Category Archives: anime

Chic Pixel’s Best of 2013

Now that 2013 has come and gone, I figured it’d be as good a time as any to reflect on the most memorable things that came out over the course of the year. Of course, it just wasn’t possible for me to play all the games and watch all the anime that came out in 2013, and I’m not really fond of definitively putting labels on things such as “game of the year,” so I’ll just stick with shining the spotlight on what stood out for me personally. To hear me talk more in-depth about some of these titles, be sure to check out my end-of-the-year podcast with Brad Gallaway, as well!

☆Games☆

2013 was a great year for games, especially on handhelds. I think I played my 3DS’s more than any year previous, and my Vita got a fair share of love, too! Though the new consoles that came out at the end of the year mean a new generation of flashier games to play on the TV, I imagine I’ll be satisfied with my handhelds and retro hardware for a while yet. Here are a few of my favorite games I played last year:

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PC, PS3) – I’ve written so much about this one already that I’m almost embarrassed to bring it up again! But considering how much time I’ve spent playing and thinking about FFXIV, it’d be criminal not to include it on this list. In fact, it blows all other games from 2013 out of the water for me. Not only was it my first MMO, but it’s the first mainline Final Fantasy I can genuinely say I loved since Final Fantasy X.

SteamWorld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt (3DS) – This little eShop game was, hands down, the biggest surprise of the year. When the developer contacted me to review the title for them, I initially scoffed at the name and thought, “Great, another silly western indie title.” Boy, was I wrong! I’ve never played Minecraft, Terraria, or even Metroid (hate mail commencing in 3, 2…), which SteamWorld Dig is often compared to, but I can say that it is a polished, addictive digging title that gave me major Mr. Driller vibes while still having its own cohesive style. And I’m pretty sure it’s the first eShop game I’ve played to completion!

Sweet Fuse: At Your Side (PSP/PSN) – I can’t commend Aksys Games enough for continuing to bring over otome games in English. While their first pick, Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom was a solid game, it wasn’t really the kind of thing that jives with me (brooding swordsmen, blech), so Sweet Fuse was a very welcome addition to their otome game library. Suffice it to say, if you’re only going to play one otome game in your life, make it this one – it’s campy, humorous, and is chock full of fun video game-related nods and references on top of the organically written romances.


Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS, Wii U) – Not only was 2013 the year of my first MMO, it was the year of my first Monster Hunter game, as well! Rather than lamenting how I’ll never have time for any new games now, I’d like to highlight how great an experience Monster Hunter 3U has been so far, even though I haven’t played all that much of it in comparison to folks who literally sink hundreds of hours into each new installment. Everything from the monster designs to the little animation that plays when your character cooks meat on a spit is endearing beyond belief, and though I still really don’t have any idea what I’m doing, I’m looking forward to blundering my way through the series for years to come.

☆Other great games: Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, Bravely Default, Rune Factory 4, Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (And probably more I’m forgetting! New Year’s resolution: keep a list of all the games I play)

☆Anime☆

2012 was the year I really started following current anime again, and I’m happy to report that my interest in keeping up with new series bubbled over into 2013, as well. While previously I mostly watched older things (and not very often, I might add), it’s great to be involved in the conversations that arise when everyone is watching a particular series together. That said, I didn’t actually watch all that many shows, so there are only two that stand out that I want to mention today:


Free! – Also known as the best thing that happened for female anime fans all year, Free! initially made waves (pun intended) as a short 30 second commercial by Kyoto Animation early in the year. The anime itself featured a group of cute guys doing cute things in bathing suits, so of course it was a hit, but it had all of the usual Kyoto Animation quality and charm. While the anime as a whole didn’t grab me as much as I would’ve liked, the interactions between the characters always put a smile on my face. Also, that ending sequence!

Gatchaman Crowds – After hearing a number of friends recommend this one, I finally decided to give it a watch in December, and I’m so glad I did! Gatchaman Crowds requires absolutely no knowledge of Gatchaman to enjoy, and it’s a beautiful, colorful series with a lot of interesting characters and surprisingly poignant themes. It’s also the first series where I’ve actually liked the ultra-hyper cute female lead (you know the kind), so it gets major points for that.

