfully realized animation, "Kurenai no Buta" is
mock-Hemmingway pretentious, with Porco as a mucho macho Papa figure,
and '30s B-picture silly, with a story that Barton Fink may have stolen
from an "Action Stories" comic book.
   The plot, such as it is, revolves around a rivalry between Porco and
an Errol Flynnish American pilot who flies with the pirates.  Defeated
by his rival in a dogfight, Porco takes his battered plane to Milan.
When he arrives at the repair hangar, he is greeted by the wizened
proprietor and his saucy young grandaughter, Fio.
   Fio, as it turns out, is an aircraft designer, and a good one.  We
know that Porco, the chauvinist pig, will refuse her services and that
Fio will win him over at the end.
   We don't know, however, that Grandpa will hire local women to rebuild
the plane (all the men are away, working in distant cities) -- and that
Porco will sit contentedly watching them, while absentmindedly rocking a
cradle.
   Here we see Miyazaki's knack for bringing a scene to fresh, vibrant
life -- and for humanizing his cartoon heroes.
   Then the plane takes off, with Fio aboard, and we head back to
comic-book country.  After the pirates ambush them at the island
hideaway, Fio spunkily dresses down their leader (How dare he destroy
the the plane they worked so hard to build!) and dares the American to
fight Porco in an air duel.
   This scene is both pulpy and primal; the very stuff of kids'
fantasies and cartoons.  And the showdown itself, with its clownish
carnival atmosphere and its two "prizes" -- Fio for the American, a bag
of loot for Porco -- is straight from TV-manga land.
   But we also have the "serious" story of Porco's mysterious past (Why
did he become a pig?), his ambiguous relationship with the chanteuse
(Can she love him as a pig as much as she did as a man?) and his ongoing
argument with the human race (Will he reject it or rejoin it?)
   Unfortunately, this story is more atmospherics than substance.  We
begin to long for Porco to get on with it and take to the air again, for
flight sequences are "Kurenai's" glory.
   A confirmed aviation nut, Miyazaki has a true love of old planes and
he and his team of animators have brought them to exhilarating life.
Just as their hero risks everything in the air, they take the art of
animation to new limits.  The result is a beauty beyond mere realism.
This is the way flying *ought* to look and feel.  Miyazaki's amazing
flying machines are an excellent reason to see this wildly swinging mood
fantasy.  There is no angst above the clouds.

========================================================================
Subject: 12.) TOTORO review (Steven Feldman, November 20, 1989)


WRITTEN BY: Steven Feldman
SCANNED-IN BY: Rafael Brown, June 22, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 23, 1993
POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Steven Feldman, June 23, 1993

Steven Feldman
November 20, 1989
My Neighbor Totoro review:

     In stark contrast to his manic actioneer LUPIN III: CASTLE OF
CAGLIOSTRO, and the epic adventures of NAUSICAA and LAPUTA, Hayao
Miyazaki's MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is lighthearted and modest in every way.
The story is sparse, with a small nucleus of characters, unremarkable
(though eminently competent) animation, and a simple message.  This is an
old-fashioned film, sort of like the live-action fare Disney produced in
the 50s and 60s about little animals who get lost and then are aided by
other species.  In this case, little Mei Kusakabe and her older pre-teen
sister, Satsuki, move into a spacious country cottage with their father.
The house is reputedly haunted, and sure enough, Mei encounters some
sprite-like dust motes which are said to be ghosts.  A matronly old
neighbor says that they are harmless to good people and vacate newly-
acquired homes once they feel the new owners are okay.  They do so.  Soon
afterward, Mei espies a ghostly little animal in her yard which, joining
with a larger one (its mother?), leads her on a merry chase through a
pathway in the underbrush which ends at the trunk of a gargantuan camphor
tree.  Mei falls through the crack into which the two owl-like and teddy
bear-ish creatures vanish, and encounters the sleeping hulk of a similar
creature tenfold her own size.  In an effort to awaken it, she playfully
tugs at its tail, climbs upon it, and tickles its nose.  It briefly
awakens, whereupon she learns (or intuits, actually) its name is Totoro.
Mei, too, falls asleep, and when she wakes up, it is to her father's
ministrations, which have found her in the pathway.  He and Satsuki tell
her it was a dream, yet Mei insists it really happened.  Their father
diplomatically  concludes that it was the Keeper of the Forest and goes
with them to give a prayer of thanks.  What follows
is a small series of episodes with Totoro and the girls, as Satsuki is
let in on the secret.
      The creature Totoro itself functions both as Mei's childhood
"imaginary friend" and as surrogate for her mother, who is ill in the
hospital.  Never far from their hearts and conversations, the children's
mother is the focus of the film despite her conspicuous absence, and the
longing felt by the girls and their father is suitably touching.  High
adventure, however this is not, and with nary an antagonist, MY NEIGHBOR
TOTORO has a tendency to drag.  This is mostly domestic melodrama, with
the girls helping papa do the laundry, cringing in the bath with papa
when the wind moans strangely, attending the same grade school class when
papa is away for the day, and so forth.
      Eventually, Totoro's presence and the mother's absence converges
with not unpredictable results, making for a sentimental ending.  Though
vaguely maudlin, the film avoids the pratfalls of gratuitous familial
reaffirmation, with a succession of still-images which accompany the
closing credits (rather than a freeze frame of tearful hugging or some
such).  MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is, in all, a pleasing and very innocent film,
and one can see why it was awarded the Minister of Education's Art Award
in Japan.  It is sort of like LASSIE COME HOME meets WINNIE THE POOH by
way of MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD, which while not a bad thing, hardly
makes for scintillating high-flown fantasy.  PETER PAN, or even LAPUTA,
this is not.  Totoro is very much more down to earth, and is a simpler,
subtler film.  The fantasy elements are incidental, rather than
pervasive, and the reality of each adventure is always in question.
After all, the ostensible subject and point-of-view of the film is that
of little children.  I get the feeling that Totoro was meant to be a
trifle, a breather of sorts from the sturm und drang of Miyazaki's
previous features.  A well-deserved respite from a busy schedule of
often elaborate animation, this one's from the heart.

                          -- Steven Feldman <[e-mail]>

========================================================================
Subject: 13.) TOTORO review (THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, May 7, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Charles Solomon
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, Friday, May 7, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Larry Greenfield, 5/7/93
RE-POSTED TO <ANIME-L@VTVM1> BY: Enrique Conty, May 9, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

Here's the LA Times review on MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO.  But before I proceed,
I want to address two issues:

1)  Siskel & Ebert reviewed TOTORO on their show.  I haven't seen the
    show, but Siskel gave it a thumbs down, while Ebert gave it a thumbs
    up.  Here's the fun part:  after the capsule review at the end of the
    show, Ebert *blasted* at Siskel for not liking the film... ^_^

2)  Emru Townsend writes:
> As someone pointed out on the Miyazaki mailing list, this individual
> *does* know what he's talking about.  (Could whoever posted that bit
> about the Canemaker book please post it here?)

Sorry, but Bryan Wilkinson doesn't have USENET access.  The gist of it is
that Solomon got turned to anime by LAPUTA.  In the above book, he
uses the sequence where Pazu and Sheeta awake on Laputa as an example of
how to tell a story visually.

And now, here's the review:

---------- cut here ----------

     The following is the review of "My Neighbor Totoro" which appeared
in the LA Times this morning (Friday May 7, 1993).  The film, dubbed in
English opens up in LA, SF, and Seattle today, and New York next week.
Any typos are mine.

MOVIE REVIEW 'TOTORO': A CHARMING TALE OF SISTERHOOD
By Charles Solomon
Special to the Times

     The gentle warmth of "My Neighbor Totoro," a new animated feature
opening city-wide today, provides a welcome respite from the rapid-fire
mayhem that usually characterizes Japanese animation seen in the United
States.  Instead of the standard sci-fi laser battles and explosions,
writer-director Hayao Miyazaki offers a charming fantasy that stresses
the affectionate bond between two young sisters.
     While their mother remains in the hospital, 4-year old Mei and 10-
year old Satsuki move into an aged house in the country with their
professor-father.  When Mei explores the nearby woods, she meets Totoro,
a seven-foot forest spirit who looks like an outsized cross between a
bunny rabbit and a fuzzy throw pillow.  The father believes Mei's story
about meeting this magical guardian, and respectfully asks Totoro to
watch over the children, which he does with the aid of a few assistants
and a 12-legged "catbus" that is half animal/half machine.
     Guided by their supernatural friend, the sisters share a series of
adventures, soaring over the landscape while Totoro's roars make the
winds blow.  But the story remains focused on the affection Mei and
Satsuki share.  Unlike many recent cartoon chums, the two sisters seem
genuinely fond of each other, and their camaraderie never feels
saccharine or forced.
     An accomplished director, Miyazaki enjoys a cult following in both
Japan and the U.S. for such fast-paced adventures as "Lupin III: Castle
Cagliostro."  It's rare to see such skillful cutting, staging and camera
work in a non-Disney animated film.
     The weakest aspect of "Totoro" is the animation itself, which never
rises above the level of Saturday morning kidvid.  The characters move
jerkily, and many of the designs are awkward-looking: Mei has a wide,
frog-like mouth that shows all of her back teeth whenever she yells,
which is often.
     But despite these limits, "My Neighbor Totoro" (Times rated: Family)
is a gentle and affirming film.  It's certain to delight smaller
children, although boys accustomed to the slam-bang violence of super-
hero cartoon features and TV shows may chafe at its leisurely pace.

