Ged Senki • Tales From Earthsea

Ged Senki • Tales From Earthsea - Anime of the Week

Welcome to the weekly Anime of the Week Discussion Thread! Each week, we're here to discuss various older anime series. Today we are discussing...

https://preview.redd.it/s53zswd9wlfg1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=8720dc2df730f1e862782c8bbfc58e5fea2f77f9

Calamities are plaguing the land of Earthsea and dragons have been seen fighting above the clouds—something which has never happened before. Sparrowhawk, a powerful Archmage, sets out to uncover the mystery behind these concerning events and meets Prince Arren along the way. Arren is the fugitive heir to the Kingdom of Enlad and a seemingly quiet and distressed lad. Wandering aimlessly in an attempt to escape the dark presence haunting him, he decides to tag along Sparrowhawk on his journey.

However, their arrival in the seaside settlement of Hort Town is met with unexpected trouble—Lord Cob, a powerful evil wizard obsessed with eternal life, stands in their way. Forced to confront him, the pair joins forces with Tenar—an old friend of Sparrowhawk—and Therru, the ill-fated orphan girl she took in. But the enemy's cunning hobby of manipulating emotions may just prove to be catastrophic for the young prince.

Set in a magical world, *Ged Senki* goes beyond the classical battle between the forces of good and evil, as it explores the inner battles of the heart.

(Source: MyAnimeList)

# Databases

[AniDB](https://anidb.net/anime/4193) | | [MyAnimeList](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1829) | | [Anilist](https://anilist.co/anime/1829)

# Streams

[https://www.livechart.me/anime/3090/streams](https://www.livechart.me/anime/3090/streams)

Remember that any information not found early in the show itself is considered a spoiler. Please properly tag spoilers!

[Or else...](#yanderebot)

# Next week's anime discussion thread: Tonikawa: Over the Moon For You

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Commentaires

ghostpickleonastick2026-01-26 17:22

I remember this movie for teaching me an important lesson in life, a lesson that I think everyone must eventually learn:

Not even Ghibli is perfect.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-27 03:55

Its because the wrong Miyazaki was working on this.

ghostpickleonastick2026-01-27 04:17

Yeah, Ursula K LeGuin specifically wanted Hayao Miyazaki. I think she would have even been okay with Hidetaka Miyazaki (of FromSoftware), because at least that'd be interesting.

It's not like Goro Miyazaki is all that *bad*. At any other studio this would just be an okay movie, but the fact that it was at Ghibli and deliberately made mediocre kinda stings.

Nachtwandler_FS2026-01-27 09:57

And when Goro made Coquelot Zaka Kara / From Up the Poppy Hills it was actually good because his father wrote the script and produced it. So it is not like he is a bad director

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-27 11:55

Now I want to see Hidetaka Miyazaki make an anime. Maybe with support from Kojima? Lol.

Yeah even the visuals were kinda bland in comparison.

Just looked at the MAL profile, Goro is also almost 60 by now, damn. I really wonder what will happen to Ghibli..

AguyinaRPG2026-01-26 17:34

By the way if you saw this movie and haven't read the books, I highly encourage you to do so. **A Wizard of Earthsea** is one of the best books I've ever read and it's only 200 pages - alongside **The Hobbit** as something I think *everyone* should read. The other books are also great in their own way, even if I personally feel they never reach the same peak.

stetstet2026-01-26 22:38

[From the blog of Ursula Le Guin, the author of A Wizard of Earthsea:](https://www.ursulakleguin.com/adaptation-tales-of-earthsea)

>Very few authors have any control over the use made of their books by a film studio. The general rule is that once the contract is signed, the author of the books is nonexistent. Such labels as "creative consultant" are meaningless. Please do not hold any writer except the script-writer responsible for anything in a film. Don't ask the book's author "Why did they . . . ?" She is wondering too.

>...
Mr Goro Miyazaki asked me just as I was leaving, "Did you like the movie?" It was not an easy question to answer, under the circumstances. I said: "Yes. It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie."

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-27 11:56

Actually kinda interesting considering how much say mangakas seem to have for anime productions.

Nachtwandler_FS2026-01-27 10:00

A Wizard of Earthsea is actually a series. I had a collection of 4 novels and 4 short stories (and there may be more). The movie is very losely based on the last novel Tehanu (if I remember the title right).

AguyinaRPG2026-01-27 15:59

No, the movie is primarily based on **The Farthest Shore**, just with the Tehanu character added to give Ged someone to save - which kind of goes against what **Tehanu** is about.

Nachtwandler_FS2026-01-27 16:10

Hmm, interesting. To be fair, I have not seen the movie itself, just saw that it had all of the characters from Tehanu and Ged looked like his post-The Farthest Shore self, so I made a presumption.

P.S.: Apparetly, whe whole series contains 5 novels and 5 short stories. I wonder, why edition in my country only had 4 of each (also, the afterword had a mistake saying Tehanu was published after Ursula le Guins death, when in fact it was the 5th novel Another Wind).

AguyinaRPG2026-01-27 20:38

You're still not correct about the extent of the Earthsea Cycle. All of them were published in Le Guin's lifetime as she only died in 2018. There are six books, the fifth is a collection of Earthsea short stories but not all of them. A few came out after Tales of Earthsea and there was one final short story published posthumously.

