click to see more sample pages

This is a series of manga (or rather, "Graphic Essays") which Miyazaki has been (very) sporadically writing in a Japanese scale model magazine, Model Graphix.

They are totally independent manga stories, mecha ideas, or movie ideas about tanks, planes, or battleships from the era before World War II - the "favorites" of Miyazaki.

The book Miyazaki Hayao no Zassou nouto contains 13 episodes in total.  They are:

1. Shirarezaru Kyojin no Mattei (The Unknown Youngest Brother of the Giants)
   A king of a Vulcan country orders the construction of a huge airplane.

2. Koutetsu no Ikuji (The Pride of Steel)
   A story about the Monitor and the Merrimack, two ironclad ships of the American Civil War.

3. Tahoutou no Deban (Enter the Multigun Tower)
   A pig creates a huge tank and kidnaps a girl. Her boyfriend comes after them, and he and the girl finally destroy the tank. Miyazaki wanted to make an anime out of this. He even said, "I want to make the tank go at full speed with 'Country Road' as BGM" (!) There was a plan to make it into an OAV, but the project never materialized.

4. Noufu no Me (The Eyes of a Farmer)
   Based on Andre Malreaux's semi-autobiographical novel "L'Espoir", this is a story about a farmer who finds an enemy base during the Spanish Civil War. It features a Potez 540 bomber.

5. Ryuu no Koutetsu (Steel of the Dragon)
   A story about Teien and Chinen, Chinese battelships in the China-Japan War of 1905.

6. Kyuushuu Joukuu no Juugousakuki (The Heavy Bomber over Kyuushu)
   A story about a Chinese heavy bomber (Martin 139W) which flew to Kyuushuu in Japan to conduct a night "air raid". Instead of bombs, it dropped fliers to calling for peace.

7. Koushahoutou (The Antiaircraft Guntower)
   A story about a huge antiaircraft guntower in Germany and the many Allied air force attempts to remove it.

8. Q ship
   A story about a "Q Ship" during World War I. "Q Ship" was an English battleship which disguised itself as a civilian ship by putting sails on its radio mast to fight against German U-boats, who were fooled to take it as their easy target.

9. Anshoumaru Monogatari (The story of Anshoumaru)
   A story about Anshoumaru, a Japanese make-shift aircraft carrier.

10. London Joukuu 1918 nen (Over London, 1918)
    A story about the German air raid of London.

11. Saihin Zensen (The Poorest Front)
    A story about a Japanese fishboat Kissyoumaru and her crew, who were commandeered by the Japanese Navy.

12. Hikoutei Jidai (The Age of the Flying Boat)
    The manga "Porco Rosso" is based on.

13. Buta to Tora (A pig and the Tiger)
    A story about Hans, a German mechanic and a Tiger tank.

• Model Graphix, a Japanese scale model magazine, from 1984 (November issue) to 1990 (May issue).

• "Miyazaki Hayao no Zassou nouto"
  (Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes)
  1997, Dainippon Kaiga, ISBN4-499-22677-5
  2800yen, 128pages
  
  It compiles 13 episodes from the series, including "Hikoutei Jidai" ("Porco Rosso"), but not "Hans no kikan" ("Return of Hans"), published in Model Graphix in the issues of March, April, and October of 1994.
  
  Click here to see a cover scan.

There is also an old version of it (cover illustrated above):

• "Miyazaki Hayao no Zassou nouto"
  (Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes)
  1992, Dainippon Kaiga, ISBN4-499-20602-2
  2233yen
  
  This version does not have "Hikoutei Jidai" ("Porco Rosso"), nor "Hans no kikan" ("Return of Hans").

None.

• Radio Drama: Aired on Nippon Housou in 1995.  Available as CDs.

• CDs: See the CD list
  There are 12 CDs in total, but the CD list is missing some of them.

Back to Hikoutei Jidai

[ Back To Manga ]

On to Hansu no kikan