History Anime / TheWindRises

His company is struggling to gain a military contract in the midst of a stagnant economy, and they pin their hopes on Jiro's newest project. In the midst of this crisis he is reunited with Naoko, and learns that she has contracted tuberculosis and doesn't expect to live much longer. They beg for her father's permission for a hurried marriage and she joins him in Kyoto, despite the risks to her health. In the end, he completes the design he'd been dreaming of for years, but the test-flight that should be the greatest moment of his life is marred by tragedy.

* CharacterEstablishingMoment: In the MinorKidroduction Jiro sees a GangOfBullies harrassing a jounger pupil, he rushes in to save the youngster. It establishes the hero as a NiceGuy.* ClassifiedInformation: Naoko and Jiro are frustrated by the refusal of the German government to share any useful technological information. The secret police even try to stop them looking inside the Junkers G.38 ''which their government has been allowed to produce under license'' until [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Hugo Junkers himself gives his approval]].

* CueTheRain: It pours after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_1MF 1MF2]] crashes in front of the inspecting military officials, ending all hopes for Mitsubishi to secure a contract with the military, who opted for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_A1N one of its rivals]] instead. During the scene, both Jiro and Kurokawa are soaked in the rain as the latter examined the wreckage.

** The scenes at the sanitorium are quite accurate to the period the movie is set in. In the early 20th century, it was thought that high altitudes and fresh air helped fight tuberculosis infections, so sanitoriums were typically built in the mountains and patients were often kept outside, weather permitting. While those turned out to be mistaken beliefs, there was a a third reason for the treatment that did actually wind up being true: doctors of the day believed (correctly, as it would later be found out) that tuberculosis died when exposed to the sun. It turns out ultraviolet light (including sunlight) is an effective germicide and, for TB specifically, helps reduce the spread of the disease by up to 70%.

* SkewedPriorities: After being smuggled out of the factory, Jiro wants to return to his apartment, where the SecretPolice will undoubtedly be waiting for him, because he wants to remove his love letters from Naoko, as he doesn't like the idea of the police reading them. Everyone else just laughs their head off at the idea that [[MarriedToTheJob Jiro]] has a LoveInterest in the first place.

* TakeThat: The military are seen pretty much only as identical lunkheads whose talents lie in making loud noises and getting in the way of making planes. (But [[MoneyDearBoy they're the only ones buying cutting-edge planes.]])

* ClassifiedInformation: Naoko and Jiro are frustrated by the refusal of the German government to share any useful technological information. The secret police even try to stop them looking inside the Junkers G.38 ''which their government has been allowed to produce under license'' until [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Hugo Junkers himself gives his approval]].

* ManlyTears: Kurokawa, during the wedding ceremony.

* SecretPolice: These cause difficulties for Jiro in both Germany and Japan. It's implied Castrop has to go on the run and Jiro comes under suspicion simply for having talked to him. Fortunately Jiro's superiors protect him until the heat dies down.

* GrandFinale: As the next film, ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'', was released in North America by GKIDS (who would eventually acquire all of Studio Ghibli's film and home media licenses), ''The Wind Rises'' serves as the last Ghibli film to be distributed by Creator/{{Disney}}.

* AloofBigBrother: Jiro often breaks promises to spend time with his sister to study aviation and later to work on his planes.

* BadassBookworm: Even as a kid, Jiro is quite a bookworm, eager to read a foreign language aviation magazine. Furthermore, when he confronts some bullies, he neatly throws one over with a judo throw, and the scene immediately cuts to him with only a smug look on his face, suggesting he handled the rest of the fight with little difficulty.

* CaptainErsatz: At Jiro's new job at an aeronautic factory, his grumpy superior, Kurokawa, looks nothing less than a Japanese version of Gilbert Huph in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', albeit with a better professional attitude.

* CompositeCharacter: If you consider RealLife to be the source material of this, then Jiro Horikoshi is one, with elements from Jiro Horikoshi the aircraft designer, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsuo_Hori Tatsuo Hori]] the chain-smoking novelist [[spoiler:with a fiancée who died from TB]], and Miyazaki's father, the owner of a factory that manufactured parts for the Zero fighter. Miyazaki's mother also suffered from TB.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Kurokawa, Jiro's senior/superior in the aircraft company. While he is harsh and seemingly negative most of the time he also tries his best to protect Jiro from the SecretPolice, offers him (and later, his wife Naoko) a place to live, and serves as witness at their impromptu wedding. He also gives Jiro credit where it is due, as shown by him saying Jiro's self-held engineering seminar was "a revelation" despite his face looking angry as usual, and advises Jiro to avoid situations where he would be in competition with Honjo, as friendship is always more important.
** Jiro's sister likewise acts like she's permanently annoyed with him, but she cares about her brother and especially Naoko.

