Synopsis: Fourteen year old Shizuku Tsukishima lives in a small apartment with her sister and parents, all of whom are focused on their jobs and studies. Shizuku however spends most of her time reading, and she starts noticing the same name before hers on all of the library checkout cards – Seiji Amasawa. Shizuku begins to grow curious about Seiji, wondering who he is and if they're anything alike. The next day, Shizuku walks to school and immediately goes to the library, finding a book that hasn't been checked out before – but it's been donated by a 'Doctor Amasawa'. She asks the librarian if she knows who that is, but she says she doesn't and suggests that she asks an older teacher. Yuko, Shizuku's friend, finds her and drags her outside, where the two talk about the rewritten lyrics Shizuku has written for 'Country Roads', which they intend to sing at the upcoming graduation ceremony. Yuko also reveals to Shizuku that she's received a love letter and doesn't know what to do about it as she already has a crush, a crush Shizuku quickly deduces is on a boy that she's friends with named Sugimura. The two girls talk about Sugimura as they walk home, but Shizuku realizes she's forgotten her book on the bench and rushes back to school to get it. There, she finds a boy she's never seen before reading the book, and as he returns it to her, he teases her about the lyrics, putting her in a foul mood for the rest of the day, a mood that only gets fouler as her sister Shiho pesters her about school. The next day, Shizuku sets out on the train to take her father's lunch to him at his library job, and is surprised when a large, fat cat sits next to her on the train. When the cat gets off at the same stop as her, she follows it and is eventually lead to an antique shop that she's never seen before. Heading inside, she spots a statue of an anthropomorphic cat and meets the old man that owns the store. The old man tells her a little bit about the statue, telling her it's name is the Baron, and Shizuku is enchanted by the statue. Realizing that she's running late now however, she quickly rushes off to her father's library. Once there, the boy that made fun of her lyrics rides up on a bike and hands the lunch box that she'd forgotten at the antique store to her. She asks him if the old man is his grandfather, but the boy rides off, this time teasing her about the size of the lunchbox. Shizuku gives her father the lunch and decides to check out another book, once again finding that it's been previously checked out by Seiji Amasawa. As she wonders about this mysterious boy, her mind wanders to the boy that's teased her twice, outraging her – there's no way it'd be someone like him! The following day, it's pouring down rain as Shizuku leaves the house and meets up with Yuko. Yuko tells her she's decided not to reply to the love letter due to how she feels about Sugimura, and when Sugimura comes up in class to brag to Shizuku about his good grades, Shizuku tries suggesting that he study with Yuko sometime. Yuko gets flustered and drags Shizuku away, and the two girls head to the teacher's lounge to ask about the book donated by Doctor Amasawa. A teacher there remembers the doctor's full name as well as the fact that he has a son attending the school, Seiji Amasawa. As they leave, Shizuku sees the boy that teased her again, and starts to freak out wondering if it really could be him after all. After her friends tease her about her fixation on Seiji Amasawa, Shizuku goes to the antique store again, unaware that Sugimura has stopped Yuko to talk to her. Shizuku is sad to find that the antique store is closed at the moment, but upon seeing the owner's name (Shiro Nishi) on a plaque outside, is relieved that the boy must not be Seiji Amasawa after all. As she leaves, she sees through the window that the Baron statue appears to be missing. Later that night, Yuko calls her and reveals that it was one of Sugimura's friends that wrote her the letter and Sugimura tried to push her into going out with the friend, hurting Yuko and outraging Shizuku. After school the next day, Shizuku talks with Sugimura, revealing to him that Yuko has a crush on him. This causes Sugimura to likewise reveal that he has feelings for Shizuku, but Shizuku turns him down as she doesn't want to hurt her friend. Running home, Shizuku breaks down and cries before ultimately changing out of her uniform and heading to the antique store again. It's once again closed, but she sits and talks with the cat from before, venting about how much things are changing now that she's getting older. Eventually, the boy that teased her shows up, revealing that the cat is a stray that goes by many names (Moon and Muta most often), and inviting her inside. Once inside, she sees that the Baron statue is still there just in a different location, and the boy tells her that his grandfather plans to never sell the statue at all. Shizuku witnesses the boy carving wood into pieces for a violin, and he reveals his dream is to be a professional violin sculptor. She compliments his work but he insists that he's not that good yet, and when she asks him to play one, he agrees to only if she sings. Shizuku reluctantly agrees, and as he begins playing 'Country Roads', she sings along, soon being joined by Nishi and his friends as they return home. As Shizuku is properly introduced to the grandfather, Nishi reveals that the boy's name is Seiji Amasawa, confusing a blushing Shizuku who frets about him not matching her mental image of the boy who read the same books as her at all. As the pair bickers, the old men laugh. As night falls, Seiji walks Shizuku home and invites her to come visit again soon, also revealing that