----------------

My Notes:
     Notice that they kept the names as Mei and Satstuki.  Gee, when
will people ever learn that animation doesn't have to copy or mimic
Disney's style to be good?  The only complaint this guy had was that the
animation was more in the Saturday morning style than Disney style.
     "A cross between a bunny rabbit and a fuzzy throw pillow?" Hmmm.  I
wouldn't exactly call the cat-bus "1/2 animal, 1/2 machine".  He isn't
any part machine... he's just a cat who can change his shape slightly (as
in opening his doors)... who is the bus of the forest.
     "Cult" following in Japan and the U.S.?  In the U.S. mainly, because
"cult" implies something not accepted as the mainstream, but Miyazaki is
anythin but "cult" in Japan, where his movies become the top-grossing
domestic films of the year there...

:::::Larry:::::

---------- cut here ----------
--
                            E n r i q u e  C o n t y
                                The Flip-Flip Man
                              [e-mail]
                    Disclaimer: You're not dealing with AT&T

========================================================================
Subject: 14.) TOTORO review (NEWSDAY, May 14, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Joseph Gelmis
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: NEWSDAY, May 14, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <ANIME-L@VTVM1> BY: John H Bogan, May 17, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

     Continuing the thread of reprinting Totoro reviews, this is from
NEWSDAY (covering Long Island and New York City), May 14, 1993, reprinted
without permission:

WARM AND FUZZY GIANT ADVENTURE

3 *'s out of 4

by Joseph Gelmis

     Japanese animation covers a vast spectrum of tastes and styles,
from the ultraviolent and futuristic "Japanimation" (aka anime), which
has a home video cult following in the United States, to G-rated kiddie
fare like "My Neighbor Totoro."
     Japanimation is too hyperactive for general audiences.  But, unlike
some of the more ambitious and confused animated features that glutted
theatres last year, "My Neighbor Totoro" is simple and easy for the
kindergarten set to follow and pleasant to look at.
     True, it wasn't funny or engrossing enough to suit my 13-year-old
companion.  But her sister, 8, loved it.  She asked all the right
questions, laughed on cue, responded with concern where she was intended
to.
     The story combines fantasy and realistic family problems.  Two
sisters, Satsuki and May [sic], move into a long-empty house in the
country with their father.  Their mother, whom they visit briefly, is
weak and hospitalized with an unexplained illness.
     The fabulous creature Totoro keeps the girls busy.  The big guy, who
can fly and blow gale-force winds and do all sorts of neat things, is a
grinning giant, somewhere between Cheshire cat and owl, who lives unseen
by adults in the foliage of a colossal tree.  He introduces the girls to
a huge cat that is also a high-speed bus.
     The movements of humans and fantasy creatures are lifelike, though
the backgrounds are motionless.  The dubbed soundtrack, enunciated with
exaggerated care in English so even tots can understand the story, lacks
the fluidity and grace of writer/director Hayao Miyazaki's animation.
And it should be noted, if only for the record, the Japanese girls and
their father have been Europeanized--probably for the purpose of global
marketing.  [Of course, we "cultists" know it's the style, not
marketing.]
     Miyazaki is a popular animator in Japan.  His films have spun off a
Disney-like boom in merchandising.  If your child likes this movie, be
advised you may become suddenly aware of Miyazaki's presence through
stuffed animals in toy stores or three books, incorporating original
drawings from a trio of his films--"My Neighbor Totoro", "Kiki's Delivery
Service", and "Laputa, the Castle in the Sky"--now in U.S. bookstores.

John H Bogan <[e-mail]>

========================================================================
Subject: 15.) TOTORO review (THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS; May 13-15?; 1993)


WRITTEN BY: the Phantom of the Movies
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, sometime between May 13 and
     May 15, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <ANIME-L@VTVM1> BY: Andrew Huie, May 16, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

     Managed to catch Totoro at the Guild 50th Street [in New York City].
The movie was reviewed by the Phantom of the Movies instead of the
regular mainstream critics (he typically does the grade-B through Z
movies as well as imported anime) and he panned it rather severely.  Here
is his review, reprinted without permission:

WINGED-CAT HERO WON'T FLY IN THE U.S.
(Rating: 1.5 *'s out of 4)

     While press releases compare the title creature of the Japanese
cartoon feature "My Neighbor Totoro" with Mickey Mouse, the mute,
outsized feline seems more a benign Godzilla for pre-schoolers.
     There's no doubt Totoro is a licensing cash cow for its owner, the
Tokuma Group, though; in Japan, its bewhiskered image adorns everything
from pillows to tote bags.
     It's unlikely Totoro will score as heavily here.  For starters, the
cryptic, flying-cat critter who lends young sisters Satsuki and Mei a
helping paw takes a backseat to the narrative's more mundane detailing of
the girls' adjustment to a new neighborhood.
     "Japanimation" buffs and fans of animator Hayao Miyazaki's previous,
less juvenile-targeted features, like "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", aren't
likely to locate enough entertainment value here to keep them awake past
a reel or two (though the actress supplying young Mei's shrieky falsetto
voiceover prevented yours truly from dozing off).
     In short, "My Neighbor Totoro" doesn't offer much more than an
expanded version of the kiddie programing found on Saturday morning TV.

Andrew Huie <[e-mail]>

========================================================================
Subject: 16.) TOTORO review (THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 14, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Stephen Holden
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: THE NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, May 14, 1993
SCANNED-IN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Rafael Brown, June 22, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 23, 1993

The New York Times
Review/Film
May 14th 1993 (page C14)

Even a Beast is Sweet as Can Be
By Stephen Holden

     What will American children make of "My Neighbor Totoro," a Japanese
animated film whose tone is so relentlessly goody-goody that it crosses
the line from sweet into saccharine?
     The film creates an idealized vision of family life that is even
more unreal than the perkiest 1950's television sitcom.  In this
storybook world, parents possess infinite reserves of encouragement and
patience, and their children are unfailingly polite and responsible
little angels.  In the English-language version of the film, the actors
speak in such uniformly cheery and soothing tones that they could turn
even an incorrigible optimist like Mr. Rogers into a grouch.
     "My Neighbor Totoro" follows the adventures of two little girls,
Satsuki and her younger sister, Lucy, who move with their father to a
house in the country while their mother recovers in the hospital from an
unnamed illness.
     Their new home is haunted by all sorts of benign magical presences.
Among the more exciting moments in this serenely paced film is when
swarms of dust bunnies living in the attic flee en masse in a late-
evening windstorm.  Of the many magical beings who inhabit the property,
the most impressive is a mythical creature named Totoro, a cuddly beast
that resembles a bear crossed with an owl crossed with a seal, has
whiskers and roars gently.  Totoro lives in an enchanted hollow at the
bottom of a tree trunk.
     A familiar figure in Japanese children's literature and animated
films, Totoro appears only when he feels like it.  But those appearances
usually coincide with emergencies that require magic, as when a lost
child needs  to be found or an urgent message delivered.
     Among other feats, the creature can fly and make giant trees sprout
in the middle of the night and then disappear by morning.  For
transportation, he uses a magic bus that soars and loops over the
landscape.  And he can be seen only by children.
      When "My Neighbor Totoro," which was written and directed by Hayao
Miyazaki, is dispensing enchantment, it can be very charming.  The scenes
in which the girls have midnight adventures and witness miracles have the
yearning dream-like exhilaration of Mary Poppins's nocturnal adventures
with her charges.  Too much of the film, however, is taken up with stiff,
mechanical chit-chat.
     My Neighbor Totoro" is visually very handsome.  All the action is
set in lush Japanese landscapes whose bright blue skies and gorgeous
sunsets evoke a paradisiacal garden of earthly delights.

Rafael Brown
[e-mail]

========================================================================
Subject: 17.) TOTORO review (Robert Plamondon, May 18, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Robert Plamondon
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: rec.arts.movies.reviews, May, 1993
POSTED TO <ANIME-L@VTVM1> BY: Ralph Jenkins, May 18, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

     The following review appeared on rec.arts.movies.reviews, and for
the benefit of those of you who don't follow that newsgroup, I'll post it
here.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
A film review by Robert Plamondon
Copyright 1993 Robert Plamondon

An animated feature film, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Rated G, 1:25 running time
I give it four stars out of a possible five.

     MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is a charming children's film by Japan's leading
animator, Hayao Miyazaki.  Set in rural Japan in the 1950s, it is a story
about two little girls and their father, who move into an old farmhouse
and quickly discover that it is haunted.  Later, they encounter Totoro, a
giant, vaguely rabbit-like magical creature who lives in a hollow in the
enormous camphor tree next door.
     A series of delightful adventures ensue, from magical encounters
with Totoro, to run-ins with the boy next door who loses the ability to
speak in the presence of girls.  Real-world concerns intrude heavily at
times: the girls' father bought the country house to benefit their
mother, who is recovering at a nearby hospital, presumably from
tuberculosis.  All these elements are woven tightly together in the
movie.
     One unusual element of the story is how the adults react to reports
of magical creatures in the neighborhood.  While it's a little hard to
tell whether the adults REALLY believe in them, they all take reports of
Totoros and Soot Sprites in perfect stride.  Not once does Miyazaki trot
out the hoary children's literature chestnut of "the adults think I'm a
liar, so I'm going to have to save the world by myself."  This accepting
attitude towards traditional Japanese spirit-creatures may well represent
an interesting difference between our two cultures.
     Originally released in Japan in 1988, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO has been
competently (but not brilliantly) dubbed into English.  (Many dubbed
Japanese films have such bad voice acting that the films are painful to
watch.  TOTORO doesn't suffer from this problem.)  The lip-synch is
probably better than in the original Japanese.
     Unlike the ultra-expensive, all-singing, all-dancing, effects-laden,
weak-script extravaganzas put out by Disney recently, the film
concentrates on story, characterization, and cinematography.
     Disney, for example, wanted a wonderful ballroom scene in BEAUTY AND
THE BEAST, and conveniently forgot that the castle was under a curse that
changed its appearance to be gloomy and forbidding.  Such deliberate
errors, always present in recent Disney films, are conspicuously absent
from Miyazaki's work.  MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO hearkens back to an era of
simpler, more honest Disney films, like 101 DALMATIONS.
     Like 101 DALMATIONS, the animation in MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is not as
smooth or as detailed as recent Disney works, but it is a classic
nonetheless.
     When watching MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO in a theater, I was impressed at
the way the kids in the audience were glued to the screen the entire
time.  Certain scenes, such as when Mei, the five-year-old girl,
discovers pollywogs in a pond, brought smiles to the faces of the adults
--but shouts of excitement from the kids in the audience.  Miyazaki has
their number.
     The wonderfully detailed characterizaton and the charming story make
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO a delight for adults as well.

