Get "On Your Mark" with Hayao Miyazaki

by Chris MaGee

While hardcore Hayao Miyazaki fans may already have their cherished R2 dics or bootlegs of the short film below I thought that a flight of fancy from the anime master would be a perfect start to another weekend. In actuality this isn't a short film, but a music video for Japanese pop duo Chage & Aska's single "On Your Mark" from their 1995 album "Code Name.1:Brother Sun". I have to be dead honest and say that the song isn't any great shakes, but with Miyazaki writing the basic story about two Special OPs officers who rescue a very special young girl and directing with his usual brilliance who cares! It's interesting to not that with the futuristic sci-fi feel "On Your Mark" may be the closest to the works of Miyazaki's anime contemporaries Katsuhiro Otomo and Mamoru Oshii's territory, but with fantastic airships and a central female character who also takes flight (literally) there's not mistaking this for the work of any other animator that the man responsible for other such animated aviation epics as "Porco Rosso" and "Laputa: Castle in the Sky".

Sit back and enjoy because this one is fantastic!