With our second episode, we ask the question "Why are Ghibli movies famous?" Being the self-proclaimed experts that we are - we "randomly" choose 6 movies for this discussion and completely forget to talk about the main theme at the end! We discuss Porco Rosso, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies (half-heartedly), Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle and Whisper of the Heart (which surprisingly turns out to be our favourite). With Shreyas breaking from time to time, Kshitij fanboying over Hayao Miyazaki and Rathi triggering generations of Ghibli fans, this is truly an interesting episode.

Here are some highlights from the episode:

Standoff 2.1: Does Spirited away tackle "complicated emotions"?

Some reasons as to why Rathi thinks Mononoke is a "good" movie : https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-princess-mononoke-is-the-best

Breaking down the train scene in Spirited Away: https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/4trvjh/the_train_scene_in_spirited_away_which_basically/utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

The concept of "Ma" (and other collected thoughts of Gajapure) : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wu6baaoL6cRc8ZzETXbAd7z6LetHWGeFahrLaWi6mi8/edit#bookmark=id.jmyhympc3yan

Comparing Howl: the book and the movie: http://www.thereadventurer.com/-home/book-vs-movie-howls-moving-castle-by-diana-wynne-jones

Miyazaki's movie-making philosophy (again we refer to the research of Gajapure): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wu6baaoL6cRc8ZzETXbAd7z6LetHWGeFahrLaWi6mi8/edit#bookmark=id.41yof6rxzaq1

The scene that Rathi liked in Whisper of The Heart (around 11:50 in the movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30kG6jocUFk

Why Porco Rosso felt different and the Roald Dalh short story: https://www.filminquiry.com/hero-porco-rosso/

The name Ghibli (surprising fact that the Ghibli fanboy does not know!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.309

The Immersive Realism of Studio Ghibli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Q6y4-qKac

Cat riding elevators?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lunMj9zuB18

The Bechdel test for measuring the representation of women in fiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsNHAeRZQL4

The Male-Female dynamics that Miyazaki wants to portray (a final plug to the effort that the fanboy put in): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wu6baaoL6cRc8ZzETXbAd7z6LetHWGeFahrLaWi6mi8/edit#bookmark=id.eobjwwb0brtw

Standoff 2.2: Was the end a misunderstanding that arose from Rathi's nitpicking at Shreyas' hastily put together opinion or was it due to something else entirely?