Right from the start, the animation in this film is absolutely staggering. There's shots where a whole street of people are mingling together and the level of coordination for that shit is insane. I've spent years learning how to do that with a computer so the idea of a team of people doing it by hand blows my mind a little bit.

I have to admit my appreciation for this film was heavily dependent on having seen The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness immediately beforehand, because The Wind Rises is actually quite a dull story, and without the context that Miyazaki provides in the documentary surrounding it's production a lot of the nuance would have been missed. It's also a very weird subject to glorify with such a bright and colourful film; despite its strong anti-war sentiment it's still technically a celebration of the invention of Japanese war planes that were used against the allies, which made me feel slightly uncomfortable when portrayed through the ghibli aesthetic.

From a technical/biographical standpoint I loved it. At face value though, it's somewhat lacking. I'm glad I watched it, though I probably wouldn't recommend to anyone who wasn't a die-hard Ghibli fan or who had a strong appreciation for traditional animation principles.

[This review was posted elsewhere on the forums but I wanted a copy here that I could refer back to. x]