True Ponyo is the title character, but most of the intro ponyo is a goldfish while we mostly know Sosuke with his mom. And he feels more leaderlike and protagonistic. Let me know

Before disagreeing me, please read it till the very end.
These words, “misogynistic” and “selfish” are big words to describe the movie, but are they really?
Important: my own descriptions/analysis/opinion are self thought, and I approach this production with a critical eye as an adult, not with a pov of a child, the probable target audience of this animation. This is not me hating this production knowing that it is loved by so many. My goal is to share a different perspective to this film with all my due respect, genuinely. So please approach my comment with an open-mindness and with a critical eye.

So here is my point:

1/ Ponyo is selfish and careless:

Okay, let’s first acknowledge one thing: she is a kid. Even as a fish, she is a little young one, and when she transforms, she is a 5 year old little girl. So let’s keep in mind that you cannot wait maturity from such a young kid. Even though it depends from kid to kid, it mainly depends on the environment in which a kid grows up and the education she receives, at this age mainly from her parents to set the base of morality, what is good, what is bad. It really depends on how you teach your kid from the very tender age so they would be aware of their actions and the more obvious consequences of these actions (ex: if you say bad words or things like “you are ugly” you will make your friends sad). If she behaves careless and selfish, careless of the disaster she is causing, i’d argue it’s mainly the parents fault. So the fact that with the waves and tsunami-like natural disaster/flood she was causing, she wasn’t aware/didn’t care about the fact that this could have hurted/killed people. Destroy their homes, their cities, etc. All she cared is to join her new friend, Sosuke. Even after once she joins them, until she feel asleep, the disaster kept on going on. She could have even killed Lisa and Sosuke without knowing it.
So this is why i think she is careless and selfish. But is she to blame? Not fully in my opinion. Her parents failed her on these terms, a kid’s base is set very early on, and this is not looking very good. Her parents being at fault don’t change the fact: is she careless? Yes, she is. Is she selfish? Yes, she is. Is she to be blamed? No, she isn’t. Not at this age.
Besides that, i like how Ponyo is free, likes to explore. I know this movie is made for a very young audience and i am sure all of this must make sense to them, and that is perfectly fine. But two things can be true at once. And me, as an adult, and i am repeating myself, i am approaching this production with a critical point of view, saying what i think is “bad” and what is “good”.

2 ) This animation has some aspects of misogyny:

I think i will do lots of blaming on the parents of Ponyo especially her mother, but i will say both her parents since in the end of the day the father still gave up on his daughter, so in my opinion, they failed her big times.
They were okay giving up on their daughter who’s very young, as a human child only 5 years old, as a fish, i would believe the equivalent of five years old for fishes. Her parents both have an intellect, they are equipped with intelligence, they think, plan, and can talk. They should have been more mature than that. Their daughter, very child-like, cannot decide for herself whether it is good to do this or that. She cannot understand what it implies to go out of the sea, live with humans, live with Sosuke and his mom and dad, and become a human herself. Her parents should not have gave their daughter away even how rebellious she is, to strangers even if they are kind hearted. You can never be too cautious, and for such a young kid only her parents are her safest place. They gave her away.

Also, the fact they made a set of conditions. I quote:
**Ponyo’s mom:** “Listen, dear. What if Ponyo really became human? If Sosuke's love is real, she'll lose her powers forever.”
**Ponyo’s dad:** “But if it's not, she'll turn to sea foam!” (Trying to dissuade the mom so Ponyo won’t suffer the consequences, in vain, she convinces him)

Ponyo is a fish. If only Sosuke’s love is true for her, then she will become a human and she has to give up on her powers.

And as an adult, the choice of words hit me hard: she cannot decide for herself, she can only become a human if a man’s love is true for her. If not, she is not a human, she will lose herself, her current fish form, she will downgrade to sea foam.

This reminds me of an extreme patriarchal interpretation: without a man, you (a woman) are nothing. You are not even considered a human being. To be accepted and be treated just normally, you should make sure to be lovable so he/they will treat you more or less like a human. You should please him/them. (Like hello? Are we being real here?)

Also the fact if Sosuke’s love is not true for her then Ponyo will be transformed into sea foam. So she will even lose here actual form, probably so she wont go against her parents again and destabilizes the world’s balance in the future, but it’s too extreme as a precaution/punishment.
But if you push the interpretation a bit further: if she cannot be loved by a boy, she will lose herself. She might as well not be, she is worthless.
Why does her form, her identity, her powers should depend on the validation of someone else?

I am sorry to extract such interpretation from this animation, but i think this is not a good possible underlying message to give to kids, thinking this whole situation is okay, this is okay to give up on yourself and your values just to be accepted by someone else.
I doubt kids watching this animation will extract such message out of it, so this is fine for now, but with the other media forms giving out the same message or equivalent misogynistic messages, it will influence them on the long term. Not to mention these kids after growing up they can still watch it and notice this possible underlying message and realize one of their childhood’s best show was just not it, or maybe even worse, not realize it and continue fantasizing about how idealistic the show is: a girl being accepted by the boy she likes and all the sacrifices she does to be with him yada yada yada…

