In Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises, the protagonist is based on historical aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi.
Horikoshi designed the Mitsubishi A5M fighter and later the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the aircraft widely known as the Zero. The film follows an imagined version of his life, combining documented aviation history with fictional relationships, dreams, and dialogue.
The story begins with Horikoshi’s childhood ambition to design airplanes. Because he is nearsighted and cannot become a pilot, he pursues engineering instead. His professional achievements are shown alongside the moral tension of creating aircraft that become instruments of war.
The film is not a strict biography. Hayao Miyazaki adapted elements from Horikoshi’s memoir and combined them with ideas from Tatsuo Hori’s novel The Wind Has Risen. This blend explains why some personal events in the film are fictionalized.