-- Robert

-------------------

Ralph Jenkins <tnc![e-mail]>
UUCP: uunet!m0336%tnc.UUCP

========================================================================
Subject: 18.) TOTORO review (THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, May 8, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Peter Stack
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Saturday, May 8, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <ANIME-L@VTVM1> BY: Albert Wong, May 9, 1993 and
     Mark Newton-John, May 12, 1993
COMBINED, EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

     I am rather surprised no one has posted the review Totoro got in the
Chron.  It got a GREAT review (readers of the Chron will see that the
"little man" is sitting up, and clapping, just a step below the best
rating, of him jumping out of his chair).

     So here it is, the review from the San Francisco Chronicle,
Saturday, May 8, 1993, copyright.

'Dust Bunnies' Hop to Life in 'Totoro'

by Peter Stack
Chronicle Staff Critic

     Verdant springtime in rural Japan is one of the mail charms in "My
Neighbor Totoro", a children's animated film from one of Japan's leading
film animators, Hayao Miyazaki, whose story of round, fuzzy imaginary
rabbits arrived at Bay Area theaters yesterday in an English language
version.
     As in other films by the celebrated Miyazaki--his "Porco Rosso" was
a major box office hit in Japan last year--"My Neighbor Totoro" is drawn
in an expansive, naturalistic way that makes an atmosphere of trees, rice
fields and hills unraveling in the distance a hypnotic shadow character.
In some scenes this nature is so delicious it becomes a poetical
presence.
     In "Totoro", the story is literally about shadow figures--the Totoro
are bloated and happy rabbits visible only to children.  They are central
characters--especially an enormous one who sleeps by day and wanders on
missions of good deeds by night--in an amusing story about two girls and
their father who move to a dilapidated farmhouse to await, with some
anxiety, the recovery of an ailing wife and mom in a nearby hospital.
Sometimes the big grinning rabbit rides on a 12-legged "cat bus" that
whisks along the ground, but can fly or tightrope-walk along high-tension
power lines.  Exotic and fun.
     People are kind in this film, and that makes it a treat for kids, at
least, and likely for some of the adults who will accompany them to the
theater.  But the action is a little pokey at times, far from the punchup
style of most animated films.  Little sister Mei (voice of Cheryl Chase)
is an exhuberant, pigtailed preschooler who demands a lot of attention
from her big sister Satsuki (Lisa Michaelson), but Satsuki has to go to
school, leaving Mei to her own devices.  Dad, a university anthropology
professor, is a warm hearted man but he has to work a lot.
     The first indication that life in the country will be extraordinary
is when the girls see the run-down farmhouse they will be living in, and
find the place loaded with that seems like cockroaches to us.  But the
kids are able to explain away the critters as mere "dust bunnies"
tricking their vulnerable imaginations.  As one after another soji (sic)
divider is opened to air out old rooms, the figments scurry.  But left
behind are glimmering, unexplained acorns--the mysterious Totoro's
favorite snack.
     Near the house, a mountainous camphor tree spreads and rises, and it
is here that Mei - after wandering through gardens and mossy roots--first
meets the big Totoro.  He is sleeping like a lamb in a cavern of limbs,
and the playful Mei is so absorbed that she too falls asleep.  This sets
up the first of two frantic searches by big sister, who then gets her own
chance to meet Totoro and two tiny Totoro babies.  The film--Totoro
ultimately helps rescue Mei from a far more perilous adventure--is somber
as animated features go.  Miyazaki--many childrens' books of his films
have been published--has an affection for beautiful pictures that
sometimes have the look of traditional Japanese watercolors, composed
with utmost simplicity, but revealing manifold shadings.  Among imagery
most memorable in "My Neighbor Totoro" is a gathering storm segment that
is a stunning natural drama of deepening grays.  And oh, those fuzzy
wuzzies are really cute.

[end of article]

[Picture of the Catbus just bounding in front of a regular electric
train]

MNJ notes:
     All in all, a very good recommendation and review from a non-anime
fan.  Of course, we anime "experts" cringe at the description of Totoro
as a "bunny rabbit", and the dust things as "cockroaches".
     I certainly hope that the success of Totoro will have Laputa brought
out in a larger general release, rather than the small art house theaters
of a few years ago.  And, of course, the American release of Majo no
Takkyubin, Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Kurenai no Buta.

--

Albert Wong
Internet: [e-mail]     Compu$erve: 72657,2103
America Online: Al Wong          Prodigy: WJTM10B
Genie: A.Wong7                   Fidonet: Albert Wong @ 1:125/2

Mark Newton-John <[e-mail]>
<[e-mail]>  SAC-UNIX [phone]

========================================================================
Subject: 19.) TOTORO review (THE SAN JOSE MERCURY, May 10, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Bob Strauss
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: THE SAN JOSE MERCURY, Monday, May 10, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: David Goldsmith, 5/10/93
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

                      Mercury Totoro review text
     Here is the text of the (2.5 star) review of Totoro that appeared in
today's San Jose Mercury (and probably many other Knight-Ridder papers as
well).  Since I typed it in, you also have to put up with my comments at
the end  ;-).

A LOVABLE ADVENTURE, BUT NO THRILL

By Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

     They do things differently in Japan.
     Take, for instance, "My Neighbor Totoro," one of the most popular
films in Japanese history.  Though not without its delights, this cartoon
feature is likely to intrigue only the very youngest American children.
Parents may appreciate its benign, very G-rated ambience, but for at
least half its length--and, unfortunately, the first half--this film is a
lullaby for all ages.
     Translated into English, "Totoro" is the brainchild of Hayao
Miyazaki.  The press kit calls him the Japanese Walt Disney, but except
for the cuddly Totoro creature--a big kind of bunny bear with a Cheshire
smile and magical powers--there is no resemblance between the two
animators' work.
     The drawing here is quite pretty and realistically detailed, but the
actual animation is as limited as it comes.  There is a herky-jerky
quality to the characters' movements, and it's rare when more than a
quarter of the frame is in motion at any given time.  Compared with the
swirling kineticism of "Alladin," "Totoro" is practically a still life.
     It's the story of two wide-eyed little girls, Satsuki and Mei, who
move with their father into a country house while their mother is in a
hospital several valleys away.  They undergo a sweet initiation into
pastoral joys--polliwogs, acorns and the like--and some very mild thrills
from their new home's uncanny soot sprites.
     Slightly past the nod-off point of all this, Mei falls, Alice-like,
through a hollow tree.  She lands on the hibernating Totoro--whom only
children can see--and soon, literally, is joining him in flights of
fancy.
     The film has something vague to say about childhood fears of
mortality, but mainly it is a celebration of nature and the supernatural.
The girls are immensely cute, and there isn't a mean grown-up in sight.
     Totoro could catch on over here; he has an eccentric grace that
calls to mind a big, gray, furry Harpo Marx.  You gotta love him.  And
his movie is lovable, if not exactly the live-wire experience the best
American animation can achieve.
-------

     Well, I don't have much to add to this, but he clearly missed the
relationship between the girls, and perhaps the comparison to Disney in
the press kit set him off.  Also, it's very illuminating as to why some
people are turned off by Totoro: it's not frenetic.  Some people may want
a live-wire experience, but not all of us want to feel like we stuck our
fingers in a light socket at every film we see.  This review is a bit
like saying that Monet is no good because it's not Van Gogh or Munch.  I,
too, wish Miyazaki's films were done at 24 fps, but that is a small part
of what makes up a film, and the other aspects of Miyazaki's work more
than make up for it.  Perhaps when he can afford a multi-million dollar
investment in computers, he can impress critics like this.

     I hope he's wrong about American kids needing hyperactivity in a
movie; based on many that I know, I think he is.  It may be a tough sell
to their parents, though.

