When it comes to Japanese animation, Ghibli is an insurmountable mountain.
Since the release of its first animated feature film, Nausicaä, in 1984, the Japanese animation studio has become a postcard for Japanese manga, and one of its founders, Hayao Miyazaki, has become one of the greatest animators of the 20th and 21st centuries---
It can be said that whether you like the second dimension or not, Miyazaki's animation can always occupy a super heavyweight position in your mind, and in the decades of his creation, there has never been an animation that disappoints anime fans.
"Valley of the Wind", "Castle in the Sky", "Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away" and so on, Miyazaki's creation is diverse and diverse, but from the quality of painting, or the plot arrangement, or the transmission of core ideas can reach a stunning degree.
It is precisely because of Miyazaki's output that we can experience one dream journey after another---
But please note that Miyazaki's greatness and Ghibli's fame do not mean that Ghibli animation can be smooth.
In fact, just recently, a new Ghibli work has encountered the prison of word-of-mouth overturning, and this matter has not become the object of domestic netizens' complaints.
<h1>01. Ghibli's new work of word-of-mouth overturning</h1>
This new work is called "Aya and the Witch", which was broadcast on NHK TV at the end of 2020, and has not yet been introduced into China, but netizens have already experienced its quality through various piracy channels.
Nowadays, the score of Douban is 5.4, how a "rotten" word is ---
Why is word of mouth so bad? Of course, this is inseparable from the high expectations given by Ghibli's golden signboard, as well as the sharp expectation gap impact suffered by anime fans after the release---
"Ghibli's CG animation unexpectedly has a feel of hand, and the characters are super blunt"
"After watching it, I lost my hand-drawn magic of Ghibli, which was terrible"
"Miyazaki Goro, if you don't really consider changing careers, it's only three things"
"Oh my God, can you still see plasticine hair in 2021?"
That's right, Aya and the Witch is Ghibli's first 3D animation to date, and it wasn't Hayao Miyazaki who directed it, it was Goro Miyazaki, the master's son---
At the same time, as netizens said, the picture of this new Ghibli work is simply terrible, and the 3D modeling quality of its characters and scenes, to be honest, even the domestic animation "Douluo Continent" can easily surpass it---
Even in the process of watching it, I still think from time to time, is it possible that the "poverty of market volume" (especially referring to the low box office ceiling of Japanese animation films, unlike the billions we have here) has completely excluded Japanese animation from the 3D field? Is it true that the national comics that can produce "Nezha" and "Jiang Ziya" have completed the transcendence of Japanese comics?
At the same time, leaving aside the rigidity of the characters and the rough modeling, the most painful thing about "Aya and the Witch" is the loss of Ghibli's signature healing style---
Therefore, it is no wonder that some netizens regard it as "the shame of Ghibli" and think that arranging a screening of "Goldfish on the Cliff" in China is simply a dead end.
However, the complaint about "Aya and the Witch" is not over, the picture is only one of its grooves, and its plot is also difficult to escape the doom of condemnation.
In a nutshell, this new Ghibli novel depicts a heroine named Aya (whose witch mother had to put her child in an orphanage shortly after her birth because she was hunted down and killed), and was brought home from the orphanage by another wizarding couple, and sparked a series of jokes---
The whole work is very routine, but it is not a sin to be routine, after all, in Ghibli animations such as "Witch House Rush" and "Ear-to-Ear Listening", I have also felt the strong appeal that daily life can bring.
But unfortunately, in the nearly 90-minute plot, this new work can only bring us pictures of how Aya plays tricks on the witch and how she helps make potions in her new family---
It seems that each character has no growth arc to speak of, from the beginning of the play to the end of the play, Aya is still the appearance of the naughty child, and she cannot see any change in her daily behavior (such as clarifying a certain direction of struggle, or understanding the difficulty of a new family couple, etc.).
No, there is no growth and transformation that should be there, and for the witch, her change of attitude towards Aya is extremely blunt and abrupt---
The whole animation from the beginning to the end, there is no value to speak of, let alone a blunt and incurable picture, so in a sense such a subject has no value in being filmed as an animation, and its spitting is also a matter of course.
