The Miyazaki-Is-Disturbing Scale

[mik3cap]

Hayao Miyazaki has made a wide range of wonderful fantasy anime, and they each seem to be tailored to a particular age group. His major feature films seem to fall on a scale of Totally Germane For Toddlers to I'm An Adult And I'm Cringing Slightly. This is how I would rank his films on this scale:

• My Neighbor Totoro, 1988 (Any age can watch this and enjoy it)
• Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, 2008 (This actually has a "bad guy" in it and thus is one step higher)
• Kiki's Delivery Service, 1989 (Kiki has a lot of challenges within herself to overcome, and some conflict)
• [EDIT: Porco Rosso, 1992 (Nobody dies, very little conflict besides dogfights where no one gets hurt)]
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky, 1986 (Lots of conflict, actual bad guys and high stakes adventure)
• Spirited Away, 2001 (Many nightmarish monsters, but nobody actually gets hurt)
• Howl's Moving Castle, 2004 (Depicts war, people get hurt)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, 1984 (Psychadelic monsters and situations, blood and conflict)
• Princess Mononoke, 1997 film (Lots of blood and death and suffering and weird shit)

Somehow I have missed seeing Porco Russo [sic], and thus cannot place it accurately on the scale. I should rectify this. I suspect it's in the middle somewhere, since it's about a flying ace pig.

[EDIT: I have since seen Porco Rosso and have placed it]

Comments

[treyvana.livejournal.com]

I'm actually surprised that I've seen as many of these as I have- Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Naussica...considering I'm not huge on anime, it's interesting that the majority of the movies I've seen have been by one person/company/whatnot.

Other than these, the only other anime I've really seen is Trigun, and some of Full Metal Alchemist.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Because Disney is backing Studio Ghibli and being the distributor... they got the $$$

Huh.

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

I'd classify it almost as the reverse:

Lowest: Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind: Weirdest thing here is giant insects, not really that creepy at all. They even have somewhat believable anatomy.

Next lowest: Princess Mononoke: Safe most of the way through, but the forest spirit creeps me out.

Middle of the road: Spirited Away: Seriously creepy looking gods and stuff, some without faces. Also... parents turning into pigs? Creepy!

Serious freak factor: My Neighbor Totoro: Giant fat legless monsters? Wha? And we're just supposed to accept that they are benevolent? I also have doubts about stepping inside an animal pretending to be a bus. What if it digests me?

Re: Huh.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Normally violence and fighting and such are a bit too much for little ones... Nausicaa's got a lot of fighting and some blood and death, unlike Totoro and Spirited Away. If you remove the violence/blood aspect, your ranking is fairly valid.