Here are a pair of excellent fan-designed movie posters for two of my favorite Hayao Miyazaki movies, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Porco Rosso. I really enjoy these designs, which incorporate an indie comic book style. Nausicaa evokes the surreal images of the Ohmu shell, with the title character seated near the eye and the toxic fungus. Porco Rosso evokes the myth and mystery of its central character, a legendary pilot who has renounced his humanity.
Poster designs like these always remind me of the way movie posters were made long, long ago. It was an established art form all its own, as movie collectors and fans will tell you. Once the conglomerates took over the major Hollywood studios, however, everything became subsumed by marketing hacks. Everything just became another crummy commercial. The age of Photoshop has been especially cruel. Movies can still be magical. Most of the time, however, they're nothing more than plastic, a disposable product designed for immediate consumption, discarded three days after opening. Meh.
I want classic movie posters again. Don't you? Of course, you do.
Here are some excellent screenshots from the Blu-Ray release of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. As is the case with nearly all animation, the BD format is a dramatic improvement over the older DVD format. Colors are sharp and vivid, picture is free of pixelation and compression artifacts, and audio is perfectly lossless, rich and booming. Years ago, I remember finding an ancient VHS rip that was worn down to the bones. The colors were washed out (leaving many to speculate Nausicaa wasn't wearing pants), and the screen was so dark you could barely make out anything. It was still a mesmerizing and mind-blowing trip.
I've argued for many years that Nausicaa was the movie that saved Hayao Miyazaki's career. Its success, both commercially and creatively, led to the founding of Studio Ghibli and three decades of worldwide acclaim. It's hard for today's younger fans to imagine just how hard the director struggled in the years directly preceding this film. The period of 1978-1983 was especially difficult for Miyazaki, who struggled with mainstream success in Japan, even while creating such masterworks as Future Boy Conan, The Castle of Cagliostro and Sherlock Hound. It's baffling that these titles weren't hits at the time.
Nausicaa was the great vindication, the overwhelming proof of Miyazaki's talents as a director, animator and storyteller. He no longer had to rely on the memories of Toei Dogs or Heidi. He no longer had to be thought of as "Paku-san's Junior Partner." He was a star in his own right.
This is a great movie, dynamic and exciting, filled with complex ideas and complicated characters. Its tone is deadly serious, aside from a few gags scattered here and there. You can see the obvious parallels to Horus, Prince of the Sun and Conan, but there is a new maturity on display. Here is a movie with ideas and questions that wisely avoids easy answers. Indeed, Nausicaa seems determined to leave us with questions. It makes sense, given this was still an ongoing manga comic serial at the time. Even Miyazaki didn't know where he was going. But he was definitely going places, as we know today.
On Tuesday, October 31, GKIDS released their "second wave" of Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray/DVD titles: Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Castle in the Sky. Both titles are part of the studio's catalog reissue series and will continue into early next year.
These titles are important for die-hard Ghibli Freaks. Both Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky were released by Disney some years ago, but with annoying issues such as English title burn-in (Nausicaa) and "dubtitles" (Castle). Hopefully, GKIDS has solved these problems, but at the time of publication, I was unable to confirm or deny any changes in the new versions.
Let's cross our fingers and hope that these new reissues have proper subtitles and title credits. That would make these titles a must-have for all fans. Stay tuned.
Update (11/4/17, 9:17pm): It has been confirmed that Nausicaa has clean credits, and Castle in the Sky has proper English subtitles. Thanks to our friends on Reddit for the confirmation. Now buy these movies!
This first screenshot comes from the Lupin the 3rd Series Two finale, Farewell, Beloved Lupin. It features a heroine in blue who controls a giant robot and is forced to commit crimes against her will. This is an interior shot of Maki Oyamada, the heroine, operating the controls inside the flying robot.
Hayao Miyazaki was a fan of these kind of interior airplane shots. This specific shot appears to be quoted directly in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, which features a later incarnation of the director's iconic heroine. Both characters are also voiced by Sumi Shimamoto, further adding to the connection.
The giant robot, of course, is a tribute to the classic Fleischer Superman cartoons, and would later be revised into the giant robots in Castle in the Sky, as well as the God Warriors in Nausicaa, and especially the character of Ohma in the Nausicaa books.
