Porco Rosso

One of the greatest works by Anime Guru Hiyao Miyazaki.

This movie takes place in the Mediterranean Sea, in a world that is changing wth the times after WW1. Facism is taking over Italy and a former war hero is turned into a pig.

The irony gushes from this work. Porco, the protagonist, is a bounty hunter sea-plane pilot, where his prey, the sea pirates, aren’t bad people, but rather people just trying to get by. Porco having been turned into a pig by a strange curse, lives a lonely life isolated from the people that care about him. After having a stand off with an American fighter pilot, his plane is left worse for wear. He then takes to Milan to seek his mechanic only to find that he is on the periphery while his seventeen year old grand-daughter is more or less running the show. Fio, the spunky young engineer, proves herself to Porco and eventually joins him on his adventure to rematch against the cocky American.

Miyazaki is at his most grounded with this movie, seeking only small bits of fantasy. Which is perfect. No Lore or myth, just a great simple story. Even at points where I am going this is sexist, with Fio spouting lines like” I can’t help that I’m a woman.” But then i am countered with the sight of Fio’s twenty odd female relatives building Porco’s plane.

This movie requires no morals for a plot device, no good vs evil here. Just a battle between two men for the heart of a young girl.