As you wish, I would explain about the pirates' affection with Sheeta.

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2009)

Casting Sheeta as the main character is definitely what made this movie unique after so many years, since Sheeta is a natural charmer. But since many of the users here are asking about the relationship of Sheeta and the pirates, I'd have to explain my understanding.
Firstly, a little girl at age 13 is both a sign of purity/innocence and liveliness, so all the characters, despite gender, age or any other demographic characters, would treat her with courtesy. The only exception is the self-imposed king of castle of sky Muska. He is the materialized human mental as greed and ambition, with the pursuit in civilization and unlimited destruction of nature and human/naturally/manufactured lives. He is, naturally, despised by all the good guys in the movie.
Compared to him are the goofy/foul/lovely pirates who had a strong mom who always control them and maintained their simple mental and lives. Even though they are death-wish burglars who defy the law, they didn't commit much of the crimes of species-annihilation and mass-murdering own comrades, which were committed by Muska. So, in some certain senses, pirates were only materialized naughty boys who's physically pushing 40 but mentally only 13-15 years old. The appearance and companion of Sheeta, was not only their enlightenment of puppy love, but also a strong reflection to their mom's undefeated personality. The funny thing is they never even dare challenging Pazu and Sheeta's friendship(lovers' relationship?) and close contacts, they salivate for such a relationship but also realized that Pazu's mentally mature and taking heavy responsibilities, which they can't have....So in some senses, they are mummy's good boys.
In Japanese culture, men are too much burdened, with responsibility, honor and all kinds of stuff which finally killed him before his old age(like karachi) or destroyed his personality(making him a alcoholic). Hayao Miyazaki created these fearless and trouble-less pirates to reflect on such social status and promote his own value system for men, which was even developed in later projects, all portraying strong women's influences on men.
Castle in the sky is a fairy tale about two kids' fellowship which lasted even longer than their civilization. It's also a subtle fable about the direction of all civilizations. The first 5 minutes of the movie were absolutely tear-jerking, with all sorts of sci-fi sky-ships floating and landing and escorting in an ancient wall-paint style. It's marked with 1980's animation technical limit, but it's still so moving and touching after the 1st viewing. Every time the flying stone shines and Sheeta flies, the whole animation were saturated with a kind of beauty and poetry that is not easily described by words. Not to mention the breathtaking final scenes where the structure of the entire castle in the sky fell apart. If you ever look closely, the bricks fell one by one, no kidding.
Sheeta and Pazu were, in my and my parents' opinion, too young to have such a relationship. But on earth, what's the wrong with this relationship? They were only kids, more specifically, orphans. But they were both brave, dedicated and much more responsible than most adults in the story. Their love for each other fixed their immaturity by giving them the absolute basis for fighting for each other. So in this way, Castle in the sky is also one of the best love story ever written.
Had to mention the robots in the movie. These robots are not emphasized by their robotic movements, rather, they are portrayed as lives with robot mechanics. So their fates were also cared about by all the kids and adults audiences alike.
Castle in the Sky is still underachieved on this site and it will receive more attention and higher rating as time goes by. If you haven't seen it, go purchase it on DVD because it's definitely worth buying.