The Wind Rises

Bradley, Joff P.N. (2021). On the philosophy of wind: On madness and technology in Miyazaki Hayao's The Wind Rises.
In Joff P.N. Bradley & Catherine Ju-Yu Cheng (eds.). Thinking with animation (pp. 2-24). Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Merchant-Knudsen, Travis R. (2020). “Lost inside empire”: Self-Orientalization in the animation and sounds of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises. SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English, 57(1), 174-198.

"Japan as a colonial power at the beginning of the twentieth century fell outside of the Eurocentric empires of the West. However, the country found itself preoccupied with ways of elevating its status in the hope of being equal to and, eventually, surpassing the West. The Wind Rises (2013), an anime film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi, an aeronautical engineer who created the Mitsubishi A6M Zero used by the Japanese Empire during World War II. The animation and the sound design of the film are two formal elements that paint Jiro as a pacifist with a desire to create airplanes. It is a portrayal of an individual aspiring to be disparate from a colonial power, but the narrative suggests that it is, perhaps, impossible to completely align oneself outside of the imperial force of the Japanese Empire. The article explores how The Wind Rises, through the formal elements of anime and its sound design, carefully navigates Japan’s historical and colonial tensions."

Daliot-Bul, Michal (2017). What will you do if the wind rises: Dialectical cinema by Miyazaki Hayao. Asian Studies Review, 41(4), 562-576.

"Miyazaki Hayao, a celebrated humanist and pacifist, is responsible for some of the best animated fantasies produced in Japan since the 1980s. In 2013 his fans were baffled to hear that his next feature-length film, kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises), tells the story of Horikoshi Jirō, the chief engineer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter of the Pacific War. Even before its release, the film was accused of propagating militaristic ideas, reproducing fascist fantasy, and ignoring the devastating consequences of Japan’s imperial regime. But the film, which develops like a chronicle of terrible disasters foretold, does nothing of the sort. Instead, Miyazaki’s most personal film offers a philosophical examination of human nature. Using the concept of dialectical cinema and McKee scriptwriting theory as theoretical frameworks, this article demonstrates how this film can be interpreted as posing profound ethical questions on the meaning of personal responsibility as it transcends the spatial and temporal boundaries of the Pacific War. Instead of providing the expected trajectory for an ethical resolution, the film offers a rather pessimistic (albeit compassionate) view of humanity, meanwhile demanding the audience engage in their own critical soul-searching."

Breen, Deborah (2016). Designs and dreams: Questions of technology in Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises. Technology and Culture, 57(2), 457-459.

Grajdian, Maria (2016). “May the wind be with you!”: The beauty of commitment and the inevitability of evil in The Wind Rises (Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki, 2013). Romanian Economic and Business Review, 10(4), 254-268.
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Akimoto, Daisuke (2014). War memory, war responsibility, and anti-war pacifism in director Miyazaki's The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu). Peace Research, 28, 45-72.
http://hdl.handle.net/10911/4018

Bradshaw, Nick. Free falling. Sight & Sound: The International Film Magazine, 24(6), 20-25.

Akimoto, Daisuke (2013). Miyazaki’s new animated film and its antiwar pacifism: The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu). Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, 32, 165-167.

Penney, Matthew (2013). Miyazaki Hayao's Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises). The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 11(30).