☆Bonus best anime-related trend of the year: Attack on Titan opening parody videos. I don’t normally get into memes, but these were amazing.

If you’re a fan of this blog and haven’t played or seen everything I’ve mentioned, hopefully you’ll have some new ideas for things to check out! And please do leave your own personal favorites of 2013 in the comments so I can fill my “to do” list with more great games and anime.

5 songs to get you in the holiday spirit, Chic Pixel style!

When it comes to festive winter tunes, I usually tend toward traditional carols and hymns (which I find rather odd, considering I’m not religious). But any self-respecting nerd has some anime and game songs in their holiday repertoire, right? Here are a few of my favorites:

Before I go any further, though, I’m going to be honest… there aren’t many good anime Christmas songs. In fact, I avoid most of them like the plague. There are, however, two Sailor Moon Christmas albums that really must be in every anime fan’s library. They’re simply that good! My personal favorite is the first track on the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars album, “Sailor Moon Christmas.” It’s both goofy and original, making it stand out in the endless sea of “Jingle Bells” covers.

Now Pokémon Christmas Bash is a classic CD in the so-bad-it’s-almost-good category. This song, with the uninspired title “The Christmas Song,” stands out for being the only English song on my list, but since it’s Pokémon-related, I think it counts. Any Christmas song featuring the English Team Rocket voice cast is an instant winner in my book, but “I’m Giving Santa a Pikachu This Christmas,” which is sung by Professor Oak, is also pretty priceless, so I’m going to have to insist you give that one a listen if you haven’t heard it already, as well.

I know there are a million and one “snow area” themes from various games, but when winter rolls around I always turn to “Buried in Snow,” the Great Glacier/Icicle Inn theme from Final Fantasy VII. It’s a melancholy tune that really captures the feeling of being out in a seemingly endless snowstorm. Now that I’m in steamy Australia where snow is but a dream, it’s a tune that really reminds me of winters in Vermont.

Now, I know less about THE IDOLM@STER than I do Hatsune Miku, but what I do know is that this Christmas song, “Merry,” is rather catchy! Unfortunately, it features a rather boring opening and doesn’t really get going until 0:40, but if you’re looking for a toe-tapping Christmas tune, this one’s pretty solid!

To wrap up my list of “holiday” tunes, here’s a song that doesn’t really have anything to do with the season aside from the fact that the anime it appears in, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, takes place around Christmas, and it has “white” in the title. Regardless, “White Reflection” is one seriously catchy tune, so I’ll dub it the Die Hard entry of this holiday music roundup.

I wish I could say I had tons more anime/game-related holiday music in my arsenal, but sadly the Sailor Moon Christmas albums are where I get most of my holiday anime cheer! If you have a favorite winter theme from a video game or Christmas-y anime song I’ve missed, be sure to share it in the comments!

Dreams Come True: Reliving My Childhood through Little Witch Academia

It probably goes without saying that as you grow older, your tastes change, and even perhaps mature. I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds myself increasingly cynical of modern media, be it film, anime, video games, or one of the many other forms of entertainment available today. Believe it or not, when I was in high school, I recall myself boastfully telling a friend that there wasn’t a single anime I’d seen that I didn’t like. Let me assure you, I’ve watched some anime that I wouldn’t think twice about going back to now! These days, however, I find myself in the complete opposite position – while I still like anime, it’s much more difficult to find titles I enjoy, and there are only a handful of series that I would wholeheartedly recommend to friends without hesitation.

I’m not really interested in talking about why it gets harder to enjoy certain things as you age, because that’s a whole other topic in and of itself. Instead, I’d like to highlight a title that instantly brought me back to that feeling I had when I first saw Sailor Moon transform on Cartoon Network many years ago: Little Witch Academia.

The first thing you should know about Little Witch Academia is that it’s available for free, subtitled, legally on YouTube direct from the studio that created it, so I highly suggest for anyone reading this to go check it out! It’s only one episode and clocks in at a little under 30 minutes, so it’s not a big time investment, either.

The short was created by Studio TRIGGER, a fairly new studio formed by former Gainax animators known for their work on titles such as FLCL, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. As a huge fan of Gurren Lagann, the studio automatically hit “must-watch” status in my book, though before Little Witch Academia, the only works they had produced were the web series Inferno Cop and the opening animation to the 3DS game Project X Zone.