Halloween is only one week away, which means it's time for everybody to hurry up and finish their costumes. Ghibli Freaks of all ages will be eager to show off their love of their favorite animated movies and help spread the word to their families and neighbors.
These costumes were first shown at DramaFever, and if you follow the link, you will find a dozen more, all equally impressive. It's very clear that everybody invested an enormous amount of work for their costumes. "Cosplay" is a popular staple of anime and sci-fi conventions, and it seems as if that community has exploded in recent years, thanks to the soaring success of ComicCon and similar events. I remember kids dressing up in costumes at Star Trek conventions back in the late 1980s, but today's fans have taken the game to a whole new level.
Each of these makes for a terrific Halloween costume idea for parents and children alike. I especially like the My Neighbor Totoro photo at top, with the two girls pulling a Cat Bus wagon. The pet Ohmu is also pretty inspired...I wonder if it moves? That would be cool.
Since we're talking about Nausicaa today, I thought it would be a good time to pull out everybody's favorite chestnut of cartoon cheese: Warriors of the Wind. This is the 1985 US release of Hayao Miyazaki's classic movie, famously butchered and chopped into little pieces, like murder victims at the Overlook Hotel. It was despised by its creators, hated by anime aficionados, and widely derided for decades to come. Yet, despite all of this, it did build a small cult following of fans who would one day grow up to become diehard Ghibli Freaks.
Warriors of the Wind isn't merely a bad Nausicaa dub with a few edits. Almost one quarter of the movie was removed, including crucial story elements and plot points. Characters names were badly changed ("Princess Sandra"). The title of the movie was completely changed. Most famously, the movie poster featured a roster of heroes from various sci-fi and fantasy movies, none of whom actually appear in the movie. The poor heroine is stuck in the background, wearing a Star Trek miniskirt and looking very confused.
How could such a thing happen? It's important to understand just how different the movie landscape all those years ago. In 1985, Japanese animation was widely disrespected in the US, relegated to the status of, ugh, "Saturday Morning Cartoons." They were regarded as vastly inferior to the classic animated features of Walt Disney "Japanimation" was looked down upon as junk, at a time when "Made in Japan" was still a punchline.
In those days, our exposure to anime was extremely limited. Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Star Blazers. We had access to a small handful of TV cartoon shows that were very strange and very different, more like comic books than the Bugs Bunny and Hanna-Barbara cartoons that filled our screens. Most kids shrugged and changed the channel. A few lucky ones would sit down and watch and become fans. Most parents couldn't be bothered, unless they somehow stumbled onto the violent anime features, at which time they completely freaked out.
In this environment, with this understanding, it makes a good deal of sense why New World Pictures, the US distributor, would take an axe to the Nausicaa film. There was no constituency for the title, no mainstream audience, no homegrown anime community to draw upon. The only market for animation were small children who wanted to see Saturday cartoons on the big screen, and their parents who couldn't understand why they just couldn't be happy watching Road Runner at home for free.
Who else would want to see a movie such as this? What about the sci-fi and fantasy fans? They skew a little bit older, usually teenagers or early college students. Maybe they'll show up if we convince them this movie fits into their scene. And so we'll add characters from Dune and Clash of the Titans and maybe some robots with lightsabers. Who cares? They'll likely just be stoned, anyway. Just hurry up and take their money before they sober up.
It's funny how nobody cops to being involved in this movie project. June Foray was rumored to have played the lead, Princess Zandra (ugh), but she flatly denied it when asked. There's another character who sounds just like Bullwinkle. Another character sounds like one of the Ninja Turtles. It was probably one of those jobs where you walk into the booth and record everything on the first take during lunch break. "Hey, hey, this is talking Krusty." That sort of thing.
It's 1985. What did you think would happen? It would be several years before Akira would be unleashed on the Americans, marking the first real sea change in how "Japanimation" was accepted. It would take many more years of hard work and struggle to achieve any kind of acceptance. Even today, anime remains very much a niche genre. The Studio Ghibli movies have only barely registered on US movie screens -- Hayao Miyazaki's last movie, The Wind Rises, barely earned five million dollars, and the man has won two Academy Awards.
Thankfully, anime is given enough respect today that an atrocity like Warriors of the Wind would never happen again. But it's still a struggle for acceptance.