David Goldsmith
[e-mail]

========================================================================
Subject: 20.) TOTORO review (SISKEL & EBERT, May 9, 1993)


SPOKEN AND ARRANGED BY: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
FIRST BROADCAST ON: May 9, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Bryan C. Wilkinson, May 10,
     1993 and Ryan Gavigan, May 10, 1993
COMBINED, EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

5-9-93: SISKEL & EBERT: AT THE MOVIES
Review of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
as rebroadcast on 5-10-93, 12:15 AM, Channel 2 (CBS)

Transcript of related portions follows:

ROGER EBERT: Okay . . . our next film is a GENUINE (I am capitalizing the
words HE emphasizes, not me --BCW) discovery, I think; it's an enchanting
and special animated film for children named MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (they
both pronounce it "toTOro" rather than the Japanese "TOtoro" --BCW) . . .
and unlike MOST animated films which are about contrived plots and lots
of action and . . . explosions (gestures) and excitement, this one tells
an absorbing (clip starts: Mei being woken by Satsuki at the start of the
tree-growing scene), even an inspiring story about two little girls that
move with their father into an old house at the end of the woods.  (new
clip: Mei chases Chibi Toto)  And one day one of the girls sees a tiny
Totoro, which is a mythical creature which lives in the trees.  (clip
continues unexplained: Chibi tries his vanishing act)
     Notice how well-drawn and visualized the animation is there, and how
nicely the color works; and look at the quiet, magical way THIS scene
develops (new clip: the bus stop scene), as the girls wait in the rain
for their father's bus and the giant Totoro (pronounces it right here by
accident --BCW) quietly joins them: (clip continues again: up to water
dripping on Totoro's nose) (clip cuts ahead to arrival of Nekobus)
Finally a bus DOES come--not their bus, but TOTORO'S bus: (clip
continues: the Neko bus meows a mechanical-sounding meow--no wonder Chuck
Solomon [who actually likes anime--like Laputa--and reviewed Totoro for
the LA Times on May 7, 1993] thought it half-mechanical!--and Totoro
gives his repayment for the umbrella to the girls)
     The very fact that this movie is about two young girls is unusual, I
think, boys are USUALLY the heroes of animated features . . . I liked it
not just as a children's film, but for ITSELF; very few films come along
that are magical for ALL ages, and are WHOLESOME, and SANE, and
INTELLIGENT and entertaining--and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is one of them.
(clips end)

GENE SISKEL: Gee, you make me sound like a terrible person for NOT
recommending it, but then . . . (cut off)

EBERT: YOU DON'T?!!

SISKEL: No, I thought it wa . . . (interrupted again)

EBERT: YOU'RE JOKING . . . !

SISKEL (who will get progressively more defensive and look on-the-spot,
from here on): No no, I thought it was a GOOD LOOKING film . . . and in
just the way you said . . .

EBERT: Yeah . . . uh-huh.

SISKEL: . . . but it bored me right off the top with the stuff which you
didn't show, because we didn't have clips of it (oops, Troma, shame shame
shame! --BCW), and that is the WHOLE THING about the little DUST BALLS
. . . er (makes a cute gesture indicating the Susuwatari, for
description) . . .

EBERT: Mmm-hhm, mm-hmm.

SISKEL: . . . that they see in their house, and I was so uninterested in
that, and thought that it was so . . . and that took about a half an hour
out of this picture . . .

EBERT: Oh, but that wasn't . . . (pauses)

SISKEL: I wa . . . (stops as Ebert finishes, shakes head)

EBERT: . . . that was just a very MINOR part of the first half of
the . . .

SISKEL: Well, I tell ya, it really bored me.  That was . . . that was one
thing, and I . . . I do like a couple of the things that you mentioned
(begins gesturing more); I like the bus at the end, the "CAT . . . BUS",
and the idea that a cat as a bus (EBERT, grim, nods in agreement) is a
really cute thing.  And I DO like that it's quiet, and you do make good
comments about the difference between this animated film, a more GENTLE
animated film than the kind of (gestures) "roustabout-kind of pictures we
get, and I . . . (cut off)

EBERT: Well I found . . .

SISKEL (continuing): I . . . I just didn't . . . I was (quietly) bored.

EBERT (over SISKEL): I found it fascinating, and I think looking at it,
if I could, through the eyes of a kid, or remembering what I was like as
a kid . . .

SISKEL: Yeah.

EBERT: . . . the fact that these two people, and their dad, are going to
go live in this house, and it's a new house, and it might be HAUNTED, and
it's next to the big WOODS, it's stuff like that (which) 'is (sic) really
FASCINATING to me if it's handled intelligently, and another thing I like
is that the characters in the movie LOOK REAL, I mean when the, the (sic)
little girls shout, their mouths get real big (does wide hand imitating
gesture that reminds me of when Mei was trying to describe Totoro's grin
 --BCW), and it's not like the little kind of (makes hand gesture a la a
hand puppet such as Kermit the Frog--I wish Jim Henson could have lived
to see this film, sniff --BCW) "Barbie doll characters" that you get in a
lot of animation films that . . .

SISKEL (over EBERT): Yeah!   Well, you know . . .

EBERT: . . . don't have any individuality, you know . . .

SISKEL: You know, saying that it's BETTER than Saturday morning T.V. is
EASY, but . . . (cut off)

EBERT: Oh, but IT'S MUCH BETTER than THAT . . .

SISKEL: Well, I KNOW that, I KNOW, but . . .

EBERT: This is a REAL treasure!

SISKEL: Well, I didn't think it was that special, we have, well you know,
films about girls--we have LITTLE MERMAID, and Belle in Beauty and the
Beast, I don't think that it's that unusual to be about little girls.

(review ends)

[Going into a commercial, the camera shows Ebert shaking his head at
 Siskel, as in "What in the hell are you thinking?"]

[Later in the show, in the wrap-up:]

EBERT: . . . and earlier in this show, I had high praise for My Neighbor
Totoro, the Japanese import that's one of the most enchanting children's
films I've seen in a long time.  And if I were to pick my favorite
*American* animated film . . .

[Ebert talks about the laserdisk release of Pinocchio]

CAPSULE REVIEW RECAP at end of program:

EBERT: . . . a split decision, though, on My Neighbor Totoro, the new
Japanese animated film--I thought it was ENCHANTING and magical, Gene
thought it got off to a boring start.

SHOW EPILOGUE (segment at end of program where they can get a
last word in after the capsule review):

EBERT: And Gene, of those I think the one you should REALLY give a little
more thought to is MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (actually, he seems to pronounce it
correctly more of the time than I realized-- BCW), because I think it's a
wonderful movie, and if you're not going to take your little girls to see
it, I'LL (gestures) take 'em!

SISKEL: That sounds great, I'd love to see two little Siskels argue with
one Ebert!

(The rest is irrelevant, though I'd kill to hear what they were saying
after the music started up.  It looked like Gene was trying to pursue
dumping his kids on Ebert--hey, maybe Roger will tell us if he does when
he makes his Chicago review of the film . . . --BCW :)

--

Bryan C. Wilkinson
[e-mail]
(almost as fun as doing the OPP script...)

Ryan Gavigan <[e-mail]>

========================================================================
Subject: 21.) TOTORO review (VARIETY, May 10, 1993)


WRITTEN BY: Leonard Klady
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: VARIETY, May 10, 1993
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Eric Walker, May 11, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 21, 1993

     VARIETY magazine has a review of TOTORO in their May 10 issue (one
of their most important issues of the year, as it focuses on the Cannes
Film Festival), but the review is less praiseworthy than the L.A. Times.
VARIETY reviews its movies from a marketing and businessman's point of
view, and their forecast for TOTORO is bleak.

     [TOTORO has been officially rated G by the MPAA.]

     Troma, purveyors of such unusual and fitfully crass entertainments
as "Toxic Avenger" and "Sgt. Kabukiman," are off on a different and
difficult rocky path with the animated Japanese kidpic "My Neighbor
Totoro."  Displaying no more than adequate TV tech-craft, the simple
family saga poses no threat to the commercial dominance of Disney
cartoonists.  U.S. box office prospects will be fleeting, likely no more
than a blip among the upcoming product onslaught.
     Apparently a popular household character in Japan, Totoro is a furry
forest sprite with powers ranging from the mystical to the superhuman.
He can only be seen by children, though adults recall his memory fondly.
     The story centers on two young sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to
rural Japan with their professor father.  In a far-off city hospital, mom
is rec uperating from an unnamed ailment.
     Not only is the tale of a rare wholesome stripe, but is virtually
absent of dramatic tension.  Instead, it largely concentrates on the
journey of wonderment in which the girls discover a new environment and
the creatures, both real and fanciful, of the region.  They are indeed
cuddly and have a few tricks that are mildly diverting.
     Obviously aimed at an international audience, the film evinces a
disorienting combination of cultures.  The characters, despite obvious
Japanese names, have Anglo features.  But instead of a 1950s TV
neighborhood, they live in unmistakably Asian dwellings set amid rice
fields.
     Writer-director Hayao Miyazaki has essentially padded a TV half-hour
into a sluggish feature.  The rigid backgrounds and limited movements
appear dull and crude when viewed on a large screen.

-- review by Leonard Klady

     [My own comment: Whatever complaints you may have with the opinion
of the movie itself, I must admit that their prediction of a short box-
office life for TOTORO seems accurate--unfortunately--considering the
huge number of big-budget wannabe blockbusters being foisted on the
public this summer.  America is going to be subjected to one media blitz
after another for JURASSIC PARK, SUPER MARIO BROS., the re-release of
Disney's SNOW WHITE, THE CONEHEADS, THE FUGITIVE . . . and Troma simply
doesn't the cash or the marketing genius to compete with this.  Like it
or not, it's likely that by the time the movie disappears from theaters,
most parents still will never have heard of Totoro, much less considered
taking their kids to see it.]

