Like the previous Studio Ghibli movie, the 2011 "From Up Poppy Hill" (directed by Miyazaki's son, Goro), this movie contemplates war indirectly. The movie is not about the wartime deaths of many—soldiers and civilians. Instead, it's a fictional account of Jiro Horikoshi, the main designer of the Japanese Zero, making this the only Hayao Miyazaki movie based on a historical character. Miyazaki was inspired by Hirikoshi's commented that he only wanted to create something beautiful. Yet he did so much more.
During World War II, German airplanes were made of metal, yet Japan is a metal poor country. The Zero was a major accomplishment of because it was light, fast and made predominately of wood. Of Horikoshi's Zero, The New York Times wrote in his obituary, the Zero "could climb faster and turn more tightly than its heavier United States counterparts, shot down so many American planes in the early stages of the war that 'Never dogfight a Zero' became a maxim for Allied pilots."