In a land filled with magic and mystery, two rival kingdoms are readying for war: Isa, the beautiful water-laden city, and Paro, the industrialized wasteland. Windaria follows the tale of two sets of lovers: Marin and Izu, a young pair of farmers who are devoted to one another, and Ahanas and Jill, princess and prince of the rival kingdoms. With war approaching, these star-crossed lovers will experience the true depth of tragedy as they struggle to survive.
Takashi Hyodo Ami Tomobuki Hideki Araki Shigenori Kageyama Kazuaki Mori Norimoto Tokura Hiromi Muranaka Tamotsu Tanaka Takafumi Hayashi
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Japan
Second Mini-collab in a week with the wonderful louferrigno! Check out his review here.
I’ll wait here forever. Because I understand how he feels...
A warm drift of salty ocean breeze from the great city of Itha floats over the luscious green meadows of the Village of Blossoms. At night, cicadas unveil their songs while the red birds of the Forest of Doubt fly into the meadow, overhead, and whisk away behind the clouds above. The distant rumbling of the ghost ship echoes unto the valley as the farmers work the fields and the children of Paro frolick on their city’s cobbled streets. All is right in the world when Windaria exists, the tree of good memories...
I remember sitting in front…
Kunihiko Yuyama is an anime director who could probably retire with comfortable ease at any moment, as since 1997 the man has been the principal director for the incredibly long-lasting Pokémon anime franchise, as well as the appointed director for 20 Pokémon, absorbing nearly his entire life in the 21st century and generally something he doesn't seem intent on dropping this money-making franchise without a good reason. Before Nintendo entered his life, however, Yuyama had to pay the bills some other way, netting several directing credits for ShoGun's fast-and-loose episodes and also being a showrunner for the highly-influential magical girl show Magical Princess Minky Momo, and it was with his feature-length debut Windaria that he achieved a pretty major artistic…
Based on a novel written during the modernization of Japan we're introduced the world of Windaria. A world where unicorns hangs out together in a dozen, but also a world where it's just a matter of time before a war between the two nations Paro and Isa breaks out. And out on the countryside the farmers feel obliged to take side in the war, and through one of them we follow the escalation of the controversies between the nations. Touching themes like industrialization and technology versus nature, as seen in many anime films and manga before - and after this one.
There's more than this theme that feels familiar in Windaria. In the middle of this upcoming war we also…
Despite a few notable differences and the passion that clearly went into realizing Windaria, I'm tempted to just write off the whole affair as a shameless riff on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. And in the words of Oliver Wilde: "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."
I mean, come on, it's not like I'm being unfair. You've got warring kingdoms, industrialized wastelands, infested forests, a peaceful valley, new tech in an old world, airship battles... hell, even the main character's name (Jhil) is lifted right out of Miyazaki's opus!
What else are you missing? A warrior princess on a mechanical glider and a cute fox-squirrel companion?
Oh yeah. They're here too.
Izu and Marin live together in the beautiful village of Blossoms overlooked by the great tree of Windaria. Their simple yet happy life of farming is however threatened by the possibility of war between the nearby kingdoms of Itha and Paro. Despite almost singlehandedly saving Itha from a sabotage plot, Izu is seduced by the promise of wealth and agrees to become an agent of Paro. The war escalates despite the royal heirs of both kingdoms being in love and seems inevitably leading towards catastrophe for all.
This definitely was a surprise to find on a free streaming service. A handsomely animated feature from the late 80's that evokes a lot of differing emotions and has some admittedly interesting ideas.…
An absolute tour de force. Y’know I miss fantasy anime’s. Not the isekai or ultra fan service series delivered to us within the past decade or so. No I miss El hazzard (hypocritical considering I just dissed on isekai), Slayers, Photon, Escaflowne, etc... (god I sound like such a boomer anime watcher). But anyways, this is Romeo and Juliet, War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, all of the war and romance tropes thrown at you. I marked off because there’s moments where characters just do the exact opposite of what they ought to do and you just wanna strangle them. But most of the reasons are understandable if not laudable. The score, the animation, the setting. Everything looks absolutely gorgeous. Would absolutely suggest watching if you enjoy fantasy anime.
Woah. Devastating stuff. An incredible tale about the symbiotic nature of evil and good - hate and love, of contemplating one's worth in life between war and peace and the moral decay that can ensue, and of the paranoia of war itself and the detachment and proceeding devastation it can cause. All of this wrapped neatly in an original hour and 40 minute feature with understated but imaginative world building in a cool sci-fi and fantasy mashup that is a wonder to behold and bolstered by great animation for its time and a spectacular soundtrack. My only complaints are the dated character designs, a bit of the pacing, and some of the plot threads being a bit too loose, but perhaps the latter two might improve on rewatch.
A flawed masterpiece abandoned by time, this is a grave injustice; more people really need to check this out!
fuck glory go be with your lover
What on earth do I begin to say about this? It kind of fits the mould of being a somewhat beautiful mess, whereby it definitely has stuff going for it and stuff which I liked a lot, but boy is it a mess with a lot, and I mean a lot, of stuff I thought was bad and disliked.
Overall, there is definitely heart and thematic strength here. It tells a tale of greed vs love, and contrasts peace and war and industrialisation and nature. All that is left is an unphased tall tree, somebody who understands death and laying souls to rest, promises and pain, and somebody who caused a lot of the pain and destruction.
It's a pretty…
Uses western-derived 'heroic-fantasy' tropes in a way that reminded me of a conversation that nrh, gusottertrout a.o. had awhile back at scfz. Unusually morally-complex and dark for such a mainstream anime.
beautifully animated, gorgeous soundtrack
an anime romeo and juliet basically, suffers a little from being cliche riddled
izu is honestly a complete and utter rat
Windaria
Windaria is a war drama anime film, 100 minutes long, directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, it focuses on a war between two kingdoms, a man leaves his wife behind and gets caught up in the war, while a prince and princess on opposite sides plan to marry.
Initially Windaria comes off as one of those stylish directed to video anime it probably is of its era, condensed for better or worse with a choppy narrative, some action here and there, while not feeling as fleshed out as it should.
Although the story of a wide eyed wannabe hero, falling into war, then living high on the hog for a while before ultimately returning home to tragedy, deserves more time to…
