1986 dieselpunk fantasy:
AniDB, vt
"Laputa: Castle in the Sky" and "Castle in the Sky". Pazu the
engineer's apprentice catches a girl falling from the sky; bad people
are after her, and all is not what it seems as various factions hunt
for the legendary floating city Laputa.
The backgrounds are gorgeous, as in everything where Miyazaki has
had control, so it's rather a shame that the lead character designs
are so crude: very much in the tradition of mid-1980s anime, sure, but
they're clearly optimised for fast drawing in manga rather than for
detail or subtlety. The further you get away from the leads, the more
variation is allowed: "Mama" Dola, leader of the pirate gang chasing
the girl Sheeta, and some of her crew are much more interestingly
designed (though a few could have dropped straight out of Lupin
III), and while the lead government agent is reminiscent of many
other untrustworthy-neat-guy characters the soldiers do a better job
of looking like distinct people.
The thing that impresses me most about the animation is the way the
movements work: an engineer, fixing the guts of an airship power
plant in a confined space, moves in the way one does when one's near,
but used to, fast-moving dangerous things. And yes, there are the
requisite implausible flying ships, both peaceful and warlike: some
are relatively conventional airships, but others are bulbous solid
shapes bedizened with propellers and rotors and rudders and turrets.
Aerodynamics clearly works differently here, and that's just fine.
As for the plot, it has a pleasing sophistication in how it makes
(some) enemies into allies rather than just writing them off as Bad
People; perhaps that's why the eventual resolution strikes me as a
little on the trite and simplistic side.
A continuity of influence stretches back to the Future Boy Conan
series (also directed by Miyazaki) and forward, at least as far as
visual tropes go, into Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, No Game No
Life, and the Final Fantasy games, among many others. That's why a
great deal about this film looks familiar to the experienced anime
viewer, much as The Lord of the Rings is full of tired old fantasy
tropes; but it still stands well on its own.
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