Hayao Miyazaki ’s The Wind Rises is more than just a fictionalized biography of aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi, it’s the most personal story Miyazaki has ever told. Born during the devastation of WWII, Miyazaki’s earliest memories were shaped by displacement and bombing raids. Airplanes became both his first sketches and his lifelong obsession, embodying the paradox at the heart of his creative work: symbols of beauty and ingenuity forever tethered to destruction and war .

That contradiction defines The Wind Rises . Jiro, like Miyazaki, is near-sighted, unable to pilot the planes he dreams of. Both men instead turn to drawing — Jiro to engineering blueprints, Miyazaki to animation. Both inherit legacies entwined with war: Jiro designed the Zero fighter, while Miyazaki’s

See Full Page