Those that are fans of the graphic novel will be happy to know that the spirit of it is still intact. This is one of the best animated features I've seen in years, and just might beat off anything Studio Ghibli has done this decade! It better win the Oscar, dammit!

The trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl6kH3xPwDU

I had to read that comic book for college freshman year and, while subtly entertaining and short, it was ultimately a waste of my time. I have no idea why anyone would make it into a movie.

I thought the graphic novel was great and look forward to seeing this.

The animation doesn't look all that interesting, the story doesn't look all that interesting, and saying it's better than anything Ghibli has put out in the past TEN YEARS is obviously a load of crap.

Looks really cool to me. It seems like it would be full of those huge "little" moments that can be really memorable. Would like to see.

[quote="Marekenshin"]The animation doesn't look all that interesting, the story doesn't look all that interesting, and saying it's better than anything Ghibli has put out in the past TEN YEARS is obviously a load of crap.[/quote]

To be fair, the animation is just trying to stay true to the art style of the original comic book.

wow that is very interesting. its a kind of interesting concept and even if the art isnt that top notch, it flows well with a classic style.

but still i agree that claiming that it is better than recent ghibli films is farce. even howl's was pretty good for being not good. haha. if that makes sense...

Howl's WAS good though. Also, Omnistry, saying the last ten years puts Princess Mononoke in the mix as well, and that movie was nothing short of fantastic.

I don't care if Studio Ghibli was responsible for [i]Gigli[/i], Omnistry is just wrong.

[quote="Marekenshin"]Howl's WAS good though. Also, Omnistry, saying the last ten years puts Princess Mononoke in the mix as well, and that movie was nothing short of fantastic.[/quote]

Oh shit, I forgot Mononoke! Hmm...okay "Mononoke" definitely is better. My bad .

Hmm... Mononoke, it was a good movie. Maybe I should see it again. Perhaps I was a bit put off by some of the grotesque stuff, but I distinctly remember the movie kicking my ass. I think I could appreciate it more on a second viewing. I haven't seen Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service was AWESOME, Spirited Away was excellent, and Laputa: Castle in the Sky... sucked hard. My opinion though. I'd like to see Howl's, though.

Are they working on any new pieces?

Not Ghibli, but I saw Grave of the Fireflies a while ago.

:snip: :snip: :snip:

Grave of the Fireflies is Ghibli, it's just not Miyazaki.

I liked Laputa...

Also, we use Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) as a tool for Japanese language study in the first semester of third year Japanese here. Between watching the anime several times, reading the picturebook rewritten with a lot of decently difficult kanji, and a lot of homework/grammar practice, you can really learn a lot from that movie. Plus, there's a ton of interesting Buddhist/Shinto references at various parts of the movie that make for interesting discussion.

Hmm, now that I think about it, it was the ghibli art style. I guess I forgot, olol. For some reason I thought it was a totally different company, there.

I liked the flying parts near the middle in Laputa, but overall, the boy was too gung-ho with his mortality for me to have been drawn into it. I found it mostly boring and somewhat cliched at times. I could give it another go, but eh...