Have you ever seen the 1985 TV commercial for Warriors of the Wind? Here it is...brace yourselves:
GKIDS' Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 continues its series of theatrical screenings of select Ghibli movies with Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind on September 24, 25 and 27.
The movie will be shown in both "dubbed" (September 24, 27) and "subtitled" (September 25) versions. Tickets are still available, so be sure to pick up yours before they sell out.
In addition, if you provide your Ghibli Fest ticket stub to any Hot Topic, you will receive a 10 percent discount on any purchase. They are building up a very impressive collection of Ghibli swag, so be sure to pay them a visit after the show.
Studio Ghibli movies have found their way into Japanese videogames over the years, in various riffs and cameos. One example is Wolf Team's 1991 Sega Genesis side-scrolling title Earnest Evans, which quotes the underground caverns from Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind in one of its stages. And is that an Ohmu in the right edge of the screen? I guess it might be. I suppose I could play the game just to be sure, but, c'mon, Earnest Evans is terrible. "Emoji Movie" terrible.
That said, I always liked and respected Telenet's Wolf Team crew. They were one of the good video game studios of the 16-bit era, and they are well and truly missed. Nice Miyazaki riff, guys.
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind will always stand as Hayao Miyazaki's magnum opus, a true masterpiece of epic storytelling, thrilling action and brilliant art design. As the holiday season is upon us, this is the perfect time to purchase a copy of this graphic novel. Fortunately, Viz Media offers two excellent versions: a deluxe box set containing all seven volumes in two large books, bound together in a hardcover case; and the individual seven volumes available separately.
Many years ago, Nausicaa was first released in the United States in a four-book series. That was the version I first purchased, and it's now long out-of-print, making it a prized collector's item. The newer versions, however, are superior in every respect, from page side to quality of translation. Die-hard Miyazaki fans, of course, will want to collect literally everything. They should begin here with these two different presentations.
The only improvement I would offer for any future release of Nausicaa would be to include Miyazaki's original publishing schedule for the monthly serial. It helps a lot to know just where he took his many breaks, usually to work on his feature animated films. These long breaks, ranging anywhere from one to three years, allowed Miyazaki to return with fresh insights and new ideas, resulting in a constant evolution of the story and its characters.
Many Miyazaki fans and Ghibli Freaks have yet to discover the man's many works in manga comics. If you've never read them, you're missing out on a third of his career, just as if you've never discovered the many pre-Ghibli films and television series. If you are among them, you owe it to yourself to have the Nausicaa books in your library. Ask Santa or Hannukah Harry to leave a set under your tree this year.
Late last year, around the time that Studio Ghibli released their massive Hayao Miyazaki Blu-Ray Box, they also reissued the studio's catalog titles on DVD. These discs are based on the HD Blu-Ray remasters for the box set, and are now available for 4,700Yen, or roughly $45USD.
I'm quite curious to see how these DVDs look. The prior discs were released over a decade ago, and looked quite excellent for the time; Nausicaa was arguably the best of the lot, super crisp and sharp picture, and even included an audio commentary track (the only Ghibli film to do so). The Region 2 Japanese discs were also notably superior to most, if not all, of the DVDs released by Disney here in the US. Don't even get me started on that dreadful Castle in the Sky cover; those kids look like they've been to the plastic surgeon.
The cover designs have also been changed somewhat. The Ghibli ga Ippai DVDs originally featured a color band over the top half, with original artwork below (usually taken from the Studio Ghibli Calendars). That changed to full-size illustrations by the time Spirited Away and Nausicaa were released. I really like these new covers, which reprint one of the movie poster designs; I must admit, however, I do prefer the older Nausicaa cover. But to each their own. And the back cover illustrations look terrific. Very classy, very stylish.
Nausicaa and Spirited Away also appear to have 3 discs in their package. I'm quite curious to know what is included. Usually, the Ghibli DVDs included storyboards on the second disc, but Princess Mononoke included a third "International" disc, featuring eight foreign language tracks. Perhaps this is what has happened to these new releases.
I am curious to see how these new DVDs look, and how they compare to the previous releases. Will the difference be as noticable? The older discs already looked excellent, and given the size limitations of the DVD format, I'm not sure how much more could be squeezed out of the discs. I'm also a bit hesitant to recommend these videos, since the Blu-Ray discs are so spectacular, and a quantum leap in quality over the standard-definition format. But those Japanese BDs cost upwards of $75-$80, restricting them to the most diehard of fans. The average family can't afford such a luxury.
