What was the purpose behind the personification of certain elements in The Wind Rises?


In _The Wind Rises_ , certain elements of the story are personified. From the
beginning, we see an earthquake and fire, both of which are given very
humanlike sounds, as well as being shown very artistically (like the ground
moving in waves instead of just shaking). Later, the planes in the movie are
personified as well, their components and demonstrations being given very
humanesque and biological sounds.

[![A shot of Jiro and Honto inside an in-flight
plane](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xbltS.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xbltS.png)

As Jiro and Honjo look around a plane in flight, an engine makes very gurgly
sounds which are distinctly biological and not mechanical. Other planes do
this as well, even in a scene which shows one of Jiro's designs as a
conceptualization.

Obviously, the movie is very plane-centric and so the personification of the
planes makes sense (to bring them to life). However, these other lifelike
elements did not seem to fit into the more serious setting of this movie,
compared to a movie like _Ponyo_.

What is the purpose of bringing these elements "to life" in _The Wind Rises_?
And why was it these elements that were chosen?




The following is more an interpretation of the film, rather than a solid
source of undeniable truth. Because of this, there is unfortunately a lack of
sources.

I believe Hayao Miyazaki could have insisted on this feature. @krazer's
comment on your questions backs this up:

> Geoffrey Wexler, Studio Ghibli's "Chief Gaijin" who represented the company
> at the screening at the Toronto International Film Festival [...] answered
> an interesting fact about the sound production. He said Miyazaki wanted to
> do all the sound effects himself, but the staff denied him because he’s
> already too busy with all the other duties so someone else had to do it all.
>
> He also let it be known that the movie has Mono sound, which apparently no
> one ever believes but that's another thing Miyazaki wanted and won out on.

Miyazaki mentions in an interview that he has always wanted to make an anime
about planes - and being his last movie before retirement, this was probably a
very personal film.

Miyazaki is a plane fanatic, although not a plane otaku, as he emphasizes in
the documentary _Kingdom of Dreams and Madness_. In the documentary, you can
see him [playing with a model plane](https://youtu.be/QRMHrlxJRxc?t=80) and
making up his own sound effects. His autobiographies _Starting Point_ and
_Turning Point_ feature planes as a secondary interest to anime too.

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/u2qux.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/u2qux.png)

I imagine Miyazaki wanted to create _The Wind Rises_ with a certain element of
nostaliga and insight into the appeal of aeroplanes for himself, and other
plane fans.

The film is somewhat about the beauty of planes and their unfortunate setting.
Caproni appears in Jiro's dreams speaking of their wonder, despite humanity's
ill use of them.

In this vein, I think Miyazaki wanted to show audiences the _spluttering_ s,
_whirring_ s and _ka-put_ s that make the machines beautiful for him, even if
they didn't sit right with the tone of the film.

