Gobbledygeek

Our month-long celebration of Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki reaches its bittersweet conclusion with a look at Miyazaki's purported final film, 2013's The Wind Rises; and Mami Sunada's documentary about its making, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. Joining Paul and AJ for their final descent into the world of Studio Ghibli is Smoke Gets in Your Ears: A Mad Men Podcast co-hosts Kenn Edwards and Joseph Lewis. The gang discusses the parallels between Miyazaki and The Wind Rises' aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, Miyazaki's surprisingly fatalistic outlook on life, and--naturally--the grand folly of art. Plus, Joe makes an exciting announcement!

Next: leaping from one Disney-distributed universe to another, Paul and AJ enter The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Bathhouses, talking fires, giant babies, grotesquely overweight witches...for this leg of Miyazaki Month, Paul and AJ enter the world of the filmmaker's two most visually distinct yet perhaps least coherent films: 2001's Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle. Joining them on their journey is first-time guest (but longtime background entertainer) Monique Morgan of Beacon Hills: After Dark and Nathan Burdette of On the Rocks (and AJ's blood relative). The gang discusses the limitless imagination on display in these two films, the strengths and weaknesses of that lack of coherency, and what the movies have to say about Japanese culture and war.

Next: Miyazaki Month comes to a close, as Smoke Gets in Your Ears: A Mad Men Podcast co-hosts Kenn Edwards and Joseph Lewis drop by for The Wind Rises and The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.

Netflix has unveiled the first of four original series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Daredevil, starring the most Catholic of all blind superheroes. Executive producers Drew Goddard and Steven DeKnight bring Matt Murdock to the small screen, played by Boardwalk Empire's Charlie Cox. The result is, well, it's surprisingly good, even by Marvel standards. Paul and AJ discuss the parallel structure that brings Wilson Fisk into sharp relief, the shocking deviation the show takes from the source material, the series' beautifully brutal fight scenes, and where things are headed next. Plus, because they're masochists, the boys also revisit the 2003 DD film starring Batman.

Miyazaki Month takes to the skies this week with 1986's Castle in the Sky, the first official Studio Ghibli production, about a boy from a mining town and a princess from a floating island (jeez, does this guy have a thing for princesses or what?); and 1992's Porco Rosso, wherein a man with the face of a pig fights air pirates and evades the Italian Secret Police. Greg Sahadachny, host of The Debatable Podcast and All the Pieces Matter, joins Paul and AJ to discuss Miyazaki's aviation fascination, how Castle in the Sky may be the perfect bridge between Nausicaä  and Princess Mononoke, why Porco Rosso succeeds (or doesn't) as a character study, and more.

Next: Monique Morgan of Beacon Hills: After Dark and Nathan Burdette of On the Rocks join us for a look at Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.

Our month-long celebration of Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki continues! After the intense, mythology-laden epics Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke, Paul and AJ turn to perhaps Miyazaki's lightest features: the 1988-89 one-two punch of My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. Joining them is author (and The Deli Counter of Justice contributor) Kitty Chandler and editrix extraordinaire Anna Williams. The gang discusses Miyazaki's painterly detail, his use of complex female protagonists, how both films are about growing up, and why it makes perfect sense that My Neighbor Totoro was originally released on a double bill with Grave of the Fireflies.

Next: we're taking to the skies! Greg Sahadachny of The Debatable Podcast and All the Pieces Matter stops by to chat about Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso.

Man has been exploiting nature since the first caveman picked up a rock and bludgeoned another to death with it. This doesn't sit well with some, like Hayao Miyazaki, who has made two powerful films about the environment and the ways in which human greed corrupts it: 1984's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which led to the creation of the revered Studio Ghibli; and 1997's Princess Mononoke, which finds Ghibli at the peak of its powers. To help Paul and AJ kick off their month-long celebration of Japanese animation master Miyazaki, another princess stops by, namely Princess Sippy Cup AKA The Deli Counter of Justice co-editor Eric Sipple. The gang discusses the ways in which Nausicaä and Mononoke tackle the same themes from different angles, Miyazaki's shifting perspective over the years, and what both films have to say about violence and the nature of evil.

Next: Black Ice author Kitty Chandler (whose work just so happens to appear in The Deli Counter of Justice) and her editrix Anna Williams join us to discuss two lighter Miyazaki films, My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.