Miyazaki at his very best

Rating: 10/10 (22 August 2006)

They released this film (as a re-release) just after howl's moving castle had visited the cinemas, and at first I didn't want to check it out because the title - a castle in the sky - seemed too similar to the former, but then, because it is miyazaki, after all, i couldn't resist, and i must say i totally loved it. It was like a real time-travel in terms of miyazaki development: you can see where he gets lots of character designs for the future from, especially when it comes to 'grannies' and the soundtrack. The story was very cool, the start was very dramatic and left you asking a lot of questions (like a real appetizer) about what happens. I was very impressed with pazu, especially as a role-model kind of character, and I think the relationship between him and sheeta is the most romantic miyazaki to date. those of you who are well acquainted with miyazaki's other works will recognise certain things as if they were directly taken from here, some of it really is quite uncanny, but you've got to love it all the same.