In this movie, Nobita keeps a small typhoon as a pet and discovers that it has a connection to the history of a hidden village. Just to get the obvious out of the way: very few Doraemon movies can claim to end on a sad note, but this one certainly qualifies. Beyond that though, this film also deserves props for its worldbuilding, which might be among the most extensive and creative of any Doraemon movie. The main setting is an isolated village (apparently somewhere in Central Asia, but not directly stated) whose people have developed tools to manipulate and harness wind energy for almost all their daily needs, and the animals in the region have also evolved accordingly. It reminded me a lot of the element-based societies in Avatar: The Last Airbender (which this film predates).
The story here has some noteworthy parallels with the original Nobita and the Birth of Japan (1989). In both movies, there's a scene where Nobita gets lost in the snow before being rescued by a large, woolly mammal (though in Nobita and the Birth of Japan, the "mammoth" was actually the time police in disguise). In addition, the main characters are also not the ones who ultimately defeat the biggest threat in Nobita and the Windmasters. However, I think this avenue of resolving the conflict works much better here than in Nobita and the Birth of Japan, because the characters who end up doing the heavy lifting (Fuuko the typhoon and the people of the Wind Village) have established relationships to the protagonists, instead of being nameless time police that the main characters just happen to stumble into. Indeed, it could probably be argued that Fuuko would not have been motivated to fight against the threat if she hadn't bonded with Nobita throughout the movie. Furthermore, the protagonists' efforts do still wind up making a difference in how the final battle plays out (or at least, Nobita's and Gian's do).
Speaking of Gian, he and Suneo get a surprisingly large amount of focus in this film, though Suneo spends much of it as a puppet for one of the villains. Even before that happens, however, Suneo takes on a somewhat antagonistic role in the beginning of the story (more akin to his usual interactions with Nobita in the mainline series), which was interesting to see.
The story here has some noteworthy parallels with the original Nobita and the Birth of Japan (1989). In both movies, there's a scene where Nobita gets lost in the snow before being rescued by a large, woolly mammal (though in Nobita and the Birth of Japan, the "mammoth" was actually the time police in disguise). In addition, the main characters are also not the ones who ultimately defeat the biggest threat in Nobita and the Windmasters. However, I think this avenue of resolving the conflict works much better here than in Nobita and the Birth of Japan, because the characters who end up doing the heavy lifting (Fuuko the typhoon and the people of the Wind Village) have established relationships to the protagonists, instead of being nameless time police that the main characters just happen to stumble into. Indeed, it could probably be argued that Fuuko would not have been motivated to fight against the threat if she hadn't bonded with Nobita throughout the movie. Furthermore, the protagonists' efforts do still wind up making a difference in how the final battle plays out (or at least, Nobita's and Gian's do).
Speaking of Gian, he and Suneo get a surprisingly large amount of focus in this film, though Suneo spends much of it as a puppet for one of the villains. Even before that happens, however, Suneo takes on a somewhat antagonistic role in the beginning of the story (more akin to his usual interactions with Nobita in the mainline series), which was interesting to see.
