Miyazaki's Porco Rosso is out now on DVD
Back in the mid-'90s I used to read a magazine called Super Play. If you don't know it, it was an unofficial magazine for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; for those who do, I'm sure you remember it fondly. You see, what was different and special about Super Play was its focus on 'grey market' Japanese import games, which went hand in hand with regular reports on other facets of Japanese pop culture like manga and anime -- those alluring alien ideas that made each issue compulsive reading for me. I was never a big gamer, but the likes of Super Play, and the irreplaceable Digitiser on Teletext, made me feel like a part of the greater gaming world, appreciating my interest regardless of my lack of skill (and boy, was my skill lacking!) and neither was afraid to step away from the console for a while. It was in Super Play that I first read about Porco Rosso, in a context where it wasn't too weird to discuss a cartoon about a pig flying a warplane. I still miss Super Play. #link