i Let's Nupu Nupu (1998) • Comedy / Ecchi / Anime
Storyline
The series follows a bizarre and comedic school life filled with awkward romance, exaggerated misunderstandings, and absurd situations. Centered around a shy boy and the strange girls around him, the anime leans heavily into over-the-top adult humor and chaotic comedy rather than serious storytelling. It's a short, weird, old-school anime known mostly for its outrageous tone.
Where to Watch
YouTube • Various anime archive sites
The Wind Rises is inspired by the life of real Japanese aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Mitsubishi AM Zero fighter aircraft used by Japan during World War II. Rather than presenting a strict biography, the film blends historical fact with fiction and dreamlike imagination.
The character Naoko is fictional, but her story draws inspiration from the novel The Wind Has Risen by Tatsuo Hori, a semi-autobiographical work about a young couple facing illness. Set in a time before effective treatments for tuberculosis existed, the anime imagines a fragile romance shaped by limited time, echoing the quiet tragedy found in Hori's writing.
In the film, Miyazaki also adds recurring dream sequences in which Jiro meets the Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni.
These scenes reflect the protagonist's passion for aviation and the tension between creating beautiful machines and the reality that they may be used for war.
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli, the anime mixes historical events-such as the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and Japan's rapid pre-war industrialization-with a deeply personal story about dreams, love, and responsibility. After the film's release in 2013, Miyazaki announced his retirement, though he later returned to filmmaking to direct The Boy and the Heron (2023).