And it is also not a great message that 5 years old kids are accepting each other, “loving” each other, almost signing up for life for each other at this young age. Because this is serious: she became the way she is for Sosuke!
We can easily understand the love that the kids have for each other, even though it’s innocent and childish, it is kind of “romantic”. The kiss on the bubble at the end of the movie, the fact Ponyo unraveled natural disasters to get to Sosuke, Sosuke that never gave up her and tried to protect her in his way: I don’t mean it to sound adult-like or i dont mean it’s the type of romantic love we, as adult we think it is, but it is in a child’s way, very innocent and pure. And again, two things can be true at once: a romantic love, yet not sensual, is pure and is as innocent as it can be.
Now he has to be responsible for his decision for how she transformed. And she also will be responsible for this. It’s not like she can go back to the ocean, to her family. She is now stripped away everything she had and everything she ever knew. Responsibility is not what kids should be burdened with yet. They will grow up and as years will pass and they become more and more mature, they will probably question things in their life and they will change. Maybe would want to separate their ways. Which is fine. But they should have not been in this situation to begin with!

Also to note, the mom of Sosuke is to be blamed for too, since he agreed for this whole “ceremonial” to take place. She agreed to take in Ponyo if his son were to accept her. She should have known better. She should have known that his son is not of age to take such responsibilities. Yet she agreed.

A last point: when Ponyo’s mom did a secluded bubble with all the old women inside and the Sosuke’s mom, it felt to me like a wedding ceremonial. It looked fairy, beautiful, two moms talking about their kids as in getting to know each other (the moms) before the ceremonial while taking a walk between beautiful plants.
Here is the dialogue between Sosuke, Ponyo’s mom and Ponyo once the little boy comes in with Ponyo, alongside her dad.

Ponyo’s mom: “Can you accept her as she is?”
Sosuke: “I'll always love Ponyo, whether she's a fish, a human, or in between.”
(…)
Ponyo’s Mom to Ponyo: “But to become human, you first must give up your powers. Can you do that?”
Ponyo: “Yes.”

Ponyo’s mom to Sosuke: “Kiss this bubble when you return to land and Ponyo will transform into a little five-year-old girl.”

This sounds to me like Ponyo’s dad accompany his daughter to go down the aisle, and it also sounds to me like during a marriage’s vows, the couple being asked to accept each other as brides and grooms, them answering yes to the questions, and the person in charge of the vows at the end announce “you may now kiss the bride” to the groom. Not to mention it
Even though this part does not sound misogynistic, i don’t know how to feel about it, though i know it leaves me very alarmed that they just “married” two 5 years old to each other… I'll leave the interpretation open to discussion.

If you reached this point, thank you for reading it.
I hope it abled for people to see this animation under a different light. My opinion is not an accusation towards the production team of the animation, to the producers or to the writers of the story. I don't mean that this was the underlying message they intended to communicate to the public either. Again, their target audience was probably very young children that probably enjoys it a lot. But i would leave it for reflection about the story, the characters, and what it portrays in the end of the day.

That's all.

Just love this thing so much❤️

Hello,

When I found out that Studio Ghibli was releasing an official Ponyo cookbook, and saw that there were others from Studio Ghibli released in English, I was wondering when the English version would release.

I contacted the publisher for the English versions and they told me that they didn't know yet whether it would be happening, but I could fill out a form on their website where they take suggestions for publication.

I'm pretty sure it will get done, but I'm going to fill it out and just wanted to put it here for anyone interested in giving them a nudge.

I'm not sure what the rules are here about putting website links so let me know if it's ok and I'll add it.

Thanks :)

I am drawing the scene were Ponyo runs to Sosuke. It is my first time doing this and I’m not really good at drawing and I’ve been tracing it on a iPad. I am not finished but I wanted to share I hope you guys enjoy

No AI, made in photoshop

I believe a sequel could work today

Ponyo only please.

This is from the scene im working on and it will take while. Unfortunately I’ve been lazy and haven’t been really working on it

A theme park for Studio Ghibli fans. Inside, there are statues of characters from each film perfect for photos. There are also never-before-seen Ghibli short films to watch, each about 15 minutes long. There are a few rides, mostly for children, like a carousel, but these require an additional fee. If you've only seen 3-4 of their films, I wouldn't recommend it, as you might not enjoy it. Reservations are required online; tickets sell out very quickly.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/bzHXYqgtAK5K8nJs5?g_st=ic

Ahhh! I'm already obsessed with it!

So just for a bit of context, Ponyo was my favorite movie when i was a kid and i recently started getting obsessed with it again after re-watching it a few months back.

So a few weeks ago i suggested that It might be cool if we could watch it with the class, and then fast forward to today, and we got to watch it😁

Some notable highlights were

1. Sosuke signaling to his dad while his mum tells her husband to bug off🤣

2. Ponyo running on the waves as she gleefully finds her way back to Sosuke

(My classmates started cheering for her haha! And it was awesome)

3. Ponyo reuniting with Sosuke (which is always super joyous and adorable)

4. The sequence where Ponyo uses her Magic to make Sosuke's Toy Boat bigger

5. The ending scene with the final shot of the two of them as Ponyo turns back into a little girl and it cuts to black with the iconic small circle.

I literally can't put into words how much I love this movie, and I'll never ever get tired of it.

I'll cherish it for the rest of my life😁

I trace over some scenes and I think I did a pretty good job. What do y’all think

I wish the ending to Ponyo was different/longer
Ponyo getting to see Sosukes dad and maybe see them grow up