---

Eric Walker <[e-mail]>

========================================================================
Subject: 22.) Studio Ghibli & Retirement (Rheault Sylvain, 12/15/93)


WRITTEN BY: Rheault Sylvain
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS Number 19, Sep-Oct 1992
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY:
      Rheault Sylvain, December 15, 1993
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, April 1, 1994

     This is just another interview with Hayao Miyazaki.  I don't think
you will find anything new about the master of animation in this post.
Anyway, I really enjoyed performing it.
     I sent this article from Japan to my friends in Montreal who
published it in Protoculture Addicts, Number 19, Sep-Oct 1992.  There is
a picture of Miyazaki-san with Porco Rosso and me.  There are also many
pictures of the studio, with a plan drawn from memory.  But they moved
since.  For those interested, I have the address of the new Studio
Ghibli.
     There was a critic of my article in a French magazine called
Tsunami.  (Thanks guys, but you were much too flattering.)
     I would like to remember that I had a hard time understanding the
answers (except when they were drawn by Miyazaki).  Also, I did not only
concentrate on Mr. Miyazaki himself: I wanted to know how the studio
works, how to produce an animated motion picture, etc.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
INTERVIEW WITH MIYAZAKI
Conducted at studio Ghibli
June 6th, 1992

     One might think that such an animation superstar as Mr. Miyazaki is
someone who must be treated with great respect.  In fact, he refused the
honorific title of "sensei" (master) and prefered to be called only "san"
(mister).  And, surprisingly, contrary to most japanese people, he does
not carry a "meishi" (business card) with his title written on it.  He is
someone very kind and very human.  He hates violence and he is
particularly sensitive to minority problems such as the Korean and
Chinese people in Japan or the black people in America.  He feels hurt
whenever he hears about racial problems.  Now, he can't stand Disneyland
because of that scene of a white explorer and black luggage carriers who
climbed a tree because a rhino was chasing them.  "Why was the white guy
at the top of the tree?  Why not at the bottom?" he wondered.
     Mr. Miyazaki studied economics at the university and started to work
in animation at the age of 29.  He is an animation producer who works for
Studio Ghibli.  He writes stories, then leads a team of people that will
make them become animation.  He rarely works on the books published
afterward that are based on his scripts and, actually, he is not even
thinking about his next movie project.  He expects to retire at 60 and do
anything but animation.
     "Actual Japanese movies are nuts," he said, but he loves
documentaries, particularly those on NHK, the Japanese public television
network.  These programs show different places and people of the world.
He cares very little about critics (he never read them) but he feels
rewarded if children like his stories.  Japanese children especially love
Totoro from Tonari no Totoro.  By the way, he systematically rejects any
offers from any companies to use his characters in advertisements.
     Maybe some people noticed some strange phenomenon in Mr. Miyazaki's
animations, like Canadian geese appearing in the sky of Europe in Majo no
Takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service).  Mr. Miyazaki explained that he
gathers things he likes and puts them together in his movies.  For
example, the city of Colico in Majo no Takkyubin is a rag tag combination
of Scandinavian and Italian cities as well as parts of San Francisco (he
refers to the funicular).  What matters is the emotion.  He did the same
thing with Kurenai no Buta, where the Mediterranean islands are actually
drawn from pictures of the Sea of China.  If they look good, they fit in.
     Kurenai no Buta (Porco Rosso) is the project on which Mr. Miyazaki
is [in June 1992] actually working on.  He did the pre-production in
March 1991 and the production really started in July 1991.  The movie
will be released next July, so the deadline is now very close.  The
production cost of such a movie is about 600 000 000 yen (make the
conversion by yourself).  To this amount must be added another 600 000
000 yen for the distribution of the movie and the unavoidable publicity.
This animation is financed by Tokuma Shoten, Japan Airlines, Nihon
Television and Studio Ghibli.  If you include the 80 people working full-
time at studio Ghibli, the 60-person orchestra that will perform the
music, the 40 people that will give their voices to the characters and
the various technicians and staff members, about 300 people are involved
in this project.  "When this project is over, I will take a nice
walk to the mountain," said Mr. Miyazaki.
     Studio Ghibli is a branch of Tokuma Shoten, one of the big manga
publishers in Japan.  As said previously, 80 people are working in an
office crowded with bottles of paint, copiers, and drawing desks.  The
most talented ones (6 or 7) will draw the backgrounds while the others
will make the outlines and color the pictures.  Everyone respects Mr.
Miyazaki and everyone is expected to work very hard.  Days may be as long
as 14 hours, but according to the bottles of sake and the boxes of
cookies that can be found on the tables, there are also some very good
times at the studio.  And to enhance the team spirit, the staff members
have their own "Studio Ghibli" jackets.
     The staff consists mainly of very young people, men and women,
between 18 and 25 years old.  Mr. Miyazaki explained that at this age,
people are more flexible: "Yet, their brain did not become concrete."
This is very important in animation, especially for long features such as
Kurenai no Buta, because the style of the characters must remain the same
until the end.
     For those who dream about working at Studio Ghibli, it is possible.
Some foreigners, mainly Italians, are already working there.  But
remember that you must be between 18 and 25 years old and very flexible.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

     Please, feel free to rectify any mistake you may see, as English is
my second language.

        Oyasuminasai.

          |\,,,/|
          =(o o)=
       __OO=(_)=OO__
       \  o  o     /
       /   o __    \
      |    <O_>><   |
       \___________/
                neko to kingyou.

Sylvain Rheault
[e-mail]

========================================================================
Subject: 23.) Nausicaa in LUM episode #185 (Jefery Roberts, May 19, 1994)


WRITTEN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Jefery Roberts, May 19, 1994
ORIGINAL SUBJECT TITLE: Nausicaa in unexpected places

Date:     Thu, 19 May 1994 12:10:16 -0700
From:     Jefery Roberts <[e-mail]>

Recently, I've been seeing Nausicaa pop up in unexpected places.

First an "unexpected" place that I already knew about and was searching
for...

One of the first things I acquired when I became an anime fan was a tape
of the "Urusei Yatsura Karaoke Parade".  In the "Rock the Planet" track
there is a short clip, of just a few seconds, which shows Tomobiki Cho
with plumes of smoke rising from what appear to be factory smokestacks.
From this rather thin "miasma" a glider rises and comes toward the
camera.  Atop this Mehve-like glider is a figure in a light orange
flying suit, very like some of the pictures in "The Art of Nausicaa"
from the time when her color was orange rather than blue.  (There's also
an example on the cover of part 2 of Viz's 3rd Nausicaa series.) The
figure is lying prone, suspended above the glider in "flying position",
and as she comes closer you can see the blue hair streaming out in back.
She then pulls off her very "Valley of the Wind" face mask to reveal
herself as Lum.

People have told me that this is from a Nausicaa parody episode which
features Megane, and ends with a shot of Megane's glasses taking the
place of Nausicaa's mask, lying on sand with a small sapling growing
nearby.

I recently got the Urusei Yatsura LD50 complete TV episode laser disk
collection, so, of course, one of the first things I did with it was to
search it for this episode.  It's episode #185, first broadcast on
19-Jun-85, about a year after Nausicaa's Premier.  The title is
"Daimajin araware! Ramu no kiken na kaimono", or "The Great Devil
appears!  Lum's dangerous purchase".  In addition to the two scenes I
described, there is a stampede of computer controlled tanks that Ataru
fails to stop and is tossed into the midst of, a legend of someone
rising in a red field, which is fulfilled by Megane, whose unconsious
body is raised above the schoolhouse by the computer tapes from the
tanks, and the "Great Devil" himself, a giant robot which Lum purchased
from a mail order catalog and assembled herself, and which makes for a
rather useless God Warrior.  There are doubtless many other allusions to
Nausicaa that I missed on one viewing with my rather limited
understanding of Japanese.

The second unexpected place was in the film section of Kodansha's
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japan.  In 1989, the film critcism magazine,
Cinema Jump, celebrated its 1000th issue by asking 86 film enthusiasts,
including writers, artists, entertainers and people from the film
industry, to choose the ten best Japanese films of all time.  From the
response they got, they decided to expand the list to the top 20, and as
part of a 7 way tie for 20th place, the encyclopedia included a picture
from Nausicaa, with the description: "An adventure-story animation
film".  They had more to say about "Gojira", which was also tied for
20th place, but the captions were limited to 3 lines, and "Gojira", with
its translation and director's name, didn't take up almost all of the
space like "Kaze no Tani no Naushika", with its translation and
director's name did.

The third unexpected place Nausicaa showed up in was in Mektron II for
the Super Nintendo.  My sister's sister-in-law's son (Got that
relationship straight?  His name is Orion.) told me that he had seen
Nausicaa's mask, glider, and body at the entrance to the room containing
one of the Big Bosses.  He brought his Super Nintendo to our house, and
while he was playing the game, he told me to come look at the baby
Ohmus.  Unfortunately, they were part of the random menaces that have to
be avoided, neutralized or killed in that room, and he told me that the
mother really was bad news.  I don't think he actually killed any of
them, so maybe Nausicaa's ecological message wasn't entirely lost by the
game designers who transplanted the Ohmu here.

I sat down to watch as he continued playing, and eventually he entered a
room with 3 squirrel foxes in it.  They also had butterfly antennae, but
they definitely were squirrel foxes.  They took off, jumping from wall
to wall up a shaft, and the technique, while difficult, did seem to work
for his character, although he didn't succeed in scaling the shaft and
finding the goodies at its top until he came back to the area after I
had stopped watching.

Another room had a toriuma (rendered as "horseclaw" in Viz's
translation) in it.  By imitating its actions Orion was able to escape
and to free it, although when he returned later the toriuma was back
tending an egg.  After I stopped watching, Orion eventually found a way
to properly rescue it and was rewarded with more goodies.

