Most critics like it, and the praise clusters on the animation: the detail of the hand-drawn work, the heightened colour of the painted backgrounds, and the momentum of the action, with the opening car chase and the mile-high clock tower named more than once. Several reviews treat it as Miyazaki’s feature debut and read it as an early sketch of the style he develops later. The gallant hero and the supporting cast, Fujiko in particular, also come in for warm mention.
The reservations are about how it stands beside what came after. Total Film finds it the weakest of Miyazaki’s features, frenetic and cartoonish next to the later work; The Skinny notes the animation is at times crude; the Los Angeles Times, otherwise enthusiastic, calls it thematically slim. The spread is narrow, with no negative reviews, and the two mixed notices still admire the backgrounds and the set pieces. The disagreement is over depth, not pleasure.