Name(s): On Your Mark CHAGE & ASKA / ジブリ実験劇場 / Jiburi Jikkengekijō On Yua Māku
Format: Music Video
Studio(s): Studio Ghibli

On Your Mark is a Miyazaki-directed Ghibli music video made for Chage & Aska’s song of the same name. Miyazaki created this unusual side-project to escape from writer’s block, and bafflingly interpreted the generic love song’s lyrics into the story of the short movie. As you would guess, On Your Mark is a six-minute heartwarming tale of a dystopian future where two police members raid a technologically advanced city laboratory and find a mutant angel girl and make a mission to set her free. Why not.

It’s a fairly chaotic mixture when compared to Ghibli’s usual takes on traditional fairy tales or coming-of-age dramas, but for that exact reason, it roped me in easily with its fantastical aesthetics. I’m very disappointed that out of this studio’s numerous projects, that this concept wasn’t made into a full-length feature. I find it potentially more interesting than almost anything they’ve done. Its inability to compare to the depth of detail of Ghibli’s full-length movies end up crushing that advantage, but it’s still an impressive effort for its scope.

The backgrounds of the futuristic city, for example, contain so much minute details that the entry shot feels absolutely massive. This overwhelmingly large breadth of the setting continues in other areas as well, such as the outside of the police’s city, and the geography’s vast plains. The emotional impact this short movie is going for doesn’t fully gel together, since the lyrics are only vaguely related and otherwise only have the basic conveyances of characters’ feelings. This is something I would recommend watching to be swept away in the spectacle and not much else, but those visuals do go beyond just being pretty, and have some slightly fascinating implications. A surprisingly inspired short, and I would’ve loved more of the same inspiration.