* TheNapoleon: Kurokawa. He is short in stature and often short in temper.
* NiceGuy: Naoko and Jiro are very sweet people.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Despite being a short-tempered boss, Kurokawa has a very reasonable judgment and is willing to listen to Jiro on his thoughts about the various projects Mitsubishi is working on.

** ''Kamikaze'' means "divine wind."

* CatapultNightmare: Averted. No matter how disturbing, freakish, surreal, or trope-teasing his dreams get, Jiro never even raises his head until a few seconds ''after'' he opens his eyes.

* CompleteTheQuoteTitle: The title, and by extention, the ArcWords come from a line in the French poem ''[[https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Cimetière_marin Le Cimetière marin]]'' "Le vent se lève !... Il faut tenter de vivre !". The poem is often quoted over the movie.

* FourthDateMarriage: Kurokawa refuses to allow an unmarriaged couple to cohabit under his roof, so the response of Jiro and Naoko is to get married there and then. Kurokawa reluctantly agrees, but quietly urges Jiro to send her back to the sanitorium. He refuses as he knows their time together will be short and wants to spend as much time as he can with her.

* BadassBookworm: Even as a kid, Jiro was quite a bookworm, eager to read a foreign language aviation magazine. Furthermore, when he confronted some bullies, he neatly throws one over with a judo throw and the scene immediately cuts to him with only a smug look on his face, suggesting he handled the rest of the fight with little difficulty.

* CallForward: The designer of the "Nell" bomber says that it doesn't have enough shielding and after "two or three hits" it will "burn like a torch". This discussion is accompanied by a brief FlashForward scene in which exactly that is happening when American fighters swoop down on a formation of Nell bombers.[[note]]The film does not really touch on it but this is what happened to the Zero as well later in the war. Once the Americans built fighters that were just as fast and nimble as the Zero but better armored, the Zero had no chance.[[/note]]

** Jiro's friend and colleague, Honjo, is heavily implied to be based on Kiro Honjo, another Mitsubishi engineer that designed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_G1M G1M]] reconnaissance aircraft and its bomber variant, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_G3M G3M "Nell"]].

* HollywoodToneDeaf: Averted. When Jiro, Saotome, and the German gentleman are singing the German song "Das gibt's nur einmal" together, they are all realistically off-key.

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: [[spoiler:Naoko.]]

* ProductPlacement: Jiro and Honjo work at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plant. Mitsubishi was also involved in every Studio Ghibli film as a member of its production committee since ''Anime/SpiritedAway''.

* SkewedPriorities: After being smuggled out of the factory, Jiro wants to return to his apartment, where the SecretPolice will undoubtedly be waiting for him, because he wants to remove his love letters from Naoko as he doesn't like the idea of the police reading them. Everyone else just laughs their head off at the idea that [[MarriedToTheJob Jiro]] has a LoveInterest in the first place.

* SmokingIsCool: Almost verging on ProductPlacement. Though certainly accurate for the time period.[[note]]Jiro's cigarette brand when he offers one to Castrop, was an actual brand called ''Sakura'' (meaning "Cherry-Blossom"), in packs which really were labeled as ''Cherry'' in English, as shown in the film. Almost verges on CreatorCameo also, as that was the brand Miyazaki himself smoked for a long time.[[/note]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: While Jiro Horikoshi actually existed in RealLife, and he did design the aircraft shown in the movie, his LoveInterest is fictional. He had an older brother instead of a younger sister, and was a non-smoker in real life despite his frequent smoking in the movie. Honjo graduated ahead of Horikoshi from Tokyo Imperial University. Much of the portrayal of Jiro Horikoshi, especially in regard to his personal life, is based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsuo_Hori Tatsuo Hori]] instead, to whom the movie is dedicated as well. Two of Tatsuo Hori's novels, ''Kaze Tachinu'' and ''Naoko'' are major inspirations for the film according to WordOfGod. There are also elements of Miyazaki's father, Katsuji, in Jiro. Miyazaki Sr. was an aeronautical engineer in the era and [[spoiler:his wife had TB]]. Finally, Horikoshi continued his aeronautical engineering career after the war being on the design team for the 1962 NAMC YS-11, a civilian transport plane. It was supposed to show off Japanese technological prowess for the 1964 Olympics carrying the torch but that honor ultimately went to the Shinkansen and the YS-11 went into service just as the jetliners were beginning to kill civilians prop planes.