Review of The Wind Rises

This review contains *SPOILERS*. Watched in Sub/Dub: Sub Story: 9/10 Jirou Horikoshi is an aeronautical engineer who dreams of designing planes just like his hero, Italian aircraft engineer Giovanni Battista. On his way to university, there’s a large earthquake which causes him to save a young girl, Naoko Satomi, and her maid. Jirou eventually meets her again many years later and marries her. A majority of the movie is spent cataloguing Jirou’s life and experiences as a skilled engineer. The film is punctuated by several scenes of Jirou “sharing dreams” with Giovanni, creating many emotional and beautiful moments. Art: 9/10 Another beautifully animated Ghibli film. It doesn’t quite have thenuanced style of Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, so it’s just a 9/10 for me. Still, great work from the animation team.

Sound/Soundtrack: 10/10
The soundtrack by Joe Hisashi is well done, as always, but my favorite thing about the sound in this film is the sound effects. I don’t know what compelled Hayao Miyazaki to use vocals for the earthquake and planes but it really brings the machines to life and makes the earthquake scene so haunting.

Character: 7/10
I like Jirou (as a character) a lot in this movie. My main problem, that I just cannot get over no matter how many Studio Ghibli movies I watch, is that again, the romance feels so forced in The Wind Rises. I don’t understand why the romance is always, “They just met. Now they’re in love.” It makes it impossible for me to care about their relationship when I feel like nothing happened to really make them fall in love. It’s just a girl and a guy and apparently proximity is the ultimate matchmaker.
Random note: Levi Ackerman did a great job playing Kurokawa in this film.

Enjoyment: 9/10
I found The Wind Rises to be unexpectedly emotional and nostalgic. It truly feels like Hayao Miyazaki’s swan song.

Overall: 9/10
A beautiful ending to his famous career, while The Wind Rises is not my favorite Miyazaki work, but I do think it’s brilliantly executed. It feels fitting that a man who always featured the wonder of flight in his films, would make a film honoring the genius of those who gave humans the power of flight.