The unbridled innocence of Miyazaki's early animated series, evidence from Heidi and Conan

 We were watching Heidi at Brookline yesterday, I came across the German version of the theme song, couldn't stop listening to it at all, so many feels so so many goddamn feels I felt like crying. The song is an encapsulation of what I think the life of a pastoral girl in the Alps at that timeframe would be, free from the burden of responsibility, but also full of worries of the small things. Like what her lamb was upto and whether the little yellow tweety bird would like to see the world.

Heidi is a sad show, in how we know Heidi's wide-eyed innocence and optimism towards the world is only going to be crushed against the grimy gritty reality of the everyday existence. But Miyazaki makes an effort to show that Heidi despite being barely seven is stronger, she may be naive but she's no fool and she's going to press on and on and on, until she casts the world in her own shape, the good-natured kind-hearted rosy-cheeked little girl who melted the heart of her gruff grandpa.

Why do I feel sad why does that make me feel cry. It's the innocence of youth that I miss, my own, but also the realization that it's not the world that has changed really it's my choice of looking at it that's evolved. I could still be Heidi if I shut down my inner editor but alas it has become too strong, crossing out the hopeful pages and proposals and replacing them with grim presentations of what it is to live. Heidi is a goddamn queen.

We got to talking about Conan Boy of the Future which I also watched as a child on Animax, that animation channel they had in Nepal for them glorious years. I was so lucky to have been able to access it. Conan's outlook on life is similar to Heidi's, but his circumstances are much much more depressing. The world as we know it has ended, it's unclear if humanity is even going to make it and the only person who brought up the young orphan boy, the only other person he knew in existence, has just passed away. He is the only human being in existence, he thinks.

And yet, that's not the end of the story. That's where our tale of courage and kindness and optimism and innocence begins. The world may be dark, evil, awful the adults may even destroy this beautiful planet, but that's no reason to look for beauty, that's not why we should turn evil ourselves, Miyazaki tells us. Look at the pretty flours, the carefree birds, the bright blue ocean, appreciate the nature, appreciate life. Get along with your fellow beings, don't give up hope. Everything is not lost. Nothing is lost, as long as you keep on living and living and living, and empowering others to live as well. Make this existence one heck of a life, so that in the end it doesn't matter if it's just you or ten billion others like you, you'll have lived a bang of a life.