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!