I was concerned and annoyed with the game designers for including
Nausicaa's body in the game, but apparently it wasn't her, or she wasn't
dead, since Orion tells me that, at a later point, he was forced to jump
from a dangerous situation, and Nausicaa flew up on Mehve and rescued
his character.  He also says that according to a friend who's gotten
farther, that his character will end up flying Mehve herself (the game
character is female) for a short time later in the game.

None of the Nausicaa references is explicitly identified, and Orion's
friend didn't recognize them (he had never watched Nausicaa), although
Orion recognized them immediately from his descriptions, and, of course
they were obvious once he had seen them himself.

I wonder when Nausicaa will surprise me again from an unexpected place.

Jefery Roberts        Locus Computing Corporation           [e-mail]

========================================================================
Subject: 24.) Troma's MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO presskit (from before May 1993)


WRITTEN BY: unknown parties at Troma Pictures
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1993 (sometime before May)
OBTAINED & SNAIL-MAILED TO LARRY BY: Steven Feldman, around June 13, 1994
TYPED-IN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Larry Greenfield, June 17,
     1994 and June 20, 1994
EDITED & PLACED INTO A DIFFERENT ORDER BY: Steven Feldman, July 9, 1994

Please note that I typed everthing in EXACTLY as it appeared.  There are
plenty of questionable spellings, punctuations, grammar, etc., but I
left everything as it appeared except for inserting an occasional <sic>
here and there....   As-is, baby, as-is!  ;)

Enjoy!!
[e-mail]
:::::Larry:::::

------------------ cut here ----------------

********************
Two-sided Advertising Slick for Totoro:
====================

(One side's picture is from the movie, of Satsuki and Mei clinging
on to Totoro as they fly.)


Headline: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
"Finally An Animated Adventure For Children Of All Ages!"

Parents will be amazed
Children will understand
Everyone will love... TOTORO!

Below are the Japanese credits, the G rating, and the logos
for Tokuma and 50th St. Films.


(On the other side are original pictures from the film, of Totoro, of
Satsuki, Mei, and the Totoros blowing their flutes, of Mei scratching
Totoro's nose, and of Satsuki hugging the catbus as Mei looks on.
Also, there's an ad for the Tokuma Magical Adventure books, along with
an address on who to contact (at 50th Street Films).)


MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
In the tradition of ALLADIN, (they spelled "Aladdin" wrong! -Larry)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LITTLE MERMAID now comes MY NEIGHBOR
TOTORO--an animated adventure for children of all ages!  The worldwide
theatrical smash hit MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO introduces American audiences
to TOTORO, a character who is becoming as beloved as Mickey Mouse to
children the world over.  Now the new classic children's storybook
flies to life on the screen!  Jump aboard!  It's a journey that will
take you to animated heights you've always dreamed about!  You'll
laugh with TOTORO!  You'll cry with TOTORO!  Best of all, you'll fly
with TOTORO!

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO captures the award-winning animated artistry and
creative imagination of Japan's master animation director, Hayao
Miyazaki.  Revered in Japan as Walt Disney is revered in America, Mr.
Miyazaki, whose films include KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, LAPUTA: THE
CASTLE IN THE SKY and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, has had enormous box-office
success, attracting audiences of children, as well as adults.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is the heartwarming story of two young girls who
are befriended by the furry creatures called TOTOROs.  The lovable
TOTOROs can't talk like people nor can they be seen by adults, but
they make perfect sense to the pure and innocent of heart--children.
And when you need to call on a friend for help, you can always look
to MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO.

The Troma team is honored to release the superb entertainment of MY
NEIGHBOR TOTORO to American family audiences.  Parents will be
amazed--Children will understand--Everyone will love MY NEIGHBOR
TOTORO!


********************
Mini Movie-Review Sheet from Tokuma and 50th Street Films:
====================

Here Is What The Critics Are Saying About
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

"VERY FEW FILMS COME ALONG THAT ARE MAGICAL FOR ALL AGES, AND ARE
WHOLESOME, SANE, INTELLIGENT, AND ENTERTAINING.  'MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO'
IS ONE OF THEM"
   -Roger Ebert, "SISKEL & EBERT"


"MY SIX YEAR OLD THOUGHT THIS WAS THE BEST MOVIE SHE'D EVER SEEN NEXT
TO 'BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.'"
   -Michael Medved, "SNEAK PREVIEWS"


"A CHARMING FANTASY"                  "AN ENCHANTING ADVENTURE"
   -The Los Angeles Times                -The Seattle Times


           "ENTERTAINMENT FOR BOTH KIDS AND FOR PARENTS"
              -Michael Medved, "SNEAK PREVIEWS"


"A REAL TREASURE"                            "A WELCOME SURPRISE"
   -Roger Ebert, "SISKEL & EBERT"               -L.A. Weekly


"A TREAT FOR KIDS"                    MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
   -The San Fransisco Chronicle       "YOU GOTTA LOVE HIM"
                                      -The Los Angeles Daily News


"A WONDERFUL MOVIE"
   -Roger Ebert                      "CHARMINGLY WHIMSICAL"
   "SISKEL & EBERT"                     -The Seattle Times


"FOR ONCE FOR A CHANGE... A CHARMING NEW FAMILY PICTURE"
                                       -Michael Medved
                                       "SNEAK PREVIEWS"


"CERTAIN TO DELIGHT"                  "VISUALLY ENCHANTING"
   -The Los Angeles Times                -The Seattle Times


********************
Press Releases...
====================

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

YASUYOSHI TOKUMA
Executive Producer

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO marks the first animated feature film produced by
Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd. to be released nationwide in the
United States.  Now celebrating its thirty-eighth year in business,
Tokuma Publishing is one of 22 companies in the Tokuma Group.  Headed
and completely owned by Mr. Tokuma, the Tokuma Group also includes a
motion picture studio and distributor, an animation studio, a music
studio, a marketing company, hotels and restaurants, schools and a
farm.  Mr. Tokuma was the Executive Producer of the film JU DOU,
which received an Academy Award nomination in 1990 for Best Foreign
Film. In addition, Mr. Tokuma is the General Producer of the annual
Tokyo International Film Festival and he owns Daiei Studios, which
produced Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMAN <sic> forty-two years ago and is
releasing Kurosawa's thirtieth film, MADADAYO, this year.

Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd. publishes a variety of books and
magazines in Japan, and is co-publisher with Nintendo of America of
the video game magazine NINTENDO POWER.  Tokuma Publishing recently
released their first line of books "Tokuma's Magical Adventure Series"
in the United States.  Based on the stories and films of Hayao Miyazaki,
these colorful books incorporate original drawings from Mr. Miyazaki's
films KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, LAPUTA: THE CASTLE IN THE SKY and MY
NEIGHBOR TOTORO.

====================

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

50TH STREET FILMS/TROMA, INC.
U.S. Distributor

The nearly two decade old Troma, Inc. is one of the oldest and most
active independent Producer-Distributors in the United States.  MY
NEIGHBOR TOTORO represents a new track for Troma, Inc. as the company
becomes more active with family oriented properties.  Troma, Inc. will
distribute MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO through it's 50th Street Films.
Troma's licensing department handles the licensing and merchandising
of Troma's in-house properties such as the popular animated
television series the TOXIC CRUSADERS, SGT. KABUKIMAN N.Y.P.D. and
CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH, as well as representing properties including
the Emmy award winning READING RAINBOW and THE CAT HALL OF FAME.
Troma, Inc. also operates a stock footage department, a direct
marketing catalog department and a theatrical distribution and
promotional services department, 50TH Street Films.

Troma, Inc. has a library of more than 100 feature films which include
THE TOXIC AVENGER series and CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH series of movies
and the upcoming release of SGT. KABUKIMAN N.Y.P.D.

====================

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

HAYAO MIYAZAKI
Original Story, Script, Director

Hayao Miyazaki, a renown writer, movie director and script writer in
Japan, has created numerous award winning animation movies.  He is as
revered in Japan as Walt Disney is revered in America and has had
enormous box-office success, attracting audiences of adults, as well
as children.  His representative works are titles such as NAUSICAA IN
THE VALLEY OF THE WINDS <sic>, LAPUTA: THE CASTLE IN THE SKY, MY
NEIGHBOR TOTORO, KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE and PORCO ROSSO.

Mr. Miyazaki was born in 1941 in the Bunkyo District of Tokyo.  After
graduating from Gakushuin University in 1963 with degrees in Political
Science and Economics, he joined the Toei Animation Company.  He is
now very active as an animator and as a director at STUDIO GHIBLI.


********************
Another (Long) Press Release...
====================

(Note: the sometimes-questionable grammar, punctuations and spellings
are those used in the press release...)


Tokuma Publishing
10900 N.E. 4th Suite 1150
Bellevue, Washington 98004
[phone] . FAX [phone]

MEDIA GIANT TOKUMA AND TROMA, INC. PACT TO DISTRIBUTE ANIMATED "MY
NEIGHBOR TOTORO" IN NORTH AMERICA

(New York, NY, February 3, 1993)  Tokuma Shoten Publishing, Co. Ltd.,
a division of The Tokuma Group, one of Japan's largest media and
entertainment organizations, and Troma, Inc. have signed an agreement
whereby Troma, Inc. will distribute the animated feature film in North
America, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, by world renowned animator Hayao
Miyazaki.  The deal was announced today by Yasuyoshi Tokuma, Chairman
of the Tokuma Group and Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma, Inc.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO marks the first animated feature film produced by
Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd. to be released nationwide in the
United States.  Now celebrating its thirty-eighth year in business,
Tokuma Publishing is one of 22 companies in the Tokuma Group.  Headed
and completely owned by Mr. Tokuma, the Tokuma Group also includes a
motion picture studio and distributor, an animation studio, a music
studio, a marketing company, hotels and restaurants, schools and a
farm.  Mr. Tokuma was the Executive Producer of the film JODOU, <sic>
which received an Academy Award nomination in 1990 for Best Foreign
Film. In addition, Mr. Tokuma is the General Producer of the annual
Tokyo International Film Festival and he owns Daiei Studios, which
produced Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMAN forty-two years ago and is
releasing Kurosawa's thirtieth film, MADADAYO, this year.

