Comments on: Gedo Senki: Tales from Earthsea

By: Cookieman

Cookieman — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:44:42 +0000

‘Nausica - Valley of the Wind’ is a must if you’ve only just started with Ghibli. A fantastic adventure tale.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:04:36 +0000

@Icystorm: I’d recommend seeing this first actually, if only to avoid comparing Goro Miyazaki’s directorial style with his dad! Howl’s was pretty mediocre by Ghibli standards IMO though.

I could go on for ages about which Ghibli movies are the most recommendable - I’ll make a mental note to review more of them in future. ^_^

By: IcyStorm

IcyStorm — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:08:04 +0000

I’ve only seen Grave of the Fireflies and Howl’s Moving Castle… would you recommend this to a Studio Ghibli newbie, as something to start off with (since I don’t remember the first two much anyway)? Or would you rather have me watch the better films from Studio Ghibli?

By: The Otakusphere: Vote Anime, a little cultural jet-lag and a big happy love fest « In Search of Number Nine

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:23:22 +0000

[...] last but not least, End of the World has got a post about Ghibli’s version of Tales of Earthsea. What hit me about that is that it just feels odd [...]

By: ConcreteBadger

ConcreteBadger — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:12:00 +0000

@IKnight: agreed on the novels. Absolute classics, which really is an over-used term that nevertheless applies to these.

As for the Ghibli adaptation…well, it’s impressive enough but for all the minor differences it does have that Ghibli look to it, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you make of the studio’s art style as a whole. Good but generic is a pretty fair way of summing up the movie actually - expect to be entertained, but not blown away with awe or excitement.

Unusual licencing situations indeed - stateside fans will have to wait until at least next year unless they import from the UK!

By: IKnight

IKnight — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:33:43 +0000

The novels are - I’m searching for an adjective which doesn’t sound overused here - ace, and I always point to them as proof that superb fantasy doesn’t have to be a coffee-table tome with several thousand pages.

From the Ghibli movies I have seen (and I must admit I haven’t seen as many as I should have), the ones I liked best had a startling, striking aesthetic/sense of visual design (Nausicaa, Howl’s). Does this carry through here? From the nature of the source material I’ve always feared that it would look good, but generic.

Also, unusual licensing situations banzai!