Little Witch Academia is fairly unique in that it was produced through the Young Animator Training Project in which four studios are selected to receive government funding to produce short films as part of an effort to train young Japanese animators. While it originally aired in Japanese cinemas in March alongside three other shorts as part of Anime Mirai 2013, TRIGGER later decided to release a subtitled English version on YouTube and Crunchyroll to gauge how well it would be received internationally.

Well, those efforts must have proved fruitful for the studio, as not only did they announce a second episode of Little Witch Academia, but they launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to increase the total time of the episode from 20 to 35 minutes that was fully funded within five hours of going up! The Kickstarter finished today at a whopping $625,518, and the studio has stated that if the sequel does well, they may even consider turning it into a full series or feature length film.

Not only that, but TRIGGER will also be opening preorders for Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray of the first episode of Little Witch Academia on August 13th that contains an additional making-of video and a whopping 112 page artbook of sketches, character art, and illustrations from the gorgeous short. Considering all of this has become possible due to one animated short being available for anyone to watch for free online, it’s truly an amazing feat and definitely reflects both the quality of the work and the gap it fills in the anime industry.

But what is it that makes Little Witch Academia so special? For me, the first few minutes of the episode where a young girl, who we later find out is the protagonist, Akko, attends the magic show of her idol, the witch Shiny Chariot, sums it up perfectly. Shiny Chariot dazzles Akko and the rest of her audience with her magical prowess, ending with the advice, “never forget, a believing heart is your magic!” The complete awe and adoration on Akko’s face during this sequence is, admittedly, exactly how I felt as a child watching Sailor Moon, and aside from the occasional Studio Ghibli production, I haven’t had an animated Japanese feature evoke the same sense of wonder in me since.

Time then skips forward to the present day, where Akko is a student at an academy for witch girls. Though she falls asleep in class and shows no real magical talent, she continues to look up to Shiny Chariot as a source of inspiration, even though the other witches condemn her for giving people the wrong impression of what it means to be a witch. Again, Akko’s clumsy nature, paired with her passion to succeed, is reminiscent of many other magical girl series.

At a time when fetishization of high school girls (and younger) saturates much of the anime (and manga) scene, it’s great to see a show that embraces the magical girl genre to create a world for both children and adults to enjoy with an abundance of non-sexualized female characters. While it I find myself less drawn to coming-of-age stories as I grow older, Little Witch Academia manages to capture the magic of Japanese animation and the “girl power” tone that first got me hooked on the medium over 15 years ago.

But you don’t have to be a fan of magical girls or a woman looking for a strong cast of female characters to relate to to enjoy Little Witch Academia, as it is one of the most well-animated and genuinely fun shows to come out in a long time. If you’re like me and are finding yourself bogged down by your own cynicism for current art and entertainment, give Little Witch Academia a shot. You’ve got nothing to lose!

If you watched Little Witch Academia and didn’t get a chance to support the episode 2 Kickstarter, be sure to keep your eye open for preorders for the Collector’s Edition when they open on the 13th!

Discussing the Kyoto Animation “swimming anime” sensation

Animation Do, a subsidiary of Kyoto Animation, released a very interesting 30 second video (hereafter referred to by the Japanese abbreviation for commercial, “CM”) the other day focusing on four young male swimmers that has gained an astounding amount of popularity worldwide. While I wasn’t planning on writing a whole post about it, as I didn’t think there was any discussion to be had, the huge outcry for the CM to be turned into a full-fledged series as well as the backlash by some fans against Kyoto Animation producing animation for a female audience has proven that it’s definitely not “just a CM.” In addition, there’s so much misinformation regarding this “anime” floating around that I thought it would be a good idea to clear up exactly what it is and why it’s got everyone so excited/angry.

In April 2012, Animation Do released two teaser images for a new project, one which included the phrase “Ore to omae no sa o oshiete yaru yo!” or “”I’ll show you what makes us different!” (pictured above). Fans immediately assumed Kyoto Animation was finally doing a series aimed at a female audience, contrary to their massively-popular K-On and Lucky Star, which contain much male-oriented fanservice and moe elements (though they remain relatively popular with female viewers, as well). People on English forums began dubbing the series “the swimming anime,” but there wasn’t a single word on the production until March 6th, 2013, when Animation Do released a 30 second CM featuring the characters from the original teaser.

