Welll... I just watched Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka), My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away [I watched these recently... not all at once, lol].
Grave of Fireflies was one which MSP recommended to me, and it was as awesome as he said. It is probably the most profound and life-changing anime that i have ever, or will ever seen. The story is very moving, and i cried at least twice throughout it. I do understand why some people here on CAA have said that they purchased it and cannot make themselves watch it a second time. It is a very heart wrenching tale, but i most definately recommend it, as it shows a completely different side of WWII . People are usually not exposed to these emotions of the other point of view.
My Neighbor Totoro was an anime that has been closely associated with Grave of the Fireflies ever since it went with it as a double feature when first released. Studio Ghibli did this, from my understanding, for basically two reasons:
1) They needed the popularity of the story of Grave of the Fireflies to get people into the theaters so that they would watch Totoro. To quote Nausicaa.net:
no one thought that people would want to see "a movie about a two little kids and a monster in rural Japan"
2) the Sadness of Grave of the Fireflies would be alleviated by the fun, light-heartedness of My Neighbor Totoro.
It was a cute anime. I wouldn't say that i thought it was awsome, but it was a "feel good anime" without really much substance to it with storyline, but the simplistic nature of it created a child-like feel for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it. '
Spirited Away, I am sorry to say, was not as awesome as I had first thought. (no one stone me!) I thought it was a bit overrated. Hey, I'm not saying that it wasn't a good anime, and did i enjoy it? YES! But, for all the talk, I suppose I had high expectations. The animation was original, and what less could you expect with the genius of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli?! Some parts of it just didn't make sense to me:
[SPOILER] Why did that face-less guy have an obsession with Chihiro? Why did he randomely start eating people? Why, when they had left the bathhouse, did Chihiro suddenly trust the faceless- guy? Why did Chihiro "KNOW" that her parents weren't any of the pigs that Yu-baaba brought out? I mean... i thought that she would use all of her experience and things she learned from her journey to help with her decision, but, no... she just... said it, which i thought was really weird. [/SPOILER]
It ended way too fast for me. The pace picked up immensly near the end... which was mainly where things ceasing making sense for me. I think, if they made the end a bit longer, the end could have had less loose ends. Again, i thought it was good... good animation, music, concepts, story, characters... but it didn't all come together in a way that made me think: "Wow, this really lived up to my expectations." I do recommend it!
awsome series.