For those families, and for those still sticking with DVD (a format that is still very successful, while BD has stagnated for years), these Studio Ghibli videos are an excellent alternative. How I wish Disney could have been bothered to put such care into these movies! Ah, well, such is life.
Here's the television ad for Warriors of the Wind, the notorious 1985 New Line Cinema hack-job of one of the all-time great anime masterpieces. It's almost comical to look at today, but imagine 30 years ago. If you were a fan of "Japanimation," or hearing the name of Hayao Miyazaki for the first time, this was the best you were going to get. Unless you knew someone from Japan who could send you videotapes, this was the best you were gonna get. You anime kids today have no idea how easy things are today.
Since we will be returning to Ghibli Blog's regular programming on Monday, I wanted to share this commercial. Someone online told me they still own a 35mm copy of the Warriors of the Wind trailer. I'd love to see that, wouldn't you?
Well, what did we learn with this first "weekend" experiment on Ghibli Blog? I learned that if we're going to follow a "music and arts" theme on Saturday, then it should cover Sunday, too. I just don't have the time. Fortunately, a number of posts proved popular, and traffic to the site overall remained high. Those are very good trends, and suggest where we could go in the future.
For Ghibli Freaks, I promise to publish more articles about the Studio Ghibli soundtrack LPs. Those can fit into the "music" theme, right? I have some photos of the soundtrack album for Gauche the Cellist that I'll publish next weekend.
I know that I promised a review of the Bellari VP-130, an excellent tube phono stage preamp, for the weekend's major "hi-fi audio" post. Didn't have time for that, unfortunately, but we can do that next weekend. We do have lives to lead on the weekends, ya know!
Thanks to everyone, old and new, for supporting this site.
Here's a copy of the US movie poster for Warriors of the Wind, the notorious 1985 New Line Cinema hack of Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. The film was released in theaters and VHS in the 1980s, but has disappeared since that time. If you're curious and have never seen this, copies are available online, and is probably on YouTube as well.
Miyazaki, needless to say, was furious when he discovered what had happened to his masterpiece. It's a hack job that almost qualifies as graffiti art, it's so bad. One quarter of the running time was cut, the characters names were changed ("Princess Zandra?" Really?!), and crucial plot points were just dropped. Oh, and the voice actors sound a lot like Rocky & Bullwinkle (the legendary June Foray denied any involvement). What a mess. But it has a certain campy, MST3K value that we can laugh at and enjoy, especially now that we have a proper Nausicaa on DVD and Blu-Ray.
And this poster? Priceless. I want a copy of this movie poster. Don't you? Of course, you do.
(I wish I could remember who sent this to me. If the author steps forward, I'll update this post to give the proper credit. He had an exhibition of classic anime posters that played at anime conventions, including descriptions on the history of these movies. It was quite impressive, and although he informed me that he was retiring his exhibit, I would like to see it again. Perhaps a short video could be made?)
Good news, everyone! Amazon is selling the Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind box set for $41.59. Viz Media released this two-volume box in 2012, and it remains, to my mind, Hayao Miyazaki's magnum opus. This is also my favorite graphic novel ever, even moreso than Art Spiegelman's "Maus," Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," and the hardcover "Peanuts" anthology. This is a literary and comics masterpiece.
Previously, Viz released the Nausicaa graphic novel in the complete seven volume set, with each book sold separately ($70 in total). Before that, Nausicaa was originally presented in four books, and in the "Western" style of translated sound effects and left-to-right panels. All later releases follow the (now) more common "Japanese manga" style, untouched Katakana, panels read right-to-left.
Personally, I'll recommend owning all versions. I believe that I mailed out my four-book set to someone years ago, and my seven-volume set has become lost. I can't remember for the life of me what happened to it. So that makes this giant box set more attractive to me.
Hurry up and grab a copy from Amazon before the sale ends!
These spectacular poster designs recreate our favorite Studio Ghibli movies in the early 20th Century Art Nouveau style. An artist named "Marlboro" posted these artworks on Pixiv, a Japanese art-sharing site. Unfortunately, Marlboro's page is no longer available, but the art lives on.