Of course, the above judgment is actually the voice of mainstream netizens, but for me, I think there is another possibility of appreciation in "Aya and the Witch".
And its secret is hidden in the history of Miyazaki's growth---
<h1>02. Miyazaki Goro's "bootleg goods"</h1>
As the eldest son of a national treasure animation master, Miyazaki Goro has been pinned on the outside world for the heir of Ghibli since he was a young man.
Even though he studied landscape architecture at university, he worked at a well-known Mori Greenland Design Firm after graduation, played a key role in the construction of the Ghibli Museum, and served as the first director of Ghibli.
But Miyazaki Still can't escape the fate of being pulled by animation production.
In 2003, at the recommendation of Toshio Suzuki, one of Ghibli's founders, Miyazaki Wentō began to create "The Battle of the Earth and The Sea" and took on the position of director.
At first, this matter was opposed by Miyazaki Hayao, and he even directly angrily accused his son of not having this talent, believing that he was not the material of animation production at all---
However, the position of director still fell into the hands of Wu Lang, and in order to reverse his father's inferior attitude towards himself, he never stopped in the production process of the whole year, so that he did his best to suckle, and also gave people the often said ingenuity and creative attitude.
In later works, the plot of the young man's father's heart being entangled in black shadows is undoubtedly a reflection of his emotional experience with his father.
But unfortunately, "The Battle of the Earth and The Sea" received a one-sided bad review after its release, and Miyazaki left hastily after watching the premiere for two minutes, and later gave such a ruthless evaluation: boring ---
However, Wu Lang did not give up on this, and in the following years he has been honing his animation production ability, and he hopes to one day regain the attention of his father.
This opportunity waited for 8 years, and in July 2011, when Wu Lang's second animation "The Mountain where Yu Meiren Bloomed" was released, he barely managed to regain his reputation as a master.
But from the well-known heir of Ghibli, Wu Lang may not be able to do it in this lifetime---
The Heirs Crisis has always been the sword of Damocles that haunts Ghibli's head, and although this company has cultivated countless animation elites, many geniuses have left here because of Miyazaki's tyrannical temperament.
Even Takahata, one of the heirs, died two years ago, and Kifumi Kondo, who was known as the heir who was infinitely close, died as early as the late 1990s, shortly after the creation of Princess Mononoke.
So in 2015, in the face of the "mess" of Ghibli, Miyazaki also made the action of dismissing employees and sighed such a statement---
"There is no one to trust"
It can be seen that in Miyazaki's upbringing, a great but angry father, a difficult and eager animation journey is almost the whole of his life.
Just as "The Battle of the Earth and The Sea" is injected into the plot that reflects the relationship between father and son, in "Aya and the Witch", we can also see "Miyazaki's figure".
Only here, the role of the father is divided into two people, the male wizard and the female wizard---
After Aya arrived at her new family, she had been living a tiring and boring life, and the reason was that the witch constantly ordered her to make potions and asked for cleaning with an almost nitpicking attitude---
"After I come back, the floor must be cleaned so that I can eat directly on it"
In the mind of the witches, Aya was just an employee who had been recruited "because of lack of manpower", so even though Aya had asked to learn magic many times, the witchess refused to even teach her the fur from beginning to end, and only knew how to order her to do choresses---
As for the male wizard, although he rarely appears in the camera, he has a powerful magic power that can make the witch shudder and make Aya envious.
If you want anything, you only need one command, and the demon next to you will help him achieve ---
It can be seen that the witch in the play is actually a reflection of Miyazaki's "tyrant background", and the ability of the witch is a reaction to Miyazaki's achievements in animation creation.
Aya is Miyazaki herself, and her life in a wizarding family is also a projection of her time with her father.
Of course, the real-life Wu Lang may not dare to show a naughty side to his father, but in the animation, Aya has done everything in her power to make the witches and wizards their "servants" ---
It can be seen that if judged from an objective dimension, "Aya and the Witch" is indeed a failing animation, and even refreshed the score of Miyazaki's work to a new low.
But if we've ever known the history of Goro and Hayao Miyazaki, we'll smile from time to time during the viewing process.
So, if you're not short of that time, you might as well savor this Ghibli 3D animation mixed with bootlegs.