Like the Clouds, Like the Wind
This is a 1990 made-for-TV anime movie set in China, about a young country girl who wants to be the Emperor's wife so she can get three meals a day and plenty of time to sleep. It's also yet another story about the dying days of a Chinese empire plagued by feuding lords, scheming eunuchs, and rowdy rebels. So it definitely fits a lot of existing patterns, but it's far more effective than I expected.
Where I think it really succeeds is with tone. It's a tale that starts really light. The heroine, Ginga, is a young, energetic, and curious girl who leaps at the opportunity to possibly join the Emperor's harem of wives without really understanding what it entails. The whole cast is pretty exaggerated, and there's plenty of humor in how the different characters react to Ginga's crude and childish manner.
There's the eunuch who chooses to take Ginga to the castle, frustrated with her unrefined ways as much as he's convinced by her potential. One of her fellow wives-in-training is a haughty noble with a big forehead assured of her success compared to the commoners that surround her. Her teacher at the school appreciates her inquisitiveness even if her honesty occasionally shocks him. There's a good variety to it, and combined with the expressive animation (The animation was directed by Ghibli vet Katsuya Kondo, with Mitsuo Iso in the key animation credits!), everyone is very easy to like.
But the tone gradually shifts darker as the political intrigue escalates, and that makes the stakes feel very meaningful. It's not despair-porn or anything (that would have caused some mood-whiplash), but it's still a real enough tragedy to sting. There's a scene where Ginga breaks down near the end, and I was surprised by how close to tears I was. She develops a lot from the innocent girl she was at the movie's beginning.
This isn't an amazing, revelatory work, but it's a very well-made work from an era of animation I don't have much experience with. I'm glad I watched it, and I'd say if you think that kind of story sounds interesting, you'd probably enjoy the execution.