What makes these illustrations so effective is how perfectly the art style matches the original material. Nausicaa, Sheeta, Kiki, Totoro, Howl...these characters do have an Art Nouveau appeal. They fit into this style perfectly. Indeed, it makes me wonder why comics and animation cannot use this visual style, instead of merely retreading the same old paradigms.
In late November, Viz Media released this spectacular Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind box set. It contains the entire 1,110+ page graphic novel in two volumes, includes numerous color illustrations, a full poster, and packages everything in a wonderfully-stylish case. For the true Miyazaki fan, this set is the crown jewel of your collection.
There's only one small problem: The Nausicaa box set may already be out of print. It's difficult to tell, because as much as I appreciate and applaud Viz for publishing Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli books, they do a lousy job selling them. Even their website is a dismal mess when you want to find something. For now, however, I must assume that the original print run has finished, and it's up to the publisher to decide whether to invest in another run.
Obviously, I will insist on more pressings of Nausicaa, a graphic novel masterwork that rivals Art Spiegelman's Maus for brilliance. It remains criminally overlooked by Miyazaki fans here in the US; I daresay that most folks don't even know these books exist, or that one could find them at the local bookstore...that is, if Viz could actually be bothered to stock them.
It's times like this when I wish I had the money to start a publishing company and just do it myself. I don't know about you, but I'd love to read Miyazaki's second volume of memoirs, Turning Point. I'd also like to read Isao Takahata's and Yasuo Otsuka's memoirs, Yoshifumi Kondo's posthumously-released art book, Michiyo Yasuda's book on color theory, and pretty much all of Miyazaki-san's comics. If I ever come into a large amount of money, I'll definitely give it a try.
In any case, Viz still has the seven-volume Nausicaa books, which are available separately. If you haven't discovered this novel, I strongly urge you to get your hands on some copies. And we'll cross our fingers and hope this terrific box set reemerges soon. Viz needs to get on the ball and start doing their damned jobs. There's no excuse for this.
Today marks the beginning of GKids' Studio Ghibli Film Retrospective here in Minneapolis, which launches with Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 landmark feature, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. I thought this would be a perfect time to revisit the first time Nausicaa was released in the United States, as the notorious hack-job, Warriors of the Wind.
For those not aware, Warriors of the Wind was the US theatrical and home video release of Nauscaa, with a poorly-acted dub, extensive script rewrites, and 30 minutes excised from the running time. This was a common practice at the time for foreign animation in the West, which the suits would deride as "cheap kiddie cartoons." That Nausicaa was created as a serious, and richly complex, adult animated movie was completely lost on the American producers. It was impossible to imagine animation beyond the shadow of Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. It remains a challenge even today, although great strides have been made.
The cuts and changes made to Warriors of the Wind were made without Miyazaki's consent or knowledge; when he discovered what had happened, he all but renounced the American market for the next decade, only tentatively granting distribution rights for movies like My Neighbor Totoro (during this period, Streamline carried the Miyazaki flame). It wouldn't be until 2006 that Americans finally saw Nausicaa in its original, uncut form, with all its complex, probing, challenging themes restored.
I haven't watched this Cinematic Nutcase video review yet, so I'll be enjoying it along with you for the first time. I'm curious to hear what younger anime fans think of the Warriors debacle. I will agree on one point: the US movie poster is rediculously awesome. It absolutely begs for parody or Family Guy cameo.
I believe Warriors of the Wind stands as a historical document, an example of the struggles of Japanese animation to crack the American consciousness and work its way into our culture. It's also a solid example of the fracture in 1980s popular culture between "mainstream" and "underground," which would explode in the 1990s alternative revolution. Of course, I'm an aging Gen-Xer, so everything in my mind is filtered through the punk & hiphop revolution. I'm just goofy that way.
Back in December, a Japanese poll asked 1,000 people (700 women and 300 men) to name their favorite female Studio Ghibli characters, the ones that "best embody the characteristics that women aspire to. Both genders picked the moody Redhead with the violent mood swings. Interesting findings.
I can understand why guys would want a strong, confident and aggressive person like Nausicaa. I hail from Minnesota, after all. Our girls play ice hockey and win championships (go Gophers). But what really makes me chuckle is that Nausicaa is the number one pick from women. Don't let the stereotypically polite, demure appearance fool you; these gals are probably looking to bust some heads. And when we look at Japan's population decline, I'm guessing they have to tolerate a lot of clueless, clumsy boys.
