Moving On Up To the "Castle In the Sky"

One of the most interesting things about Castle in the Sky was the Mama character. She was constantly fascinating throughout the film and I often wondered how easy it would have been for Miyazaki to have created a sort of prequel to Sheeta's story by creating a story about Mama's childhood as a young pink-pigtailed pirate learning a hold on a ship amongst the wild clouds. Her character is one that deviates from the other female characters in the films we've seen so far. While visually, she may recall Obaba from Nausicaa, characteristically, Mama is very different, possessing both a hyper-competency as a captain of her own pirate ship, yet also domineering and much more distant emotionally than the other female characters. Even the way her body is drawn is closer in size and build to the male characters, such as her "sons" on her ship.

In considering anime and the "shojo" themes and characters that we have seen and studied in Miyazaki's film, Mama fits more into an action/adventure sort of category almost separate from the typical "shojo" character lineup. Her purpose in the film seems to be leading the ship primarily but also advising Sheeta and Pazu. Whether or not Mama is guiding Sheeta in a path that she has herself once been through is ambiguous, but the references that she and her "sons" make to possibility of Sheeta growing up to be another Mama are clear. Mama is a quirky figure: one one hand, she is savage and rips meat slovenly into chunks with her teeth, yet on the other, she waits and worries for Sheeta and Pazu near the end when the base of Laputa is crumbling. She seems to go through a growth of her own throughout the film. Sheeta and Pazu are both a nostalgic reminder and a threat to her position on her ship. There are hints that Mama has been through the reckless and carefree motions of childhood that Sheeta and Pazu are going through and the fact that she lightens up in mood, if only for a short while, is significant in her character development.

I would want to be a pirate on Mama's ship!

Nausicaa Round Two

Miyazaki's use of colors in Nausicaa especially stood out to me in watching it a second time. Blue and red were particularly significant amongst the relation of natural, neutral colors to identify the different populations that exist from Tolmekia, Pejite and the Valley of the Wind.

(Post To be completed)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Talking about Miyazaki's "shojo" has been particularly of interest to me especially after considering "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind". The idea of a strong female heroine on the verge of finding herself as well as becoming a woman helps construct Nausicaa's role as the leader in her village. Her character is multidimensional and includes such layers as her pacifist vision for the Earth, her instinctive connection with Nature, and her stubbornness in facing political obstacles. She is part of the specific category that Miyazaki has created under the "shojo" umbrella. As Susan Napier has pointed in various of Miyazaki's works, the main character is usually a young girl completely defying standards set in Japanese patriarchal society. Nonetheless, we are reminded constantly of her fragile emotional state in relation to her family , Nature, and the village. She is prone to throwing herself on a whim to the rescue of animals or to stop violence, often risking her life.

While this aspect of Miyazaki's work is unique and calls attention to the statement that he aims to make about society, what I found puzzling was the occasional perverse highlighting of Nausicaa's body. An honest question that popped into my mind as I watched the introductory scene was "Where is her underwear?" It was a blatant call for attention to her implicit sexuality. Perhaps it follows the trend in anime to hypersexualize the female characters as through sexual noises during running or battle. Though this aspect of Nausicaa's character raises questions about her identity as a young girl in contrast to her hyper-competence, as Napier phrases it, it is still one that I found almost unnecessarily emphasized at times. Miyazaki creates a multitude of shots that include Nausicaa's legs or bare bottom while she is exploring the jungle or riding on her glider.

I'll definitely ponder more on this, but I think it's important not only within his works but also in the context of Japanese culture, to more clearly define the trends in his "shojo" narratives as dually strong and competent as well as feminine and delicate.