When Marnie Was There

    Of all the things I could have blogged about today, I am happy that I decided to blog about this movie. When Marnie Was There is a Japanese animated film produced by Studio Ghibli, and based on the novel When Marnie Was There written by Joan G. Robinson. As per usual of a film produced by Studio Ghibli, the animation is amazing. The animation is the style used in every Ghibli movie (relatively simple yet expressive character design, and extremely detailed background). I could babble on forever about how much I love the animation, but then I would never get to the truly amazing part - the story.
    The story centers around Anna Sasaki, and what happens to her one summer. One day Anna suffers an asthma attack at school, so her foster parents decide to send her to their relatives in Kushiro, a rural, seaside town where there is clean air. Anna see's an old mansion that is overgrown, and strangely familiar. She goes to investigate, and gets trapped by the rising tide. Thankfully she is rescued by an old fisherman. On the way back to the opposite shore she glimpses the mansion as new and well-lit. Later that day, her relatives tell her it used to be a vacation home for some foreigners, but they have long been gone. That night, and other nights, she has dreams about a mysterious blonde girl in the window of the mansion. Later after a festival at which she was rude to a girl, Anna finds a rowboat and rows to the mansion, where she meets Marnie, the blonde girl in the window. I should probably tell you that up until this point Anna has been unhappy and a bit antisocial, however as she and Marnie become friends she begins to become happy - much like Marnie when they first meet. As time goes on it is revealed that Marnie is just a figment of Anna's imagination, until she meets Sayaka, who is moving into the mansion. Sayaka originally identifies Anna as Marnie because of a diary found in the house that belonged to a girl named Marnie. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it already, so I'll just say that Anna eventually becomes happy and social, and even learns a bit of her family history.
    I really have to applaud Ghibli for making a movie of this caliber. This movie was wonderful in the way it illustrated how friendship can make such a difference in one's life. The way in which the story was laid out and executed was perfect. The voice acting was also very good. I am usually unfazed by stories which try to convey complex feelings, but they did such a great job that they even got through to me. Overall I think that they did a great job on this movie. It told a great story in a perfect way, and got it's point across perfectly clear.

From left to right: Anna, Marnie