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This is a movie that very much mirrors the experience I have when I read Goethe's Faust; a movie that requires an indepth knowledge of classic art and literature if you want to make sense of it all as just like with Faust the second part goes off the deep end into a very clandestine mix of several layers of symbolism and references to all kinds of classical works.

I expected all the wild references to Symbolism, Impressionism and a romantic Naturalism of the first half after the starting minutes that reminded me a bit of Cezanne, with the heron giving me some ETA Hoffmann vibes. ... However, I did not expect Miyazaki's wild multiverse isekai ride with monarchist (or proto fascist?) cannibal budgies in the second half. The entire Island of the Dead bit was a reference to Böcklin's famous 19th century painting and sure enough, there were allusions to Dali later. Also a good chunk of Dante's Divine Comedy and it makes sense, really: The main themes of life and death and the main question of how you want to live your life while coping with death are the main topics and the movie is obviously a big introspective about it as it's mainly Miyazaki asking himself those questions.

This movie filters a lot of people who lack this knowledge and I am also not sure if the vast layers of symbolism in the second half successfully merge into a cohesive whole - this requires more viewings and I only saw this movie in cinema yesterday. Miyazaki's portrayal of the war (or rather: lack thereof) in the movie might draw some criticism as well given that the perpetually underrated Porco Rosso was released over a quarter century ago, but this was not the main focus here - I understand the sentiment, though. However, it is def. a very ambitious and interesting movie and while I can understand how people might view it as pretentious; I am glad its not as "basic" as The Wind Rises. It's a good work to round out the oeuvre of one of the most prolific anime directors.