Anime production is far from easy. Even the most basic animated sequence requires a massive team of people to spend hours drawing, coloring, and working. Because of this, making an animated film is a monumental undertaking, requiring several years of work, loads of money, and a gargantuan number of people. This is especially true for Studio Ghibli films, as the studio goes above and beyond with its projects, pushing the envelope by giving viewers unique stories, beautiful soundtracks, and sumptuous animation. However, as one Studio Ghibli film shows, this effort isn't always rewarded during awards season.

. Directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki, the film is loosely based on Miyazaki's 2009 manga of the same name. The film is a highly fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, an aeronautical engineer who helped design several of Japan's most well-known warplanes, including the A6M Zero, Mitsubishi J2M Raiden, Mitsubishi A7M Reppu, and the NAMC YS-11.

The film starts in 1918, following Jiro Horikoshi as he discovers his dreams of being a pilot will never come true as he is too nearsighted to fly. However, Horikoshi starts to have recurring dreams about flying with Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, who tells him that building planes is better than merely flying them. This conversation motivates Jiro to study aeronautics, which leads to him enrolling at Tokyo Imperial University.

While traveling to university, Jiro meets Nahoko Satomi and her maid Kinu. Their happy meeting is short-lived. This devastating Earthquake (which ranked between 7.9 and 8.2 on the moment magnitude scale) causes massive destruction, forcing everyone to flee for their lives. In the resulting chaos, Kinu breaks her leg. However, Jiro saves the day by carrying Kinu to safety on his back, an act that deeply moves Nahoko.​​​​​​

The Wind Rises then jumps to 1925. Jiro and his friend Kiro Honjo graduate from university and are quickly hired by Mitsubishi, who puts them on the team tasked with improving and perfecting the Mitsubishi 1MF9. However, when this project goes wrong, Jiro and Kiro are sent to Germany to obtain a production license for the Junkers G38. However, things continue to go wrong for Jiro. Later, in 1932, Jiro's plane fails a test flight and, while trying to deal with his frustration, he goes on vacation to Karuizawa.

While in Karuizawa, Jiro meets a now grown-up Nahoko and romance quickly blossoms. But the pair's joy is short-lived as Nahoko gets diagnosed with tuberculosis. While Jiro wants to marry, Nahoko says she doesn't want to marry until she's healed, something Jiro begrudgingly accepts. Despite her best efforts, Nahoko's health quickly deteriorates, as he struggles to balance his dream of flying with his desire to care for his wife.

The final scene in The Wind Rises, set after the war, sees Jiro dream of Caproni again. As the pair walk off together, Jiro expresses sadness that his plane was used for war, only for Caproni to console him by reminding him that he did achieve his dream of creating a beautiful aircraft.

The film's most famous scene comes around 20 minutes into the movie. In the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake, Jiro and Nahoko try to make their way to Nahoko's home to find someone to help them move the injured Kinu. However, this isn't easy as the streets are chaotic and full of people desperately trying to find help, shelter, or safety. The highlight of this scene . What makes this scene so impressive is the fact that everyone in the shot seems to have a purpose or be in the middle of something, giving it a palpable sense of realism.

This scene has since become a viral sensation, frequently being posted on forums and social media as an example of legendary animation. Whenever the scene gets posted online, fans often note that the four-second scene took Eiji Yamamori a year and three months to animate. Thankfully, unlike many other Studio Ghibli factoids (which tend to be exaggerations, mistranslations, or outright lies), this detail is accurate and was confirmed by the studio during a documentary.

In 2019, . Following Miyazaki across ten years, this documentary gave fans unprecedented access to the behind-the-scenes workings of Studio Ghibli. It also featured interviews where many of the studio's most prominent figures (including Miyazaki himself) broke down their movie-making process and discussed what motivated and inspired them. At the time of release, the documentary was praised for its rawness, as it showed both the ups and downs of animator life, never shying away from how tough moviemaking could be and how Miyazaki's quest for perfection often led to issues for himself and his team.

The fourth and final episode of the documentary, titled "No Cheap Excuses," features footage from 2012 and . The episode starts with the narrator explaining:

"Back in Tokyo, he sets his staff of 300 in motion on making the new film. They'll use pencil and paper to draw 15,000 shots' worth of pictures. The process will take two years."

Part of the episode is dedicated to the now-legendary crowd shot. The scene starts by showing Miyazaki working on drawings as the narrator explains that:

"The scene he devotes the most time and attention to is the one depicting the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake."

Miyazaki is then shown editing several drawings, many of which come from the scene just before the famous four-second shot. As he draws, Miyazaki critiques one of the pictures, pointing out that a woman is holding a cloth incorrectly, telling the cameras that "when carrying a cloth-wrapped item, you hold it close to you" and that someone would never let it hang like it is in the current drawing, as this would lead to the object falling out.

Miyazaki continues to mutter with frustration as the narrator explains:

"Drawing a crowd takes time and effort. So, animators generally avoid it, but not Miyazaki."

In a later scene, viewers are taken inside the Studio Ghibli screening room as the team watches various completed shots from The Wind Rises. As the crowd scene is being shown, the narrator notes:

"This shot is only four seconds long. It took the team a year and three months to complete."

However, the documentary makes it clear that the team understood this shot was a labor of love that went above and beyond what was necessary. The next scene follows Miyazaki as he walks through the office and goes to Yamamori's desk. He congratulates Yamamori on doing a good job, only for Yamamori to reply, "It was so short, though." However, as the pair share a laugh.

The Wind Rises was widely praised when it was released, with many critics and viewers drawing attention to its stunning visuals and moving moments. On top of this, it won several awards, including Outstanding Achievement for Writing in a Feature Production at the Annie Awards and Animation of the Year at the Japan Academy Film Prize. Famously, the movie was alongside Disney's Frozen, Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2, and Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner's Ernest & Celestine. Frozen walked away with the award rather than The Wind Rises, leaving many anime fans disappointed.

The Wind Rises is one of Studio Ghibli's most overlooked movies as, despite receiving praise, it failed to reach the popularity of My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away. However, those who dive into the movie will be treated to a film packed with stunning animation and heart-wrenching moments. The short but highly viral earthquake scene perfectly sums up the film, as not only does it show Studio Ghibli's unwavering urge to push animation to its limits, but it's also a deeply human moment, capturing the confusion and panic that follows a natural disaster.

While it's easy to understand why anime fans were disappointed that Frozen was given the Academy Award, it should be noted that awards ceremonies are subjective by their very nature. It often takes only a handful of votes from the eligible judges to totally upend the results, meaning that losing shouldn't be taken as an intentional snub. Plus, as 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki shows, the team didn't go into the movie hoping to win awards. They created The Wind Rises because the idea spoke to them, and every decision was made because the team felt it would enhance the final product. Nothing sums this up better than the conversation between Miyazaki and Yamamori, as when Miyazaki tells Yamamori that his effort "was worth it," there is a passion in his voice that makes it clear Miyazaki saw the scene as one of The Wind Rises' most crucial and defining moments.