The Wind Rises

Nearsighted Jiro Horikoshi studies aeronautical engineering to design aircraft like his hero, Italian pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni.

Synopsis

The Anime Lad

Jiro Horikoshi is nearsighted, which prevents him from becoming a pilot. He leaves home to study aeronautical engineering at Tokyo Imperial University instead, hoping to design aircraft like Italian pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni. His arrival coincides with the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Career planning has met a period with no shortage of turbulence.

Super Eyepatch Fox

Jiro cannot fly because of his eyesight, so he redirects the dream toward engineering. Caproni provides the model for a life spent designing aircraft. Jiro leaves home for Tokyo Imperial University as Japan enters decades of upheaval. The Wind Rises places technical ambition inside history rather than giving it an empty sky.

Gigguku

Jiro learns that he cannot become a pilot and refuses to let that end his fascination with flight. He goes to study aeronautical engineering, carrying Caproni's example with him. Then his arrival in Tokyo meets the Great Kanto Earthquake. I love how the premise puts a precise personal dream against a historical world that will never leave design untouched.

Father's Basement

A lyrical biography of an aircraft designer can make historical consequence look like atmospheric background. The premise at least establishes the tension early. Jiro's nearsightedness redirects him from piloting to engineering, while his education begins amid the Great Kanto Earthquake and wider upheaval. His ambition is specific, but the world receiving those designs is never neutral.

Although Jirou Horikoshi's nearsightedness prevents him from ever becoming a pilot, he leaves his hometown to study aeronautical engineering at Tokyo Imperial University for one simple purpose: to design and build planes just like his hero, Italian aircraft pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni. His arrival in the capital coincides with the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, during which he saves a maid serving the family of a young girl named Naoko Satomi, this disastrous event marks the beginning of over two decades of social unrest and malaise leading up to Japan's eventual surrender in World War II.

What defines it

Hayao Miyazaki's bittersweet historical drama. Gorgeous and melancholy.

Recommendation shape

MoodDark

BrightBleak

PaceNot enough evidence

StoryNot enough evidence

ActionNot enough evidence

Moral framingNot enough evidence

Cast focusNot enough evidence