Porco Rosso and Laputa: Miyazaki's Love Letters to Aviation

Throughout his career, Hayao Miyazaki has maintained a passionate love affair with flight. Two of his films are devoted almost entirely to the world of aircraft and airships: Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) and Porco Rosso (1992). Together they represent the full spectrum of Miyazaki's relationship with aviation: adventure and romance, melancholy and grace.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Ghibli's first feature film follows Sheeta, a girl who possesses the legendary Laputa crystal, and Pazu, a young miner, as they flee sky pirates and the sinister government agent Muska in search of the legendary floating city. Laputa draws on Jules Verne, Jonathan Swift and Welsh mining culture to create a breathtakingly inventive adventure that established the visual grammar Ghibli would use for decades.

The film's robot soldiers, ancient guardians of Laputa who tend the gardens and protect Sheeta with fierce loyalty, are among Miyazaki's most haunting creations. The film's climax, in which Sheeta and Pazu together speak the destruction spell, remains one of animation's most devastating sequences.

Explore our Laputa collection including the Miniatuart castle kit, Laputa bell keychain (levitation stone) and Tiger Moth Takara Tomy diecast model in our Ghibli miniature collection.

Porco Rosso

Set in the Adriatic in the 1930s, Porco Rosso is Miyazaki's most explicitly autobiographical film. Its hero, Marco Pagot, a former World War One ace who has been cursed to look like a pig, works as a bounty hunter for hire against air pirates. The film is soaked in the golden melancholy of the interwar period, deeply aware that what its characters love is about to be destroyed.

Porco Rosso is a film about what it means to choose not to be a hero in a world sliding toward fascism, and the personal cost of that choice. It is Miyazaki's most adult film and perhaps his most personal.

Our Porco Rosso collection includes the S.21 seaplane and boat Takara Tomy diecast models, official poster puzzle (1000 pieces), Porco plush, Porco Rosso Uni-ball pen and the plane pin badge.

Aviation in the Ghibli Universe

For Miyazaki, aircraft are never simply machines. They are dreams given mechanical form, expressions of humanity's desire to transcend the ordinary. Whether it is the Tiger Moth banking through clouds or Porco's red seaplane cutting across the Adriatic, Miyazaki animates flight with a reverence that feels almost spiritual.

Also read our guide to Takara Tomy Ghibli diecast models, our Ghibli model kits guide and our complete history of Studio Ghibli.