AllSortsOfPeopleHere2026-01-26 19:25

Think I actually quite enjoyed this one until the last 30 min or so. Can't remember why exactly.

KingKurai2026-01-26 23:03

I've waited for over a decade to see this in theaters, but it never comes. Even PomPoko has gotten a theatrical rerelease! The only other one I haven't seen is My Neighbors the Yamadas, which has had the same problem.

Maybe it's time to finally give up and watch them at home.

WednesdaysFoole2026-01-26 23:43

Seconding the *Wizard of Earthsea* rec.

I'll say now that I have yet to see this film. I mean to go on another reread of all the *Earthsea* books, but I feel like I should watch this *before* I do so, while my memories of the story are less detailed and I can try and watch the movie with eyes less biased towards the original work. Adaptations are its own work, anyhow.

Some fun background information such as how it came to be Goro Miyazaki's films, and responses by Ursula K Le Guin:

- Hayao Miyazaki loved the original work so much that, according to Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki stated all of his works up from *Nausicaa* to *Howl's Moving Castle* were influenced by *A Wizard of Earthsea*.^1
- Hayao stated during that same meeting with Le Guin that with his how well he understands the work, there is no one else better suited to adapt this into a film but himself. ^1 (Unfortunately, Le Guin and Hayao both likely felt that way even after the film was made.)
- Originally, Ursula K Le Guin rejected the request to adapt *Earthsea* into a film because she only really knew "Disney-style" animation, which she did not like.^2 (That was a mistake.) Later, she became a "lifelong fan" after seeing *My Neighbor Totoro*, and eventually reached out to open up that offer. By then, Miyazaki was "retired", so the idea was to have his son Goro make the film.^2
- Ursula K Le Guin was disappointed with the rewriting of the characters, and described the film's messages as "heavyhanded". She also did not like how [vague spoiler maybe?] >!some of the villains were externalized.!<^2

1. [Interview with Suzuki](https://www.ghibli.jp/storage/000283/)
2. [A first response to Gedo Senki](https://www.ursulakleguin.com/adaptation-tales-of-earthsea)

*Note that I called it a mistake to reject the adaptation initially, but Suzuki said in the same interview that had Miyazaki adapted Earthsea, Nausicaa may not have existed. So perhaps it is their "fate", or rather, that's just how it is, and now we have Nausicaa.

I don't mean to just point out their criticisms about it. In the end, while it was a poor adaptation, the movie itself did resonate with many. And apparently, Hayao Miyazaki sent a message to his son, saying, ["It was made honestly, so it was good."](https://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/earthsea/blog/blog112.html) It cannot have been easy making your debut as a director under the shadow of the greatness of your father and his favorite work, and in the end, it seems the movie turned out to be really personal. So I do want to watch it at some point with the context in mind.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-27 12:00

Do you know why Hayao didnt work on it at all if he liked the original so much, considering he came back later?

WednesdaysFoole2026-01-27 23:31

You know how Miyazaki "retired" several times before coming back to make another film? It was one of those times that he said he'd retire, and despite eventually having a pattern of saying he'd retire only to come back later, I don't think he actually believed he'd come back later.

I've seen people suggest he did it out of spite (towards Le Guin) from being rejected before, but as far as I've seen, there is no evidence for it. Imo, that's a lot of drama to create just for spite and I wouldn't make such an assumption. At most, he might've just not felt that initial motivation he'd felt from decades before, since he'd been focused on creating so many other things since, and I think part of what Suzuki says suggests that - he said that at the time, Miyazaki was so focused on making *Howl's Moving Castle,* and that it had just been such a long time since he'd thought of wanting to adapt *Earthsea.* And I kind of get that - you can still love something for a long time but move on from the fires of wanting to create a huge project from that thing after having let go of it so many years before.

Based on what Suzuki stated, Hayao went all the way to Portland to negotiate with Le Guin, told her how much her work influenced his, told her that while he's much older than back when he wanted to adapt the film, his son wanted to do it and basically asked her to trust him with it. Still, there are small things that stick out, like Hayao's reluctance and lack of trust in Goro and Suzuki who really seemed to push Goro into the position despite Goro not being suited for it. I got the impression also that Hayao, besides working on Howl, might have felt resistance in working with his son, but that's just speculation as well.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-28 00:09

Thata exactly it, he came back several time so I am surprised he passed the chance to work on this if he truly loved the source so much

Yeah I bet its some sort of pride thing of not wanting to mess with his sons work

Donnie-G2026-01-27 02:55

I don't remember anything about this movie - that's how much impact it left on me. I think Goro Miyazaki's name became kinda maligned after this debut. But I really liked From Up on Poppy Hill.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-27 03:58

I remember that I watched this and thought it was meh, nothing else.

Oh and the colour brown for some reason comes to mind.

Heda-of-Aincrad2026-01-30 20:22

I watched this years ago from a DVD I found at the library, but don't remember all that much about it aside from the feeling that it had interesting ideas but the plot kind of went off the rails at some point and ended up being disappointing in the end. The synopsis does sound like the kind of story I would like, so I can see why I picked it up in the first place. Plus, cool dragon on the cover.

Maybe I'll check out the original books sometime since the comments are saying they're very different - and the author did write one of my childhood favorites (Catwings Returns, which I should also read again at some point).