The Mysterious Personal Greatness of 2/22

For three blog-a-thons, my own Ghiblog-a-Thon and the Action Heroine Blog-a-Thon, for which this is the second post for. And as of 7/8/07, I have moved this up from the bowels of the archive to present to you the two performances that can be called "personally life-changing" for a very, very late entry to the Marvelous Wolf Girl's Blog-a-Thon, which was very successful. Forgive me?

PART I * PART III

The Mysterious Personal Greatness of February 22nd
A Tale of Two Heroines
by J.D. Judge

February 22nd. It doesn't seem like an all-important day, does it? Well, it is to me, and I didn't realize it till now.

On February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst were put on trial for their activities in the White Rose, which was a passive anti-Nazi group of Munich university students. They were later in the day found guilty of treason and executed.

Why is this important? I believe the question is 'How isn't this important?'

Sophie became a worldwide symbol of German pride and anti-oppression, and their actions have been emulated and admired, and her grave site is a German national landmark. And of course there's the personal filmic importance.

Julia Jentsch's undeniably powerful and perfect portrayal of her in Sophie Scholl: The Final Days has brought to me a new meaning of "jawdropping". A performance I have said is very good, which might be the understatement of the century. You say frontrunner, I say "BLOCKBUSTER!!" Really, if anything ever, see this film.

On February 22, 2005, we as Americans redeemed ourselves to Japanese animation for a monstrous thing we did when Disney released the complete and uncut dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind on DVD.

Why is this important? Because this was my true Miyazaki awakening.

I received this as a gift for my 12th birthday after "hinting" it to my friend after seeing the commercial for it and other Ghibli films on whatever Disney DVD I did. I absolutely fell in love with it, and it's certainly one of my favorite films. And my love for it is so high, it could be the best Miyazaki I've seen just by habit. But still, saying which is best is literally the hardest thing I know I have to do, one day.

But it is also and mainly Alison Lohman's tender and perfect dub as Nausicaä that makes me love it so. I hold it as the best dub of all the dubs, I do! [thunder clashes] But it is true. Some moments of overt violence, some of silent observance, some of fearless happiness. She saves, she loses, she can even recognize her own importance without even realizing it. She is a great human being, the ultimate Miyazaki heroine.

So, in short, February 22nd, along with November 5th, is a date that is of cinematic and historical importance to me, but it should be to all. And yes, somehow a date in the dead of winter has something to do with action heroines. One may not be "action" per se, but she is still the epitome of a true hero. And she didn't even have to kill anyone. Nausicaä did, but she's a Jesus allegory, so it's forgivable, right?