Review of The Wind Rises

*SPOILER FREE* Having "The Wind Rises" being my absolute favourite war-themed movie, I thought the least thing I could do was write a review about it. Without further ado, let's get into this. Story: 10/10 Jiro Horikochi is a prodigy aeronautical engineer who seeks to follow his aeronautical design dreams, but is drastically overshadowed by the second world war and its aftermath. "The Wind Rises" excells at demonstating Jiro's struggles during his whole life, these being his impossibility of designing aircraft with innocent and peaceful purposes, his full-time job opposing upon his love life, and so on. Even though this movie centers in a war theme, it isa wonderful romance as well. After meeting but inmediately separating from his future wife, and finding her several years later, "The Wind Rises" narrates an outstandingly marvelous love story between Jiro and Naoko, which puts a smile on anyone's face. This movie's story is impeccably narrated from start to finish, and is one of it's best characteristics it has to offer. Also, have I mentioned it's based on a true story?

Art: 10/10
As of expected from an arguably recent Ghibli movie, "The Wind Rises" looks outstandingly well. It's artstyle looks wonderful, it's animation is smooth as silk and really detailed, and it's whole design is admirable. Simply amazing.

Sound: 5/10
Well, here's the first flaw, being this it's OST. This can be based upon personal preference, but I simply don't like this whole ancient and historical theme Miyazaki has chosen for "The Wind Rises"' songs. Maybe some of you will find it great, but it simply isn't my style. Let's move on.

Character: 6/10
I think this is the only flaw everyone agrees with, since this movie's personalization, characterization and character development is indeed not the BEST. It isn't bad at all, don't get me wrong, but it could have improved drastically, even more knowing how great of a studio Ghibli is; perhaps some of the characters were somewhat predictable, but overall, it is acceptable.

Enjoyment: 5/10
Now this is COMPLETELY my opinion. I am not a fan of warlike movies, let me tell you that. I would personally rather watch 20 slices of life than just one movie of these, but let me tell you that a five, an average score, is a great rating considering how much I dislike these type of movies. I find these movies really slow-paced, not very entertaining, and a lot of other stuff, but "The Wind Rises" surprisingly performed a decent job at keeping me from not falling asleep. Half of the time I was not very engaged on how angry Jiro's boss was, but as soon as a romantic or a thought-inducing scene popped up, I was indeed invested. Overall, an average score in this one.

Overall: 7/10
You may be wondering: Wow, this is your FAVOURITE war-themed movie, and you still gave it a 7? Well, yeah. It still is a war movie. It still has some unappealing scenes, and other stuff. However, this is one of the most unique and beautiful war-themed movies I've ever seen. "The Wind Rises" is an astonishing romance movie, a greatly original war movie, and I couldn't recommend it more. Go watch it; you won't regret it.