1992 brought us the sixth (or seventh if you count Nausicaa) Ghibli film, Porco Rosso, again from the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki, based on a three-part manga he'd produced earlier (and which may have inspired Disney's TaleSpin).
The film takes place after World War I and follows Italian pilot Marco Rossolini, who has somehow been cursed to have the head of a pig, getting him the nickname "Porco Rosso."
Porco is seen as a hero by many local groups, but the air pirates frankly hate him. As for himself, he wants to just live his life, fly and work. He's accepted that he's a pig and is sure he'll probably be that way the rest of his life. However, his childhood friend Gina is friendly to him and hopes that one day, he can break the curse.
When the Italian Fascist party puts out a warrant for his arrest, Porco goes to get his plane rebuilt by a mechanic who puts his granddaughter Fio to work on it. She winds up joining Porco in his rebuilt plane as he has to leave in a hurry. But soon, Porco winds up in a duel with a hotshot pilot. Who's going to win?
This was a fun adventure story, but Porco's curse brings up an element. We get to see a flashback to during the war when he saw his fellow pilots going to the afterlife, but he was left alone. It's not clear if this is when he was cursed. In fact, it's not clear how he got cursed or if he'll ever have it reversed. The fact that this isn't directly addressed is basically saying that this isn't about what Porco looks like: it's about who he is. There's one bit where he's questioning if women can do as good a job as men, being classically sexist, but the women working on his plane actually make it better than ever.
So, that was a fun ride.
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