Protipfor all the males in Japan: Hurry up and learn some skills, boys. Put down the toys and the video games, and learn to impress the gals before they beat you up and take your lunch money. Hah, hah.
Well, that's worth a chuckle. Back to the Ghibli "Ideal Woman" poll. For the most part, it's a standard sampling of Miyazaki characters. The men's picks are, frankly, a bit boring. Sheeta (Castle in the Sky) probably fits the "damsel in distress," so there's an appeal, but Kiki and Shizuku (Mimi/Whisper)? Those are very much girls' coming-of-age movies. Porco Rosso's Gina is a singer and owns her own business, but she's also a very lonely character, who escapes into a series of doomed marriages because her one true love is too being a self-loathing pig to notice. I'm not sure what this suggests about the men in the poll.
Meanwhile, the women pick San, the Mononoke Hime? She's basically Nausicaa's aggressive, darker side (Ashitaka, conversely, embodies all of Nausicaa's gentler, more "feminine" virtues). And at the end of the picture, she tells the boy that, sorry, I need my space. Ouch.
Osano, the pregnant owner of the bakery in Kiki's Delivery Service, is an interesting pick. Am I the only one who honestly thought she was a single mother? Is that cook her husband? Family or friend? Co-worker? The movie (in its original Japanese) never explicitly declares anything, one way or another. I may be wrong on this one, but that was always my honest impression, and I greatly admired the movie for its honesty. It's a good lesson for girls, don't you agree? Your life doesn't revolve around men. You can take command of your own life. Heck, even if the cook is Osano's husband, she's clearly the one in charge.
Here's the complete rankings from the poll. I'm interested to hear your opinions. Feel free to tell me I'm completely bonkers in my hypothesis, by the way.
Women's Results:
1) 20.0% - Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind) 2) 18.9% - Osono (Kiki's Delivery Service) 3) 15.0% - Sheta (Castle in the Sky 4) 13.1% - San (Princess Mononoke 5) 11.7% - Kiki (Kiki's Delivery Service
Men's Results:
1) 18.7% - Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) 2) 17.3% - Sheta (Castle in the Sky) 3) 13.0% - Kiki (Kiki's Delivery Service) 4) 11.7% - Shizuku Tsukishima (Mimi wo Sumaseba/Whisper of the Heart) 5) 09.0% - Gina(Porco Rosso)
Here is another series of excellent Studio Ghibli artwork by a dedicated artist named Zeta, who shares my love of anime and video games (although I'm decidedly more retro). In addition to his primary art site, he has a blog dedicated to his Ghibli paintings. These paintings are my personal favorites, but I'm sure you'll have your favorites, as well. Enjoy.
The Studio Ghibli Weblog (in Spain) has a pair of terrific Studio Ghibli wallpapers for you to download and use on your computers. Nice! As you can see, are Spanish cousins are basing their designs on the Japanese Ghibli Blu-Ray covers. Currently, there are wallpapers for Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Ponyo and Arietty. Just follow these links to get to the wallpapers; sizes range from 1024x768 to 1920x1080 resolution.
I wanted to show a couple riffs that appear in the first episode of Future Boy Conan. There are a few more, but you can dig those out if you're so inclined. But these should help you out when you're engaged in your Miyazaki Riffs Drinking Games.
This first example is a gag of Conan tumbling down a set of stairs. He's getting water for Lana, who is lapsing in and out of consciousness after being rescued from the beach the day before. It's a funny little gag, perfectly suited for the physical Conan, and Miyazaki used it before, during the classic pirate battle in Animal Treasure Island. In that movie, Jim, the hero, also stumbles down about four flights of stairs, past a couple of funny sight gags in the process. This battle scene is packed to the rafters with tiny details and throwaway gags.
Our second Conan riff comes from this scene, where Conan is showing off his island to Lana, carrying her around and running all over the place. He feeds her some fruit, which is...um, a little sour tasting, and Conan gets to make some funny faces. This big was used a few years later in the Nausicaa film, in the photo you see above. That's rather interesting, because there's hardly a joke in the entire film. The very few bits drop in and out very quickly.
