Hayao Miyazaki has released his alleged final film “The Wind Rises.” Unlike his other films, however, it takes a much heavier tone of realism as it documents the life of Jiro Horikoshi. the designer of the Mitsubishi A6M fighter plane.

Most of Miyazaki’s films have had a wonderful fantasy to them. The shining gems are “Howls Moving Castle” and “Spirited Away,” though many others could make the cut. This film, while having strong visual style in its representation of aeronautics and the terrifying depiction of the Great Earthquake of 1923, is much more subtle in it’s delivery.

One may say that his last film is his most boring. Animation has been expected to show a level of impossible physics and behavior that is not present in live action film-making. The use of animation in this film is only used because the director believes that it is aesthetically appealing. The films content is much like that of a live action drama.

The film does suffer pacing issues though. Like many biographical films, some scenes drag on or movements become repetitive in an attempt to show the complexity of the subjects actions over a long amount of time. After a while, I felt captive to the same bureaucracy the Jiro was.

If you demand absolute truth in biographical films, you will be let down. Nearly half of the film revolves around Jiro’s personal life outside of aeronauts and it is all fabricated. The subject of the movie is a deserving one, though. For all of Miyazaki’s themes to be shown through the life of one man who little was known about, events needed to be manufactured.

If this is Miyazaki’s last work, I would not be disappointed. Miyazaki will be remembered as a director with a near magical ability to balance adult level themes with a childlike innocence of presentation in the form of cartoons. For as many times as I wanted to cry in that film, I would still recommend it to a grade school child, even if he was not able to understand some of the themes.

This film should be the bar that cartoon animation is held to. A stereotype exists that says that animation is a means of attracting the attention of children alone. There is a reason paintings are painted. Fantastic terrain and character design to aid in the tone of a story can be far preferable to a live action film in simple terms of the environment in which one is immersed.