Notes From the Buffer Zone: High Summer

I saw this banner yesterday, and it truly is high summer now. I am realizing I only have a few weeks left and then I am back to school again. In fact, even I was writing this, someone texted me about work stuff and I had to shuffle around in that world a little. (Ah! It's like the tide is coming in!)

The Studio Ghibli weekend movies have come to an end. We had such fun seeing them! If you are not familiar with them, they are animated Japanese films. We chose to see the subtitled movies, though some are dubbed.

While, I would say, the beauty of nature is a major delight in all of the movies, several have overtly environmental themes--Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Pom Poko. Pom Poko is about some raccoons that lose their habitat. It was my least favorite of the movies I saw and I would really put it into another category--the"cute" movie. Pom Poko and the popular My Neighbor Totoro were both child pleaser type movies with cute beasties and lots of happy images.
I preferred the historical movies like The Wind Rises (about an airplane engineer during WWII) and the sad, sad, super sad Grave of the Fireflies (about orphans in WWII).
Best of all I loved the mysterious, are we in this world story movies Spirited Away and When Marnie was There. I didn't get to see Howl's Moving Castle, unfortunately, but I think it would fit in this category too and I hope to see it one day.

Haha! I sound like a real fan, eh? Well, thank you to my wonderful son who pulled me into these. I certainly would not have gone to these movies without him! They were so delightful, unexpected, gorgeous, and creative! I really loved them.