Kyoto Animation has been known to release CMs with completely original assets, so it’s safe to assume that the project they were teasing was in fact a promotional CM for the company and not actually a new series. Further supporting this is the fact that the CM credits are listed with their other commercials on the company’s website, indicating that it is not a promotional CM for a new series (note: the title of the CM can be translated to “swimming club,” indicating it might be more appropriate to refer to it as that instead of “the swimming anime”). Even so, many fans continue to speculate that a series may arise out of this CM, and there are has been a huge interest in the swimming anime, including both extremely positive and negative reactions, since its release nearly a week ago.

On one hand, there are many (likely female) fans who have fallen head-over-heels for characters they know next to nothing about, fantasizing potential plotlines and pairing them off with one another in homosexual relationships. I’d like to think the vast majority of the reaction to the CM has been positive, as we can see petitions to make the CM into a full series popping up on major websites such as Crunchyroll and fanart from Tumblr to Pixiv. There’s even a cosplay contest!

The character designs as seen in the original 2012 teaser.

On the other hand, it’s recently come to my attention that there are a number of fans of Kyoto Animation that are not at all happy with the company targeting any form of media at a female audience. Actually, I can’t tell if these people are necessarily fans of Kyoto Animation, but there has definitely been a negative backlash from people saying it’s too obviously catering toward women, that it’s likely to be BL and is thus disgusting/should not exist (honestly, I’m surprised how many people have made anti-fujoshi comments…), or that Kyoto Animation is wasting their talent by drawing an all-male cast. They may be a minority, but they’re certainly a vocal one.

Finally, to top all this off, there have been rumblings over the past day or so that Kyoto Animation has seen how popular the video is and is considering making the CM into a full-fledged anime as a result, but I have not been able to find any sources that confirm/deny this.

Now, anyone who knows me probably already has a good idea how much I like the CM, but I have to say I’m honestly surprised at how many people are hoping/expecting this theoretical swimming anime to be BL. I will happily admit that I consider myself a fujoshi – not only am I doing a PhD on BL manga, but I love a good homosexual romance and am not beyond “slashing” male characters if the mood strikes. But, that definitely doesn’t mean that all the media I consume must be BL-related in some way. In fact, as I grow older, I’ve found I enjoy stories about ambiguous/queer sexualities more than straightforward BL, and would take a story with complex and interesting characters over a bland, cliché BL romance any day of the week. So, while I’m happy fans are interpreting the swimming anime as they like, I find it a little bizarre that everyone just assumes it will focus on homosexual romance, as if that’s the only way Kyoto Animation could possibly appeal to a female audience.

A fan-created relationship chart (source)

Indeed, many are awestruck by the fact that such a successful, well-known animation studio would dare to make a 30 second CM chock-full of female-oriented fanservice. I think anyone who watches the CM (and if you’re reading this post, I hope you have!) will agree that the animation is lovely, whether or not the content appeals to you personally, and in an industry that largely caters to men, I’m glad to see Kyoto Animation trying new styles and attempting to appeal to new demographics. The fact that the mere idea of a swimming anime full of attractive men is so popular shows that we still have a long way to go until anime aimed at audiences that aren’t stereotypical heterosexual men are on equal footing with the hundreds and thousands of series produced for and consumed by “mainstream” otaku. It would be wonderful if Kyoto Animation decided to make this into a series, but I won’t be getting my hopes up.

Update: The Daily Dot and The Mary Sue have both wrote very informative pieces that cover some things I haven’t, so you may want to check them out if you’d like to learn more. The Daily Dot provides particularly useful background on Kyoto Animation (both, however, put a particular spotlight on the Tumblr fandom). I’ve also changed my translation of “Ore to omae no sa oshiete yaru yo!” from “I’ll show you the difference between you and I!” to “I’ll show you what makes us different!” –– my initial translation was much too cumbersome.

