So...this exists. And apparently its come into the limelight now because somehow for some reason the streaming website Mubi somehow got their hands on it gave it English subtitles and put it up for streaming. Thats how I learned about it along with following the Twitter account WTKhttps://twitter.com/WTK which is a good source of home video news licensing news streaming news and so on. But most old school animation afficionados know something pretty interesting about the Yukis Sun pilot: This is actually the solo directorial debut of one Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki worked with Takahata on plenty of TV shows and directing some episodes of stuff during the 70s and 80s before moving onto movies but this was the first time where he was the only one in the directors seat. But youre probably wondering just what the hell Yukis Sun is about. Based on the 1963 shoujo manga by Tetsuya Chiba Yukis Sun follows a little girl named Yuki who lives a happy peaceful life in an orphanage until shes adopted by the affluent Iwabuchi family. When circumstances leave the Iwabuchi family penniless Yuki finds herself on a journey to make a new life for herself and maybe even rediscover her real family with the only clue she has being the wooden cross necklace she always wears around her neck. Being made in 1972 Yukis Sun was actually meant to be a pilot for a TV series but unfortunately that went nowhere. If one were to judge Yukis Sun on its own merits what with it being a 5minute short film...yeah this has 70s shoujo melodrama written all over it. But if you can believe it thats not the pilots biggest problem. The biggest problem holding Yukis Sun back as a film is that the whole thing comes off like an animated summary of the series or a literal commercial for the manga rather than a story on its own merits. Let me put it this way: Remember all those VHS commercials for the old animated Disney films back in the 80s and 90s the ones that would basically summarize the entire movie to the point of flatout spoiling important plot twists? Yukis Sun feels like one of those but without the eighties power ballads or corny nineties music in the background. And yes Im not kidding you when I say this short film basically blitzes through the mangas entire story complete with dropping plot twists like candy. Hey Yukis adopted family had shady dealings with townspeople Hey Yuki has to save her sick adopted sister and walk through a literal blizzard Hey Yuki reunites with her biological father but he dies immediately afterward Hey Yuki hops a train and then reunites with her biological mother With literally no cohesion or explanation for how any of this plays out. If a TV series had managed to get made I bet Miyazaki probably would have given these plot developments the proper buildup and pathos they deserved but just throwing them in a fiveminute short film doesnt really work. It doesnt help that 95 of the pilot consists of a narrator talking over it and explaining everything. All she really does is summarize the entire premise of the manga and the only other bits of dialogue come from Yuki who has a grand total of three lines throughout the entire short. But even with the pilots super short length Literally five minutes long Yukis Sun is basically one of the earliest shoujo melodramas rife with tropes and cliches that would fit right in with a soap opera: Missing biological parents blunt force drama bad things happening to the MC at every corner adoptive families who have shady stuff going on so on and so forth. Yukis Sun might as well be Candy Candy before Candy Candy came into existence. I think Yukis Sun choosing to just be a summary/commercial for the manga may have been what did it in because it crams so much into five minutes making it feel really rough and halfbaked and Miyazakis early inexperience as a storyteller does unfortunately play a part in this. Also how the hell is Yuki able to go through a friggin blizzard without a coat or winter clothing? She wears nothing but overalls and a shortsleeved shirt as shes dragging her sick adopted sister through a blizzard she should have succumbed to either frostbite or hypothermia from that I dont know how the manga makes this story play out as no English translation of it exists official or fanmade so I cant read the manga for myself though I admit Id certainly like to. Honestly the pilots only real saving grace is its animation. For a short film that came out in 1972 its surprisingly polished reveling in beautifully painted backgrounds and fluid movement. Animation as a medium was still fairly in its infancy yet theres traces of his signature crispness in the way Miyazaki animates the characters especially in one sequence where Yuki is running along a river which was unheard of in animation at the time and wouldnt be refined until the eighties at the earliest. And keep in mind this was six years before Future Boy Conan. Granted Yukis Sun wouldnt really make Miyazaki as a household name as his later movies wound up doing that for both him and Ghibli. So yeah while Yukis Sun as a pilot film is an interesting piece of unearthed animation history its kind of an amateurish cliche short film that is unable to stand on its own and feels more like an animated commercial. Its a shame a TV series for this didnt get made because it probably would have been pretty good especially since Chibasenseis manga is already so short Four volumes and Miyazaki probably would have done the story justice if he was given the opportunity to do so. Im glad that whoever at Mubi found this put it up for streaming to make it more accessible for people but its not really going to interest anyone who isnt interested in learning about Miyazakis early oeuvre.