--- title: A Pig, the State, and War: Porco Rosso (Kurenai No Buta)... description: Porco Rosso turned into a pig because of egoism, nationalism and militarism, this academic analysis argues. It applies Kenneth Waltz's 'man, the state and war'... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-pig-the-state-and-war-porco-rosso-kurenai-no-buta-2014--3h469fu6q twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A Pig, the State, and War: Porco Rosso (Kurenai No Buta) (2014) | daily.dev og:description: Porco Rosso turned into a pig because of egoism, nationalism and militarism, this academic analysis argues. It applies Kenneth Waltz's 'man, the state and war'... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-pig-the-state-and-war-porco-rosso-kurenai-no-buta-2014--3h469fu6q og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3H469fU6Q.png og:image:alt: A Pig, the State, and War: Porco Rosso (Kurenai No Buta) (2014) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A Pig, the State, and War: Porco Rosso (Kurenai No Buta) (2014) **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 31 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Porco Rosso turned into a pig because of egoism, nationalism and militarism, this academic analysis argues. It applies Kenneth Waltz's 'man, the state and war' framework to the 1992 Studio Ghibli film. Porco, once ace pilot Marco Paggot, cursed himself after surviving a dogfight that killed his friend Berlini, one of Gina's husbands. The paper traces his 'non-killing' policy through nine key scenes, including his refusal to join the Italian Air Force and his line 'Better a pig than a Fascist.' It also credits Gina and Fiyo with 'soft power' conflict resolution, and notes the film won best feature at the 1993 Annecy festival. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did Porco turn into a pig in Porco Rosso? Porco became a pig because he hated three things: man (egoism), the state (nationalism) and war (militarism). The film implies he could not forgive himself for failing to save his friend Berlini, one of Gina's husbands, during a dogfight in the last summer of the First World War, and cursed himself as a result. _daily.dev surfaces film and media analysis for developers who enjoy dissecting stories as much as code._ ### What award did Porco Rosso win and when? Porco Rosso won the award for Best Feature Film at the 1993 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, one of the most prestigious international animation festivals. The win led to Hayao Miyazaki being characterized internationally as 'Walt Disney Nippon.' _keep up with retrospectives on landmark animated films through daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 39 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-30). **TL;DR:** Discussion ranges widely from film appreciation to a sharp side-debate about whether the film (or the academic paper analyzing it) handles gender and villainy well, with many praising the film's visuals, nuance, and lack of simplistic villains. **Sentiment:** 40% positive · 45% mixed · 15% skeptical **The case for** - Several commenters praise the film's visual depiction of the Adriatic sea and sky as remarkably accurate. - Some argue the film isn't sexist itself even though it depicts a sexist society, since female characters call out macho behavior. - Many appreciate how Miyazaki avoids simplistic villains and gives all characters relatable, non-evil motivations, extending the discussion to Princess Mononoke. - One commenter notes even a child could grasp the film's themes of war, comradeship, and moral complexity. **The pushback** - Some find the film objectifying toward women, citing the framing of a female character as a prize fought over by men. - The academic paper itself is criticized as weak scholarship that states the obvious, relies on excessive citations, and fails to actually analyze its own claims (e.g., whether the film is propaganda). - One commenter dismisses the paper's rigor by comparing it unfavorably to sociology. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Conversation splits between praise for the film's artistry and nuance, a pointed debate over sexism and villainy in Ghibli films, and skepticism toward the linked academic paper's rigor. **Hottest debate:** Whether Porco Rosso (and Ghibli films generally) are sexist or simplistic in how they portray women and villains, versus nuanced and self-aware. **Open questions** - Is Porco Rosso best classified as anti-war, anti-fascist, or both, and is it really 'propaganda'? - What is the significance of 'Le temps des cerises' and the Princess and the Frog reference in the film? - What did 'porco rosso' mean as an insult during the fascist period in Italy? **Highlights** > I feel also than this article is a bit weird. It start by making citations form Roffat, Takai and Okuda, to blindly classify Porco Rosso as an "anti war propaganda" movie. The article did not even discuss this classification. - Is "Porco Rosso" anti-war or anti-fascist (or both)? - Is it even propaganda? The article cite "The Wind Rises" just to tell than this other movie also have the same themes (war, fascism, planes) but do not even even try to analyze if this other movie is "propaganda" too. At last make a paragraph to compare the two movies. The article have around 30 citations (including 4 auto-citations) mainly to state the obvious to anybody who have watched the movie or read the Wikipedia page. And finally the conclusion is something like: "i have see this movie and now is will now state the obvious about it". At least, try to explain : - Why "Le temps de cerises"? - What about "The Princess and the Frog" in the story? - What was the real meaning of "porco rosso", as an insult, during the fascism period in Italy? > — [miniwark on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50301203) > Framing a woman as a prize that is to be competed for does do some heavy objectification in the movie. So, yeah, that. > — [ga\_to on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50301646) > That's a superficial reading. Said women repeatedly calls out that behavior. The pointlessness and harm caused by macho culture is a theme throughout the movie. > — [yvdriess on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50302863) > I think you're conflating villainy with evil. Eboshi abandons her village for cash in the climax of the film. SHe's told the village is in trouble and says "let them deal with it, mama's gotta make that cheddar" Jigo lays a trap that sacrifices hundreds of his own men in order to kill a god. I'd put both of them in the villain category. Before the battle, I wouldn't put either of them in that category, but the climax really makes them out to be awful people. Eboshi in particular hides behind smiles and buying up the contracts of prostitutes (to make them her slaves) and helping lepers until the climax when she completely abandons them, throwing them to the wolves in service of money. > — [KPGv2 on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300193) > I had the pleasure to visit Croatia and the sky seemed familiar to me somehow... and I realized I was on the opposite coast of the Adriatic Sea. What I remembered was how it was rendered in Porco Rosso, which I had seen years before visiting IRL. Watching the movie again, I am amazed at how precisely Miyazaki captures the exact feeling of the sky and sea of the Adriatic in summer. > — [lubujackson on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300129) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50297089) · 133 points · 39 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Welcome to Town Al-Gasr](https://daily.dev/posts/welcome-to-town-al-gasr-mabwufq1w) · Metadata · 29 upvotes · 2 comments - [Washington's secretary of state says video games are 'soft power'](https://daily.dev/posts/washington-s-secretary-of-state-says-video-games-are-soft-power--am3og4ltp) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Anti-AI nostalgia and the cult of the past](https://daily.dev/posts/anti-ai-nostalgia-and-the-cult-of-the-past-vezwpo8sn) · sean goedecke · 9 upvotes · 4 comments - [How the classic anime ‘Ghost in the Shell’ predicted the future of cybersecurity 30 years ago](https://daily.dev/posts/how-the-classic-anime-ghost-in-the-shell-predicted-the-future-of-cybersecurity-30-years-ago-dd3mf9y4s) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [We are all living inside of an obscure sci-fi film from 1970](https://daily.dev/posts/we-are-all-living-inside-of-an-obscure-sci-fi-film-from-1970-srngy5fkr) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-pig-the-state-and-war-porco-rosso-kurenai-no-buta-2014--3h469fu6q) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A Pig, the State, and War: Porco Rosso (Kurenai No Buta) (2014)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-pig-the-state-and-war-porco-rosso-kurenai-no-buta-2014--3h469fu6q","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-pig-the-state-and-war-porco-rosso-kurenai-no-buta-2014--3h469fu6q"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T02:09:29.286Z","dateModified":"2026-10-30T13:55:42.092Z","description":"Porco Rosso turned into a pig because of egoism, nationalism and militarism, this academic analysis argues. 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