"Japan's Mickey Mouse"
Troma's release of the award-winning family film MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
will introduce American audiences to TOTORO, which in Japan is a
household name.  "In Japan TOTORO is more beloved than Mickey Mouse
and the Troma Team is honored to introduce this superb family
entertainment to American audiences," says Lloyd Kaufman.  Throughout
Japan, one can see the furry, fat and lovable creatures, called
TOTOROs on a wide variety of licensed products including plush toys,
tote bags, pillows, lunch boxes and many others.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO also introduces the creative imagination and art of
Japan's top animation director, Hayao Miyazaki.  "Mr. Miyazaki's
animation is magnificent and sublime; funny yet very touching.  In my
opinion he is a genius" comments Kaufman.  He is as revered in Japan
as Walt Disney is revered in America and has had enormous box-office
success, attracting audiences of adults, as well as children.

"New Track for Troma, Inc."
The upcoming release of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO represents a new track for
the Troma Team as the company becomes more active with family oriented
properties.  Troma has already established a name for itself in the
children's television arena with the TOXIC CRUSADERS cartoon series
and the company looks forward to presenting MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO as its
first family oriented theatrical release.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is produced by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd.
The company publishes a variety of books and magazines in Japan, and
is co-publisher with Nintendo of America of the video game magazine
NINTENDO POWER.  Tokuma Publishing recently released their first line
of books "Tokuma's Magical Adventure Series" in the United States.
Based on the stories and films of Hayao Miyazaki, these colorful books
incorporate original drawings from Mr. Miyazaki's films KIKI'S
DELIVERY SERVICE, LAPUTA: THE CASTLE IN THE SKY and MY NEIGHBOR
TOTORO.

The nearly two decade old Troma, Inc. is one of the oldest and most
active independent Producer-Distributors in the United States.  Troma,
Inc. has a library of more than 1000 feature films which include THE
TOXIC AVENGER series and CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH series of movies and
the upcoming release of SGT. KABUKIMAN N.Y.P.D.  Troma's licensing
department handles the licensing and merchandising of Troma's in-house
properties such as the popular animated television series the TOXIC
CRUSADERS, SGT. KABUKIMAN N.Y.P.D. and CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH, as well
as representing properties including the Emmy award winning READING
RAINBOW and THE CAT HALL OF FAME.  Troma, Inc. also operates a stock
footage department, a direct marketing catalog department and a
theatrical distribution and promotional services department, 50TH
Street Films.

Set for U.S. theatrical release in Spring, 1993, Troma, Inc. will
distribute MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO through it's 50th Street Films.

For More Information Contact:
TROMA, INC.
In New York-Steve Gaul [phone]
In Los Agneles-Martin Sokol [phone]


********************
Motion Picture Credits
====================

(TOTORO credits, in English and Japanese:)


                            MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
                              Staff and Cast


EXECUTIVE PRODUCER                YASUYOSHI TOKUMA

PRODUCTION PLANNING SUPERVISOR    TATSUMI YAMASHITA
                                  HIDEO OGATA

PRODUCTION DESIGNER               YOSHIHARU SATO

ART DIRECTOR                      KAZUO OGA

MUSIC                             JO HISAISHI

SONGS
"SANPO"
Original Lyrics Written By        RIEKO NAKAGAWA <sic>
Music and Arrangement By          JO HISAISHI

VOICES
SATSUKI                           LISA MICHAELSON
MEI                               CHERYL CHASE
DAD                               GREG SNEGOFF
KANTA                             KENNETH HARTMAN
MOTHER                            ALEXANDRA KENWORTHY
NANNY                             NATALIE CORE
FARMER                            STEVE KRAMER
FARM GIRL                         LARA CODY
KANTA'S MOM                       MELENIE McQUEEN

ADAPTED BY                        CARL MACEK

ADR DIALOGUE WRITTEN BY           GREG SNEGOFF

ENGLISH MUSIC TRANSLATION         EUGENE H. SABURI
                                  KAIULANI KIDANI

ENGLISH LYRICS                    SEVERIN BROWNE

ENGLISH MUSIC COORDINATOR         YOSHI MAKI

ORIGINAL ART

TSUKASA TANNAI                    SHINJI OTSUKA
MASAKO SHINOHARA                  MASAAKI ENDO
TOSHIO KAWAGUCHI                  MAKOTO TANAKA
YOSHINORI KANADA                  KATSUYA KONDO
MAKIKO FUTAKI                     HIROOMI YAMAKAWA
HIDEKO TAGAWA

BACKGROUND

HAJIME MATSUOKA                   TOSHIRO NOZAKI
KIYOMI OTA                        MASAKI YOSHIZAKI
YOJI TAKESHIGE                    KIYOKO SUGAWARA

FINISHING                         MICHIYO YASUDA

SHOOTING                          HISAO SHIRAI

EDITING                           TAKESHI SEYAMA

ANIMATION CHECK                   YASUKO TACHIKI
                                  HITOMI TATENO

COLOR DESIGN                      NOBUKO MIZUTA

FINISH CHECK                      MASAE MOTOHASHI

RECORDING DIRECTOR                SHIGEHARU SHIBA

MODULATION                        SHUJI INOUE

EFFECTS                           KAZUTOSHI SATO

PRODUCTION IN CHIEF               EIKO TANAKA

PRODUCTION COORDINATORS           HIROKATSU KIHARA
                                  TOSHIYUKI KAWABATA

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR                TETSUYA ENDO

ORIGINAL ART COOPERATOR           MAD HOUSE
                                  NOBUMASA SHINKAWA
                                  YUTAKA OKAMURA

                                  MASAAKI KUDO

FINISH CHECK                      TERUYO TATEYAMA
                                  KENJI NARITA
                                  MIWAKO NAKAMURA

SPECIAL EFFECTS                   KAORU TANIFUJI

ANIMATION

MASAKO SAKANO                     KOMASA
KIYOKO MAKITA                     RITSUKO TANAKA
KIYO MIZUTANI                     RITSUKO SHIINA
SHINJI MOROHASHI                  KUMIKO OTANI
RIWAKO MATSUI                     KEIICHIRO HATTORI
YUKA ENDO                         KAZUTKA OZAKI <sic>
AKIKO TESHIMA                     EMIKO IWAYANAGI
NAGISA MIYAZAKI                   YUKARI MAEDA
NAOKO TAKENAWA                    KAZUMI OKABE
RIE NIIDOME                       MASAKAZU OKADA
AKI YAMAGATA                      KYOKO HIGURASHI
KEIKO WATANABE                    KAZUKO FUKUTOMI

STUDIO FANTASIA

HAJIME YOSHIDA                    NAOKI KITAMURA
JUNICHI NAGANO                    TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO
MASAYUKI OTA

ANIME TOROTORO
YUKARI YAMAURA                    AKIKO ISHII
KOJI ITO                          TAKATERU KAWAMURA

DRAGON PRODUCTION

CHECKING

STUDIO KILLY
TOSHICHIKA IWAKIRI                MICHIKO NISHIMAKI
NAOMI TAKAHASHI                   NOBUKO WATANABE
MAYUMI WATABE                     MICHIKO ODE
CHIYOMI MORISAWA                  HISAKO YOSHIDA
NORIKO YAMAMURA                   NAOKO OKAWA
YURIKO KUDO                       YUKI TAKAGI
TOKUKO HARADA                     TOYOKO KAJITA
FUJINO KOMEI                      AIKO TAKAHASHI
TOKI YANAGI                       MIYOKO OKA
FUMI YAMANE                       HATSUE TANAKA
MICHIKO OTA                       JUNKO ADACHI
YOKO FUJINO                       YOSHIKO MURATA

STUDIO STEP
YUKI KYONO                        TOMOKO ASAHI
HIROMI HANAWA                     YORIMI SAWAUCHI
REIKO SUZUKI                      REIKO SHIBUYA

HIROE TAKEKURA                    STUDIO RUN RUN
DOMESHA                           STUDIO BEAM
STUDIO HIBARI                     KYOEI PRODUCTION
GROUP JOY                         TRANS ARTS CO.

BACKGROUND

KOBAYASHI PRODUCTION
SHINJI KIMURA                     MAKOTO SHIRAISHI
TSUYOSHI MATSUMURO                NOBUHIRO OTSUKA
SADAHIKO TANAKA

ATELIER BWCA
HIDETOSHI KANEKO                  KEIKO TAMURA

AKIRA YAMAKAWA
JUNKO INA
YUKO MATSUURA

SHOOTING

STUDIO COSMOS
YOICHI KURODA                     MOTOAKI KIEGAMI
KATSUNORI MAEHARA                 NORIKO SUZUKI
TETSUO OFUJI                      KIYOSHI SAEKI
KAZUMI IKETANI                    HIROSHI NOGUCHI
HIROSHI ITO                       MITSUKO NANBA
TOMOKO SUGIYAMA                   KATSUJI SUZUKI
SHINJI IKEGAMI

PRODUCTION COORDINATORS           HIROYUKI ITO
                                  TAKAAKI SUZUKI

ASSISTANT EDITING                 HIROSHI ADACHI

TITLE                             TAKAGU ATELIER

FINISH TECHNIQUE COOPORATE        JOSAI DUPLO
                    <sic>         MAMORU MURAO

COOPERATION                       ANIMAGE MAGAZINE EDITORIAL
                                  STAFF/TOKUMA SHOTEN PUBLISHING
                                  CO., LTD.