Wolf Children Impressions

A few weeks ago I was treated to a big-screen showing of Wolf Children (おおかみこども雨と雪), the latest film by Mamoru Hosoda, director of Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, at a local cinema. I must say, I’m very glad I went! The screening was part of an anime festival here in Australia, and as such was only available for a limited time, so I actually made the executive decision to see this over Studio Ghibli’s From Up on Poppy Hill.

Wolf Children tells the story of Hana, a 19-year-old woman who falls in love with a mysterious man who, after a whirlwind romance, reveals himself to be the last descendant of Japanese wolves. She accepts him for what he is, and the two begin to cultivate a life together, starting with the birth of two children, a girl named Yuki and younger brother Ame. Both children have a mixture of human and wolf qualities, and have the ability to change from being 100% human to 100% wolf (or any mixture of the two) at will, but their emotions often get the better of them, causing them to change into wolves at inappropriate times, making things tough for young mother Hana. When the father dies unexpectedly, Hana is forced to raise the children alone, without any help from the outside world, and she makes the decision to move to the countryside so Yuki and Ame can grow up without the constant prying eyes of outsiders.

First and foremost, Wolf Children is a beautiful film, both in animation and its seamless integration of the fantastic with the real. Some reviewers have compared the film to the works of Studio Ghibli, and I have to say I agree, as they both feature an exquisite attention to detail. Though the story is never quite as grabbing, nor the music quite as memorable, as some of the more iconic Studio Ghibli films, fans of My Neighbor Totoro will find a lot to like in Wolf Children.

It’s hard to talk about the plot of the film without revealing the finer points of the narrative that best be left for the viewer to experience themselves, but I must say that though the overall story ran a relatively predictable course, the narrative, which chronicled the hardships and joys Hana faced raising her two wolf children, was at its best when depicting the “mundane” aspects of life. One of my favorite scenes is when Hana brings her two children out to their garden to harvest potatoes, something that I did with my own parents when I was young. Of course, all of these “normal” activities include a fantastical element, that of the wolf children, but the way they are portrayed is surprisingly believable.

The Wolf Children‘s ending ultimately left me unsatisfied, but I enjoyed the rest of the film enough that it didn’t end up leaving a sour taste in my mouth as I left the theater. The film excels in depicting everyday moments that are punctuated with the fantastic, and offers more than a handful of memorable scenes and thought-provoking themes to keep you engaged in the film even after the credits have rolled.

… Of course, this wouldn’t be a Chic Pixel post without at least one reference to merchandise! How about Ame and Yuki-inspired brainwave-controlled ears?

official website

Or how about Ame and Yuki tail keychains? Isn’t that a little morbid?

Well, regardless of the weird merchandise, I highly recommend watching Wolf Children if you get a chance. Wikipedia has it listed for a October 17th release date in the US, but I haven’t found any other information about showtimes or what cities it’ll be in. If it comes to your area, I definitely suggest seeing it on the big screen! 

Japan Envy: Schick x Evangelion

I know Japan is famous for their superbly weird merchandise, but I never thought the day would come when I’d be writing about an anime/razor crossover… Yup, you read that right. The razor company Schick has teamed up with hit sci-fi anime Evangelion in preparation for the upcoming remake film Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (which isn’t coming out until fall, funnily enough), and will be releasing all manner of crazy tie-in razors.

If you ever wanted your razor stand to feature one of the absurdly popular female leads from the anime, now’s your chance, I suppose. More interesting than the stand, in my opinion, are the cell phone keychains they’ll be giving away with purchases:

Why does Eva 01 need a razor? The world will never know…

Finally, this promotional illustration does a brilliant job of summing up just how weird this campaign is:

Who knew Gendo found shaving so delightful? 
I’m not sure if someone in Schick went off the deep end or had a stroke of genius… I’m actually leaning towards the latter, ’cause I’m seriously starting to think I wouldn’t mind one of those keychains! If you’re finding yourself oddly intrigued by the campaign, you can view the official website here. Of course, as always, this is a Japan-only promotion. 

Arrietty Impressions

First of all, I have to apologize once again for the huge gap between posts! My husband and I flew down to Sydney for Chinese New Year and instead of catching up on things I needed to do, I completely zoned out and didn’t do anything but eat and play through Rayman Origins a second time with Shaun and his sister (I think I’ve had enough now).

