ANI-MOVIES, *Windaria

Windaria might be known to some older American otaku as Once Upon A Time which was released on VHS and DVD originally through Harmony Gold, the same company that put out three separate anime TV shows in English under the title Robotech. The infamous Carl Macek was behind the American transfer of the film which had to remove several minutes worth of footage to make it compatible for younger viewers, as well as having the entire script rewritten because Harmony Gold was given no scripts from the original Japanese production. In fact, there are several scenes with violence and nudity that were edited out, and the film had a happier ending glued on to it, plus an added narration done by Russell Johnson, aka: Professor from Gilligan's Island. Based on the novel by Ultraman author Keisuke Fujikawa who also adapted the script, Windaria was a 1986 film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama who went on to work on anime such as Pokemon and Slayers. The movie might seem to borrow quite a little from some of Hayao Miyazaki earlier works like Laputa and Nausicaa, however the truth is that this anime came out at the same time as both of those films which just happened to have a dieselpunk theme to them with a hint of fantasy/adventure thrown in.

The small farming community of Saki lies near a huge old tree called Windaria which lies in between the nations of Itha and Paro who for some reason after a century of peace decide to go to war. Getting caught in the middle of this is Windaria resident Izu ends up becoming a turncoat between both factions all while he ignores the love of his sweetheart Marin. Itha's Prince Jill and Paro's Princess Ahnas have been carrying on a secret romance together and hoped to create a union for both countries, but the greedy plans of their tyrannical parents force them into becoming enemies resulting in each of their deaths. Paro ends up being the victor in the war after having Itha flooded by their own aqueduct sabotaged by Izu who becomes drunk on the reward he received and totally forgets about Marin until the queen tries to have him killed for overstaying his welcome. Paro heads back home only to find that nearly everyone there has died including Marin, although her ghost appears just before she ascends to a flying ship that collects departed souls with Paro claiming he'll become the captain of the ghost ship after the current one's tern is up in a few months.

Windaria was director Kunihiko Yuyama's next film he worked on after the trippy Time Stranger, so going from one story that celebrates life through time loops to another that displays how everyone is susceptible to corruption in a fairy tale themed setting shows how diverse Yuyama is as a director. The original full-length version of Windaria has never been officially released in America and has only been put on VHS by Streamline Pictures and later on DVD by ADV Films, so you're really missing out on the superior version unless you can get a copy of the imported laser disc with subtitles as Once Upon A Time is just a pale shadow of the true edition.