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Theowne
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Registration Date: 02.11.07
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Well we have to be grateful to you that the site has been up for so long. So many of those older communities are lost in time, but the Tavern continues, and that's kind of special because it's as timeless as the Ghibli films themselves

16 years is a long time. There are classmates, friends family, whom I haven't seen in that long, and yet here we are somehow assembled, having only known each other virtually and bound by Ghibli. Quite something.

Post last edited by Theowne on 02.11.2024, 03:57 PM.

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Theowne
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Whisper of the heart!

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Theowne
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I recently watched Whisper of the Heart again, and was feeling nostalgic and stumbled back on this forum. Imagine my surprise when I revisited this thread and found old friends still posting here! fenkashi, husky, arren, saviour - so nice to see your familiar names!

fen, it is great to hear about your journey! saviour, husky, sorry to hear about your hard times, but wishing for the best for your futures as well. arren, nice to hear about your experiences as well.

As for myself - I was a high school student entering university when I first started posting here - I believe in 2007, 16 years ago - and now I am in my 30s. I manage a team of engineers across the world, I have had relatives pass away unexpectedly, I have family who have gone through medical struggles, and I have a partner who has been with me for many years and with whom I hope to start a family soon.

It has been a roller coaster and I often think back to the days when life was simpler - when every day, I would log onto this forum to talk to online friends about Ghibli films and what they mean to me. I must admit that I do occasionally miss those carefree days, but I also think I have evolved too much since then to look back.

More than anything, when I think back to that student I was 16 years ago, what I know is that he benefited a lot from having a place to participate where it was normal - and respected - to analyze, dissect, and express our emotional responses to the Japanese anime films by Hayao Miyazaki - because that wasn't always the case in an average suburb in Toronto, Ontario, in 2007.

Things change - now these things are all public conversation! I can go to my cousins and tell them to watch Studio Ghibli films on Netflix. How the times change!

Post last edited by Theowne on 02.11.2024, 03:51 PM.

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Theowne
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Even on a purely visual level, Ghibli art and animation far outclasses that of most anime. I have bought artbooks for that very reason, which of course, do not communicate story at all and purely reflect the visual appeal.

Of course, the story, characters, and underlying messages are very important to me as well. I don't think there really has to be a single answer - you can enjoy the visuals, the story - or both.

It certainly seems strange to criticize others for finding deeper meaning in these films, though. Anyone who'se read "Starting point" (writings by Hayao Miyazaki) would see how much thought is put into these films. Criticizing a deeper meaning is criticizing the creator in this regard.

For Ponyo, for example, it's fairly accurate that it's trying to paint an "eco" message, this is extremely consistent across Miyazaki films and is something he talks about a lot. Whether it's primary or secondary to what the film is about - matter of opinion.

Post last edited by Theowne on 07.30.2016, 08:42 PM.

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Theowne
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Is there an active administrator for this site? Surely someone is paying the bills. The main site seems to have last been updated in 2011!

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Theowne
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I remember Facebook being a new thing right when I was leaving high school. My close friends and I messed around with it but it was more of a toy than anything. The generation in school and university right now uses it like crazy, though, and their routines are filled with these minute interactions with hundreds of people. I don't really know if it's a good or bad thing, it's just different (and something I've had to get used to as it does play some role in networking these days).

There do still seem to be various big active forums which are still thriving, but the smaller niche ones are slowly dying off. One thing I've noticed is that there is a bigger proliferation of "general" sites (such as, "gaming sites", "anime sites" ) which have a massive amount of subforums for individual topics (eg, IMDB with auto-created forums for every single film). But since these general sites have a huge amount of users, these subforums tend to divert activity away from the homegrown niche forums dedicated to that topic. I remember being a member of some forums dedicated entirely to just a single show!

I think you can probably see the effect with the Tavern as well. There is still a small amount of activity occurring on the web around Ghibli, but a lot of it now gravitates towards the IMDB pages, the myanimelist.net forums, and of course, the Facebook groups centered around it.

Or maybe this is all wrong. But interesting to think about

Post last edited by Theowne on 05.08.2016, 11:48 AM.

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Theowne
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Good to see you too Saddletank!

Of course, let's not forget that Miyazaki had his work up to that position over many years of working under others. But even considering that, his position was so unique. I still think back to the "making of Mononoke" documentary. Miyazaki was still writing the finale even as the prologue was being animated! I cannot think of many instances where a high-budget production was given reigns with such freedom to a single person. And that was the trust and ability of Toshio Suzuki, who could get Miyazaki the resources he wanted but still provide him such flexibility. Now it is, of course, entirely the genius of Miyazaki which made great use of the opportunity to churn out all those classics.

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Theowne
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Coincidentally, the last time I dropped in on the Tavern it was in the midst of a similar discussion.

My data on anime films is a few years old at this point, but I agree with much of what you say, paperbullet. Regarding Shinkai, he has a lot of fans, and I haven't seen all of this recent work, but my impression of him was always that he was very good at doing a particular kind of story, but I don't feel in his movies the range and talent exhibited by Miyazaki. Miyazaki was driven by strong opinions on the world and after reading his books, you see the diversity of opinions which factor into even the smallest of scenes.

As you say, Hosoda is the other common candidate. He certainly does have the range and capability to produce many solid films. But to me, his films feel like solid, safe, commercial films. I enjoy watching them, and they can be emotionally satisfying, but they don't move or inspire me.

