Miyazaki: A Beautiful Mind is a Tumblr-hosted blog centered around the Studio Ghibli works of Japanese  film director, animator, manga artist, producer, and screenwriter.

Picture from Miyazaki: A Beautiful Mind

The blog is run by a 21-year-old, college junior blogger who refers to herself as Elisabeth. When I first found this blog, the creator was on a bit of a creative hiatus. On this tangent, I would like to say that I hope Elisabeth stays attached to this blog as it is one of the better Miyazaki fansites I have seen.

This blog’s GIFs of various scenes from Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Laputa are as high a quality as the description preaches. The style of art that is curated characteristically is easy to digest and safe for work. Even the layman movie viewer with little to no exposure to Miyazaki’s animated films can appreciate the classic character designs and the harmonious color layouts. The blog is fan art and original-clip heavy, so there is plenty of well-screened material to contemplate. Of course, you can browse the originals of the acclaimed animator, but there is also a plethora of talented fans who submit all sorts of tributes from traditional tablet-and-computer pictures to bold permanent-and-ink tattoos.

Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro seem to be the main focus of this blog; and I must say that I agree with this decision quite vigorously as they are my favorite three (in that order exactly!). Who can resist the charm of the female protagonists? Going back to the blog, the layout is pleasing to the eye. The water color-esque pictures of the background are tastefully arranged and dark enough to not waste too much of your precious battery. As the site is hosted by Tumblr, there are no ads–aside from Tumblr’s self promotions for those who are viewing the blog as outsiders–and links are self-explanatory. The blog is simple to navigate and informal in tone.

Older posts average at about 40 per week, but with the main contributor attending graduate school, the post flow has tapered off to about 4 in the last month. In any case, there is more than enough material to give childhood Miyazaki fans a good, hard nostalgia punch. There is not really any significant writing attached to the posts, so browsing is distraction free. However, I do recommend scrolling to the soothing piano version of “One Summer’s Day”.

The blog stays true to its theme and for that, it is rewarded with about 130 notes per post. The blog functions very well with the format it currently adopts. There is not really anything I would change about this blog other than to add pages for tags to different movies for more organized surfing. Overall, the blog does not stray at all from its mission to promote Miyazaki’s movies. This is a great job indeed.