The film is based on the manga of the same name, which is in turn based on a short story by Tatsuo Hori, a writer, poet and translator from mid-20th century (Showa period) Japan. Kaze Tachinu is a fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft which served in World War II. Miyazaki has claimed that this will be his final film, which was officially confirmed when he announced his retirement shortly after the film's release

On release in Japan, the film received criticism from both the political left and right, as well as from an anti-smoking group. Miyazaki himself added to the controversy by publishing an article in which he criticized Japan's conservative party's proposed changes to the constitution, which irritated nationalists. Leftists were unhappy that a war-plane designer was the film's protagonist. Some questioned why Miyazaki would make a film about a man who "built killing machines", and others pointed out that some of the laborers who built the planes were Koreans and Chinese who were forced into labor. The film has also received criticism from the South Korean public

Hayao Miyazaki, the master craftsman of hand-drawn animation, comes bumping into Venice with The Wind Rises, a gorgeous yet ultimately frustrating tribute to the Japanese airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi. Here is a film with a clean outline and a foggy centre. I wanted to love it, tried to love it and then went down in flames. It turns out that it is not always possible to view the beauty in isolation. Sometimes you need to take a long, hard look at the outside world and then perhaps connect the two.

an awards season campaign is planned by Disney, who will distribute in North America