Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Ryu, Sanjin, et al. Fluid mechanics education using Japanese anime: Examples from “Castle in the Sky” by Hayao Miyazaki. The Physics Teacher, 58(4), 230-233.

"Current K-12 and undergraduate students have grown up with constant exposure to visual popular culture (e.g., movies, TV programs, graphic novels, etc.). Because youth find pop culture references in the classroom to be engaging, many science and engineering instructors have shown that examples found in visual pop culture can be used to teach science and engineering concepts. One recent study on the efficacy of using pop culture for instruction found that high school students learning from graphic-novel style comics acquired deeper understanding of complex subject matter and reported higher engagement with the instructional materials as compared to students learning from traditional text materials. Furthermore, the increased engagement with the instructional comics was even greater for students who were less likely to self-identify as a “science person.”

Denison, Rayna (2018). Before Ghibli was Ghibli: Analysing the historical discourses surrounding Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky (1986). East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 4(1), 31-46.

"While Studio Ghibli may have become Japan’s most important and successful animation studio, its early significance is far more debatable in relation to the success of its films. Normally viewed from the present moment, Studio Ghibli’s brand significance is unmistakable, having become a producer of world renowned animation, and a distribution label for its own animated hit films and other high-profile animation in Japan. To challenge this perception of Ghibli’s brand significance, this article revisits the early history of Studio Ghibli in order to examine the discourses around the formation of the studio. Using Studio Ghibli’s first official film release, Tenkū no shiro Lapyuta (Castle in the Sky) (Miyazaki, 1986) as a case study, this article argues for a corrective analysis of the importance of Studio Ghibli to animator Hayao Miyazaki’s first ‘Ghibli’ film. The article demonstrates that throughout this release, there was a tension between art and industry that would become the hallmark of Ghibli’s style, but that the company itself may have had little to do with that brand’s early conception."

Akimoto, Daisuke (2014). Laputa: Castle in the Sky in the Cold War - As a symbol of nuclear technology of the lost civilization. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, 14(2).

"This essay reviews the adventurous animation film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), directed by Miyazaki Hayao and animated by Studio Ghibli. Basically, it is an adventurous story about a boy, Pazu and a girl, Sheeta, as well as a legendary castle floating in the sky, Laputa. This review provides an analysis of the film in terms of international politics and peace research. Specifically, it examines the storyline in terms of ‘desire for power’ vs. ‘cooperation for peace’ in search of the legendary castle in the sky. The shift in power balance between the main characters is discussed, and we point out how political leaders utilise the word ‘peace’ to build up military power and justify the use of force. Notably, this study demonstrates the correlation between the number of global nuclear warheads as the political and historical background in the creation and release of this film. The implications for nuclear abolition, ecological peace, as well as peace education, then, will be explored in the context of peace research."

De Domenico, Michela (2011). Utopy and comics' imaginary cities. In Sara Marini (ed.). My Ideal City. Scenarios for the European City of the 3rd Millennium (pp. 238-246). Venice: Università Iuav di Venezia.

Lioi, Anthony (2010). The city ascends: Laputa: Castle in the Sky as critical ecotopia. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, 5(2).

Johnson, Rebecca (2007). Kawaii and kirei: Navigating the identities of women in Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki and Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, 14.

Lamarre, Thomas (2002). From animation to anime: Drawing movements and moving drawings. Japan Forum, 14(2), 329-367.

"This essay deals with two kinds of movement common in cel animation: 'drawing movements' and 'moving drawings'. Drawing movements is common in traditional cel animation that strives for full animation. The latter – moving drawings – becomes pronounced in techniques of limited animation, common in anime. The goal is not, however, to identify and consolidate differences between animation and anime. On the contrary, this paper explores how drawing movements entails a decoding of live-action cinema,which is intensified in the techniques of moving drawings that are prevalent in anime. Thus, anime is seen as a part of movement away from one kind of cinematic experience, towards something like new media and information. The goal of the essay is to think across media, to explore the ways in which different movements have an impact on narrative, genre and spectatorship. Miyazaki Hayao's Tenkuno shiro Raputa (Castle in the sky) (Studio Ghibli, 1986) provides a site for analysis of the ways in which anime technique generates and exploits potentials such as flatness, jitter and weightlessness. Miyazaki's emphasis on floating and gliding presents one way to deal with 'anime-ic' potentials - one that has definite consequences for the imagination of gender, history and nature, as well as the anime-ic experience of information."