ASSISTANT EFFECT                  HIRONORI ONO

DIALOG EDITING                    AKIRA IDA

ASSISTANT RECORDING DIRECTOR      NAOKO ASARI

RECORDING STAFF                   MAKOTO SUMIYA
                                  KOJI FUKUSHIMA
                                  MUTSUYOSHI OTANI

RECORDING PRODUCTION              OMNIBUS PROMOTION INC.

MUSIC PRODUCTION                  MITSUNORI MIURA
                                  TAKASHI WATANABE
                                  TOKUMA JAPAN CORPORATION

RECORDING STUDIO                  TOKYO T.V. CENTER

FILM DEVELOPMENT                  TOKYO LABORATORY, LTD.

COOPERATION                       HAKUHODO INC.

               TOKUMA SHOTEN PUBLISHING CO., LTD.
          "MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO" PRODUCTION COMMITTEE

HIROYUKI KATO                     TOSHIO SUZUKI
AKIRA KANEKO                      OSAMU KAMEYAMA
MASAHIRO KASUYA                   HIKOGORO SHIRAISHI
MINORU TAKOKORO                   HISAYOSHI ODAKA
TSUTOMU OTSUKA                    TOMOKO KOBAYASHI
TAKAO SASAKI                      MICHIO YOKO
SHIGERU ASO                       TETSUHIKO YOSHIDA
YOSHIO TSUBOIKE

PRODUCTION                        STUDIO GHIBLI

PRODUCER                          TORU HARA

ORIGINAL STORY, SCRIPT, DIRECTOR  HAYAO MIYAZAKI


********************
Stills
====================

(Four stills were included in the presskit I received:
 1.) low-angle medium close-up of O Totoro, with Satsuki on the
 lower right, looking rather distraught.
 2.) O Totoro, with umbrella, handing the little package of nuts
 leftward to Mei, who is perched atop Satsuki.
 3.) the catbus leaping towards the veiwer, just having run past a
 trolley car/train, which is visible to the right of the frame.
 4.) close-up of cat-bus's face, eyes crossed, as Mei runs from the
 left--holding her piece of corn--towards Satsuki who runs towards
 her from the right.
                                                 -- Steven Feldman)

------cut here------

*********************************************************************
Note: I typed in this text as it appeared.  There was wide use of
questionable grammar, spellings, and punctuations, but I left
everything as-is, with the exception of inserting a <sic> here
and there...

Larry Greenfield     [e-mail]
(No, I don't live in Fresno!  I only email there!)
*********************************************************************

========================================================================
Subject: 25.) Allegory in LAPUTA (Bryan Wilkinson, January 20, 1994)


WRITTEN & POSTED TO <NAUSICAA@BROWNVM> BY: Bryan Wilkinson, Jan. 20, 1994
EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, October 30, 1994

     Laputa was Steven's favorite, I believe, so it was a big topic a
while back--in fact, I posted the same interpretation of Sheeta's loss of
her "childish" tails at the end--there are other indications, too.  The
film is, directly, about children vs. adults, automatically suggesting
childhood meeting adulthood.  Secondly, the age of the two (Pazu and
Sheeta) protagonists (14, according to sources).  Thirdly, the mythic
quest for the lost utopia of Laputa.

     Laputa itself seems all innocence until Mooska arrives, and we see,
as it is corrupted, the darker side of Laputa unveiled.  Later, Laputa
will shed this corrupted part and ascend out of reach.  Sheeta's
monologue delivered to Mooska is not something one would expect from the
girl-child introduced at the film's beginning, nor Pazu's sacrificing of
the dream he carries on from his father.  Note that these correspond to
the moment she loses her braids.  The Sheeta and Pazu that fly off in the
glider at the film's end are undeniably no longer children.  One article
I read likened Laputa to Peter Pan in some of these allegorical respects,
and noted on the side that the flight scenes in Pan were of some
inspiration to Miyazaki. . . . I don't think either sounds unreasonable.

     What then, of the relationship that matures between Pazu and Sheeta?
Their bond, akin to the one between Conan and Lanna in Mirai Shonen
Conan, is one that puts them beyond the grasp of the world's colder
aspects, one that is more kindred than affection.  This might also be
regarded as a possible manifestation of anima/animus duality--the
chracter(s)'s "other side" manifested in carnate form.

     One other point is the clothing worn by Sheeta.  In the film's first
part, she wears a loose dress, followed by boy's clothing to directly
diguise her gender, and a loose gown while captive.  When they are taken
on by the Dola clan, Dola Mama gives her some of her old clothes (in the
background we see a painting of a young, Nausicaa-like Dola wearing
similar clothes and the tails, elaborating on the pirates' comments on
her resemblance--is Dola representing a surrogate maternal figure of
sorts?  I think so . . .), which she wears tightly with the aid of a
belt.  Here, for the first time, Sheeta's figure is revealed, and it
isn't the one of a child, but rather of an adolescent.  I seriously doubt
this fact was hidden before then by chance.

     This point is driven home by the air pirates taking a  definitely
sexual notice of Sheeta--I dare anyone to argue with that!  :)

     (Interestingly, Kiki, who is 13, is given a childlike figure, which
seems relevant to her film being one that deals with the BEGINNING of
coming-of-age, in contrast to the direct confrontation with adulthood
represented in Laputa.)

     Are the pirates, then, representing a surrogate family for Sheeta
and Pazu?  This, too, seems a likely posssibility.

     These are some of my thoughts on the allegorical aspects of Laputa.

 --Bryan

========================================================================
Subject: 26.) BATMAN & Fleischer 'toons re Miyazaki (two quotes, 1/13/94)


Date:         Thu, 13 Jan 1994 14:47:00 PST
Reply-To:     Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group <[e-mail]>
Sender:       Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group <[e-mail]>
From:         Bill Wilkinson <[e-mail]>
Subject:      What is Mononoke Hime; What Batman references; Lion King; OPP

[NOTE: this posting has been edited.  --S.F.]

Old topic, back when the episodes of Batman were intially released.
Yes, clock tower battles abound and predate Cagliostro, but any
student of animation who has seen Cagliostro can tell you "The
Clock King" is not such--entire character gestures, expressions,
actions are mimicked from Cagliostro quite precisely--most notably,
when the Clock King holds his sword in front of his face in answer
to challenge, just as the Count does with Lupin, and other
parallels exist as well.  This is the most prominent reference.  There
is a more subtle cagliostro reference in the episode "Vendetta", a large
Konan reference in the Zatanna episode (using a behemoth plane copied
precisely outside and in from I believe a Norman Bel Geddes design or
some other streamline era designer I forget), and some others.  Actually,
there is a Scarecrow episode with a dirigible sequence more akin to The
Rocketeer, but the escape craft I recall is an obvious clone of the
Tiger Moth's glider in Laputa--minor, true.  As for Akira, the series
often uses the blurred taillights (actually a device that can be found
in the earlier anime Ai City, and is reminiscent of a shojo manga
background technique, as well), electric currents around tires, and
the famous Kaneda skid-to-a-stop is employed by Robin in the second part
of Robin's Reckoning.   These are all just off the top of my head.

 --Bry

+          +          +          +          +          +          +

Date:         Thu, 13 Jan 1994 18:22:36 -0500
Source:       Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group <[e-mail]>
Really-From:  "Doctor Enigma, Master of Time and Space" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: American Animation
In-Reply-To:  <[e-mail]> from "Robert
              Plamondon" at Jan 13, 94 08:37:14 am

> On the "must see" list for Miyazaki fans is the SUPERMAN series by the
> Fleischer brothers in the early 1940's.  I heard somewhere that this
> series was pivotal in determining Miyazaki's own view of what animation
> was capable of.  SUPERMAN is a full-motion, realistic, ostentatiously
> cinematic work (with lots of fancy shots reminiscent of CITIZEN KANE)
> that features a strong-willed and competent Lois Lane.  It has no
> resemblance at all to the limited-animation SUPERMAN series that came
> much later.

It's certain that Miyazaki has seen the Fleischer Superman shorts; the
opening to FAREWELL LOVELY LUPIN is a direct ripoff of METAL MONSTERS.

> Poor-quality tapes of this series can be found in bargain bins of
> expired-copyright shows for $2-$5 (along with wartime Warner Brothers
> cartoons and some old movies), so the show is within anyone's price
> range.

If you ever have a chanceto see these on the big screen, do so.  You
haven't really seen THE BULLETEERS until you've seen it on the big
screen.

> I'm still looking for a high-quality source of these cartoons, and I'd
> appreciate pointers to them.

Bosko Video
3802 E. Cudahy Ave.
Cudahy, WI 53110-1234

They have them on VHS, and apparently they're better than the laserdisc
release.

--
     Emru Townsend, aka: [e-mail], [e-mail], Fido: 1:167/133
                 Live and in color from Montreal, Quebec!
    You got your protons in the middle; electrons floatin' round above
            What holds it all together?  Crazy sub-atomic love!