Satoshi Kon was certainly the one to watch, if it weren't for his untimely demise. "Millenium Actress" is still one of the most beautiful animated films I've ever seen.

The director I'm watching is Sunao Katabuchi, a former employee of Studio Ghibli who made "Mai Mai Miracle", one of the few movies of recent times which gave me the kind of enjoyment only Ghibli films had before it. He's making another one, "To All the Corners of This World", which I'm anticipating.

It's also worth pointing out that Miyazaki's success, for all his talent, is also a product of the right people meeting at the right. Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and Takahata, were all important factors in the success of Studio Ghibli, and he was basically given an immense amount of control and freedom in his filmmaking.

Post last edited by Theowne on 05.08.2016, 02:11 AM.

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Theowne
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I too find it amazing how this long this forum has been pushing along. It seems every time I check back here not knowing what to expect, it still has some level of activity moving it forward from the regulars. The internet has really changed so much since the days when I first joined this site (almost 10 years ago!), so there's something very nostalgic and heartening about that. Today's social media landscape is unrecognizable to a decade ago (kind of like how folks in those days used to talk about newsgroups and such). Who would have guessed logging onto an internet account to have conversations would become something everyone did (Facebook, Twitter) rather than a niche of people on forums?

Anyways, it's nice to see familiar faces in this thread!

Post last edited by Theowne on 05.08.2016, 01:30 AM.

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Theowne
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The ending of the series definitely becomes a complete baseball drama (losing a bit of the slice-of-life balance) and the payoff maybe a little underwhelming. I remember thinking it wasn't quite a "home run" ending.

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Theowne
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Thanks, Fen. You're not too far off husky, only I've been off playing them, not making them .

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Theowne
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A double elimination format basically has a winner's and losers bracket. When eliminated from the winner's bracket, the loser gets placed into the loser's bracket where he is pitted against other losers. Eventually the last remaining person in the winner's bracket faces the winner of the loser's bracket.

It basically serves to mitigate some of the luck involved since a candidate has to be beaten twice before being eliminated. It looks like this . There are sites online that automate the bracket tracking.

Post last edited by Theowne on 09.10.2014, 11:18 PM.

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Theowne
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Sounds like a fun idea, arren. By the way, have you considered using a double-elimination format? It would lengthen the time required, but is good at reducing randomness/bad luck factors.

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Theowne
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I don't see anything particularly irritating about his post.

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Theowne
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Ah, yes, I remember my own addiction the first summer I got into the series...

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Theowne
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I like the concept for sure, but considering you are selling these translated Ghibli scripts for profit, I'm curious about the legality of this...

Post last edited by Theowne on 09.08.2014, 12:48 AM.

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Theowne
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quote:
still there are very few people apart from animators and film lovers who have actually seen a ghibli movie, specially movies like Nausicaa, Mononoke or Grave of the fireflies.


Very few people where? I would wager almost every living Japanese person has probably seen a Ghibli movie, or at least portions of them, at some point in their lives. Ghibli films were created primarily for the Japanese audiences and in that regard have been wildly successful. I doubt that Miyazaki will ever be forgotten in Japanese society.

Outside of Japan, yes, it is mostly enthusiasts who know of the studio. Is that all that strange? If you make films for the Japanese audience, you inherently limit the appeal to other markets. I think that's fine. The Hollywood example of films being global entertainment is a relatively isolated example, and I don't think every director or artist has to view global fame as his end goal.

Post last edited by Theowne on 09.07.2014, 05:18 PM.

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Theowne
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That's no surprise - Cross Game was written by the same author (Mitsuru Adachi) and has a lot of similarities. Some people jokingly say that Adachi has written the same story a dozen times throughout his career.

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Theowne
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Good to see you guys too

quote:
Originally posted by Roarkiller
Btw, long time no see Theowne. Where ya been?



I've been around, just focusing on other hobbies the past few years. Seeing a new Ghibli (Kaguya-hime in this case) always makes me curious to revisit the Tavern, though.

quote:
Well art to me is something hard work doesn't cover, so yeah I doubt they'll get any directors on par with the old guys.


Yes. The truth is that sometimes masterpieces are simply the result of the right people meeting at the right time with the right opportunity. Ghibli was founded under those circumstances (Miyazaki, Takahata, and Suzuki) and their collaboration is what fueled the reputation of Ghibli. Simply continuing the brand after those circumstances have long since faded isn't something that really matters to me. All good things must come to an end, otherwise you end up with a situation like Disney, where a once respected brand has become associated with so much content of varying quality that it has become diluted.

Post last edited by Theowne on 09.07.2014, 10:13 AM.

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Theowne
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I was at a Q&A with Takahata at the TIFF festival yesterday, and someone asked him for clarification on the matter. It was interesting to note that although he had just created a film for Ghibli, he didn't personally feel like he was still involved enough with the company to know anything about its future or its operations. His comment was simply that he hoped that one would exist.

The question of Ghibli existing or not existing has not really troubled me through the past months when it was a hot topic. Ghibli is simply a brand, and the reason I was a fan of the brand was because of the people associated with it (Miyazaki, Takahata, Kondo, Hisaishi, etc). I was a fan of their approach to animation and the type of stories they wanted to put out. If Ghibli was forever remembered as the company that made a collection of classics and then closed when the founders retired, that would not be such a bad thing to me. It would be great, of course, if their legacy of filmmaking could be passed on, but I haven't felt satisfied with the newer directors to feel that this is happening.

Post last edited by Theowne on 09.06.2014, 10:12 PM.

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