Porco Rosso (PG)
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This was released in 1992, in Japan. An English dubbed version was released by Disney in 2005, and later reissued by GKIDS in 2017. I didn't see it until 2024, as part of my Summer of Ghibli.

According to Wikipedia, the movie is set in 1929. There's this Italian World War I fighter pilot named Marco Rossolini (or Marco Pagot in the Japanese version), who now flies a seaplane as a bounty hunter in the Adriatic Sea, chasing air pirates. At some point in the past, a curse turned him into an anthropomorphic pig (or at least he has the head of a pig). The reason for this is, as far as I could tell, never explained. So now most people call him "Porco Rosso". Anyway, the first gang of air pirates we see him stop from kidnapping children and stealing gold is led by a guy called Boss. Then all the gangs join together to oppose Porco, and they hire an American pilot named Donald Curtis to help them eliminate him. Both Porco and the pirates frequent the Hotel Adriano, which is run by Porco's friend Gina, who has a rule against fighting in her establishment. The pirates all seem to be in love with Gina, so they obey her rule, which is why Porco is safe there. Curtis falls in "love" with Gina at first sight, but she isn't interested in him.

One day, Porco decides to fly to Milan to have his plane fixed up by a mechanic named Piccolo, but gets shot down by Curtis before he gets there. Curtis leaves him for dead, but Porco survives and manages to get what's left of his plane to Milan, anyway. Things are complicated by the fact that there's a warrant out for Porco in Italy, ever since he quit the air force, I guess. Because now the country is controlled by fascists, and Porco refuses to fight on their side. So the secret police are looking for him, and he must be careful not to be caught. Meanwhile, his plane now requires a complete redesign, which is done by Piccolo's granddaughter, Fio. And once the design is ready, the plane is fixed up by all of Piccolo's many female relatives, since all the male relatives who used to work for him have gone elsewhere to look for other work. Porco seems to have a rather sexist attitude about this, but everyone likes him, anyway.

Porco eventually returns to the Adriatic with Fio accompanying him (against his wishes). They find all of Porco's enemies waiting to ambush him at his hideout, but Fio talks them into having an aerial rematch between Porco and Curtis. And Curtis falls in "love" with Fio at first sight, but while she isn't interested, she agrees to become his wife if he wins the air battle. If Porco wins, Curtis agrees to pay off Porco's bill for Piccolo. And at this point, I think I've revealed enough of the plot, though of course I'm leaving out plenty of details throughout the film. I won't say how it all ends.

I wasn't sure before I watched it how much I would like this film, but I ended up liking it more than I expected to. I found a lot of bits funny, and of course it has all the charm of any Studio Ghibli film. And... I wish I knew what else to say about it.