Anime

Consume This: Whisper of the Heart

The first Studio Ghibli film that I ever watched was, like many others before me, Princess Mononoke.  After that, when Disney started releasing the films they owned distribution rights for I started picking up the other DVDs.  I wandered along through Spirited Away, Nausicaa, and Castle in the Sky before I managed to catch Whisper of the Heart.  I watched it at a friend’s house and was instantly enthralled.  It’s different than the other Ghibli films that I had seen to that point, and because of (and despite) that fact it holds a special place on my shelf.

PLOT SUMMARY

The focus of the movie falls squarely on the shoulders of Shizuku Tsukishima, a girl in junior high school just about to take the exams necessary to get into high school.  Of course, instead of spending her time preparing for the exams, she works on a song for graduation, hangs out with her friends, and voraciously reads books that she borrows from the library.  She finds another outlet for her imagination when she notices that someone named Seiji Amasawa borrowed all the books right before she did.  Shizuku becomes obsessed with discovering the real person behind the name in the books.  While trying to track him down, she meets a boy who drives her crazy with his teasing, and she stumbles into a strange antique shop.  The people that she meets during these adventures lead her to new realizations about her abilities and purpose in life, as well as love.

CAST OF NOTE

Shizuku Tsukishima: Yoko Honna, Brittany Snow
Seiji Amasawa: Issei Takahashi, David Gallagher
The Baron: Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Cary Elwes
Y?ko Harada: Maiko Kayama, Ashley Tisdale
Sugimora: Yoshimi Nakajima, Martin Spanjers

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH

The characters in Whisper of the Heart are real.  It’s not particularly set in a very modern setting – though as unfamiliar as I am with real Japanese culture I am not a very good judge.  My point is that the emotions that the kids in this movie feel are legitimate and their motivations are believable.  After a long string of fantasy and science fiction stories that can require a certain suspension of disbelief it is refreshing to find something so straightforward.  Whisper of the Heart also plays on my oft-denied obsession with good love stories.

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T WATCH

If you’re looking for a supernatural action adventure story, or some sort of intellectual exercise, you should probably look elsewhere.  Whisper of the Heart doesn’t have a deeper meaning or anything – it’s a simple love story viewed from a teenage Japanese girl’s perspective.  There is no apparent antagonist or external conflict to resolve, and all of the growth is internal.  Steer clear if you’re looking for another Castle in the Sky or Spirited Away – even though this film stands right up there with the other Ghibli films in terms of quality, it is a completely different genre.

As I said, this movie is one of my favorites.  Of course, all of the Ghibli films rank in my favorites list, but this is one I can watch over and over again without any problem.  I purchased the DVD the day after I first saw the movie.  I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who isn’t already an anime fan, as there are stronger gateway series and movies, but it’s definitely a purchase I would recommend to fans – especially those familiar with Studio Ghibli’s other works.