Courtesy of the terrific folks at Buta Connection, here is the collection of Hayao Miyazaki's full color image boards for his 1995 music video short On Your Mark. Click on each of them to see the full size, and remember that the panels are assembled into columns; first read down the column on the left, then the right. You'll figure it all out.
Now here's an interesting question for you: do they escape at the end, or did they plummet to their deaths? The video first plays the escape attempt, which ends in the (presumably) fatal crash. Then it later repeats, but with a different ending, one with a sudden dash of fantasy if not deus ex machima. So the final shots of the characters driving Miyazaki's Heroine to freedom may only exist in their imaginations. It may or may not have actually happened.
It is important to note that Miyazaki was attempting to say goodbye to his Heroine with this short film. On Your Mark was his first animation after finally completing his Nausicaa manga, and he wanted to close the door on this chapter of his career. So he lets her go, to fly away to freedom.
The catch, of course, is that this mood doesn't last. After working with Yoshifumi Kondo on Mimi/Whisper, he dove straight into his most complex and darkst film to date - Mononoke. The serious themes of Nausicaa would be revisited, and the Nausicaa character would be effectively split into the two main characters. And his Heroine would return once again in Howl's Moving Castle, yadda yadda. But you and I have been through that, and this is not our fate.*
Any thoughts?
*I have no idea why I suddenly decided to quote Dylan.
1 comment:
Hi Daniel,
Could you tell me in which book can i find On Your Mark's Image Boards?
Thanks
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