Review of The Wind Rises

The Wind Rises is a historical fiction movie about the life of the Jiro Horikoshi, the creator of the Mitsubishi A5M and A6M "Zero" fighter planes, and taking place from when he was a young boy following to when he was an adult, leading up to the creation of his famed planes and ultimately, the end of World War II. Taking elements from both Jiro’s real life as well as fictional aspects from the novel of the same name written by Tatsuo Hori, Hayao Miyazaki’s final film can truly be considered a masterpiece. The art, for the most part all painstakingly hand drawn,is beautiful, and many times, helps to convey not only how much work went into the movie, but also how much work the characters in the movie had to put in to get as far as they did. The characters, ranging from Jiro to his seemingly always short-tempered boss, Kurokawa, are incredibly well done, and although some have called Jiro “too nice,” they all seem very real. Finally, the sound design is incredibly well done, helping set the tone throughout the movie, and if you pay close enough attention, you might notice that the sounds of the planes are done with human voices, which I think is a very interesting addition. Overall, I really loved this film, and I will definitely watch it again in the future.