Saturday, June 4, 2011

Nausicaa - Christina LeBaron

1. Analyze: Milieu - Secondary
Even though milieu wasn't the main driving force of the story, it still played a huge roll in moving the story along.  This world in which Nausicaa lives is so different from our own.  While she is familiar with it, I found myself asking questions, like: why are these people at war?  Why is the lake acidic?  Why is it so dangerous the breathe in the forest?  This world was created but not all of the details were explained to the reader, making it even more interesting as the reader tries to figure things out as the story goes on.  The setting helps drives the story as it centers around these warring civilizations and the forest.  

2. Rating: PG for a little violence.

3. Springboard: As Megan mentioned, Miyazaki would have had to know about aviation and how flying contraptions work. 


That was interesting to me and I actually found out that a real scale model of the Möwe ((メーヴェ Mēve , or "mehve" in the English manga), the German word meaning seagull.  An official scale model lists it as having an approximate wingspan of 5.8 meters, while the design notes indicate it weighs only 12 kg.  (that's the version in the manga.  You need to be specific when you design these things even if it's for a book or a comic)  In 2004, the Japanese-led OpenSky Aircraft Project began attempts to build a real-life, working personal jet glider based on the glider from Nausicaa.  Two gliders with no power source carrying the code name M-1 and M02, with a half-sized jet-powered remote controlled mock up called moewe 1/2 was built.  The designer and tester of the project refused the official endorsement of the project by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki. noting that he did not want to cause trouble for them if an accident occurred.


4. Apply:  What I really liked about Nausicaa (as well as almost all of Miyazaki's stuff) is the world that he creates but doesn't exactly explain.  I would like to be able to do that with my own stories.  I want to be able to create a cool believable (yet fantastical world) that has history but doesn't need to have all the details about it explained to the audience.  The audience should be able to learn about the world and it's history bit by bit from clues in the story without getting confused

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