This is a long time coming, but a couple of weeks ago Shaun and I made the 5 minute trek to the movie theater (one of the many perks of our new apartment) to see Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty (Japanese title: 借りぐらしのアリエッティ, also known as The Secret World of Arrietty in the US) over opening weekend. As always, the rest of the world is a bit behind Japan – Arrietty originally aired in its home country back in July 2010, and the most recent Studio Ghibli film, From Up on Poppy Hill, aired this past summer in Japan. For once, Australia was ahead of the game, with the film releasing here a whole month before it debuts in the US on February 17th.

Arrietty (I will refer to it by the Australian title since that’s the version I saw) is based on Mary Norton’s classic novel The Borrowers, about a family of extremely tiny people who live beneath a normal-sized family’s house. They survive by scavenging what they can from their surroundings and “borrowing” things from regular humans, only taking what they are sure will not be missed such as an extra tissue or a safety pin that has been lost and forgotten beneath a dresser. Interestingly, this film marks the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebashi, a key animator of a number of Studio Ghibli films and the youngest director of a Studio Ghibli production to date. He also was the key animator of Serial Experiments Lain, one of my favorite anime!

Since the subtitled version wasn’t shown anywhere in our area, we had to settle with the British dubbed version. The film has been licensed separately for the US and Europe/Australia, the so English voice actors are completely different for the two regions. Honestly, given the film’s beginnings as a British novel, I found it quite refreshing to hear the characters speak with non-American accents. There were a handful of times where the localization felt odd to me, but that could have been due to the British influence. I look forward to hearing the original Japanese language track when the film comes out on DVD.

Can I have a room that looks like this?

Unfortunately I haven’t read The Borrowers, so I can’t comment on how it compares to the book, but if it’s anything like Howl’s Moving Castle, you can expect a pretty liberal interpretation. Fans of My Neighbor Totoro will be right at home in the lush, green environments and relatively slow pacing, where those who prefer the unique locations and higher level of action in Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke may find this Studio Ghibli offering a little too “mundane.” I found myself highly appreciative of the attention to detail put in to making the world look believable from the eyes of a Borrower. From stamps serving as paintings in the tiny house to the variety of insects Arrietty interacts with over the course of the film, everything felt fresh and different and was a joy to see come to life with Ghibli’s signature flair.

One of my favorite scenes in the film had to be when Arrietty meets Sho, a sick boy sent to rest at the house about Arrietty’s home, up close for the first time. Arrietty is on her first borrowing excursion with her father, and one of her tasks is to grab a tissue out of a tissue box on Sho’s bedside table. The moment of confrontation – Arrietty looking up to see Sho’s wide, bright eyes staring directly at her, was startling for both her and me as a viewer. Watching Arrietty try in vain to hide behind the tissue (a background light illuminates her body quite clearly) was both endearing and heartbreaking – she knows she is never supposed to be seen by a human, and she is disappointed by her failure during her first trip out with her father.

The music in the film was not done by regular Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi, but newcomer Cécile Corbel, a French musician who is reportedly a big fan of Studio Ghibli. Apparently, she sent them a CD of her songs as a fan, and the company was intrigued by her work and subsequently invited her to do the soundtrack for Arrietty. Sounds like a fairy tale story, eh? She did both the theme, titled simply “Arrietty’s Song,” as well as the rest of the background music. The Celtic themes really mesh well with the general feel of the film, and though I was a little miffed by the silly English lyrics of Arrietty’s Song (“I am fourteen years old, I am pretty”? Did a fourteen-year-old write it?), I still found it very enjoyable. The full English version is what accompanied the version of the film I saw, but the majority of the song was in Japanese for the original film.

All in all, I really enjoyed Arrietty. I’ve heard criticisms that it was too slow, or simply not as amazing as previous Studio Ghibli films, but frankly, if you are at all interested in Ghibli, you definitely need to see Arrietty on the big screen and decide for yourself. Some have compared it to My Neighbor Totoro, and while I don’t think it quite surpasses the caliber of some of my favorite Ghibli films, it is definitely now up there at the top of my list. The animation and music were both gorgeous, and I found the story bittersweet and touching. If the company can churn out films this good without Miyazaki at the helm, I’m confident that even when he’s gone they’ll continue to make some of the best animated features the world has ever seen.