he wants to go study violins in Cremona, Italy after graduation. Shizuku is impressed that he already knows what he wants to do, but Seiji confesses that it's still not that easy, as his parents are opposed to the idea. As Shizuku heads into her house, Seiji reveals to her that he actually liked the lyrics she wrote and encourages her to continue writing. Shizuku heads to bed, stopping only to ask her sister when she knew what she wanted to do with her life, with her sister's only answer being to get into a good school and figure it out after that. At school the next day, Sugimura apologizes to Yuko for trying to force her to go out with his friend, and Shizuku finds that there are already rumors spreading about her being out at night with a boy. These rumors only get stronger when Seiji comes to the classroom to talk to her, and as everyone teases her, she drags him along to the school's roof to talk. Seiji reveals that his parents have decided to let him go to Cremona after all, to study for two months under a friend of his grandfather's, and if after two months the friend doesn't think he has what it takes, he'll give up on his dream and go to a normal high school. Shizuku is impressed and encourages him, admitting to being a little jealous as she still doesn't know what she wants and just wastes all her time reading. Seiji confesses that he noticed her reading all the time and wanted to get her attention, which was why he started checking out and reading all of the books he thought she might read before she could so that she'd hopefully start noticing his name in them. Now that he's gotten her attention and it's time for him to leave, he's sad that he waited this long to talk to her. Shizuku's friends interrupt the two's bonding moment, and as she chases them away, she begins to cry. Shizuku visits Yuko later that night to talk about everything with Seiji, and as they talk, Shizuku realizes that her and Seiji are more alike than she realized, and decides that she needs to put herself to a similar test to the one he's undertaking. She decides to try and write a story that's been coming to her mind lately and finish it within the two months he's away, so she can catch up to him. She immediately begins work on a story she calls 'Whisper of the Heart', even going as far as to ask Nishi for permission to base it on the Baron cat statue. Nishi agrees to this, with one stipulation – he wants to be the first person to read the story when she's done. Shizuku agrees even though she's worried it won't be very good, and Nishi compares writing to a geode he shows her, explaining that nothing is a diamond until it's polished and refined. Shizuku's writes her story about the Cat Baron searching for his lost love in a fantasy world alongside a character seemingly based on herself, and researches various subjects related to her story at the library as often as she can. On one of those research trips, Seiji comes to tell her that he's leaving the next day as well as to wish her luck, and the two sit together in silence, her writing and him reading, before eventually parting ways after holding hands briefly. As Shizuku begins focusing more and more on her writing, her school work and chore upkeep both begin to suffer, worrying her teachers and her mother both after she gets called to a meeting at the school. When Shizuku's mother reveals to Shiho about her grades, Shiho begins harassing her about needing to focus and study already, culminating in an argument that their father breaks up upon coming home. He calls a family meeting, and while Shizuku won't reveal to them what it is she's doing, he can see that whatever it is is incredibly important to her. He convinces his wife that they should support Shizuku for now, but warns her that she'll have nobody to blame but herself if things go poorly. Later that night, Shiho tells her sister that she's moving out soon, so Shizuku will have the room to herself after that, telling her that she really should study more seriously as well as whatever it is she's doing. After finishing her story, Shizuku quickly takes it to Nishi for him to read, asking if she can wait downstairs as he does so. Time passes, and after he reads her story, Nishi tells her that he really liked it. Shizuku objects, saying that she knows it's a mess, but Nishi tells her that it's just like that geode and needs polishing to truly shine. Shizuku breaks down and cries from all the stress she's been under, and Nishi sits her down and tells her two stories. First, he explains that Seiji once got even more distraught when he didn't think the first violin he made was good enough. Then, he tells her a longer story – the true story of the Baron. Nishi explains how he found the statue at a cafe in Germany, when he was in love with a woman named Louise. The two begged the cafe owner to sell the statue to him, and the man finally relented under the condition that Louise buy the statue's mate, a female cat Baroness, so that the statues could be reunited one day. Shortly after, World War II began, and Nishi had to leave the country. After the war ended, he went back to Germany but was never able to find either his lost love or the statue. Shizuku apologizes for making him talk about such a painful past, but Nishi thanks her for giving his feelings new life in her story, encouraging her to keep writing. Nishi drives Shizuku home, and realizing that she needs to learn more about writing, she promises her mother to study harder and get into a good high school. The next morning, Shizuku wakes up early and sees Seiji outside her window, rushing outside to meet him. Seiji has her hop on his bike, and the two ride and talk together, with Seiji revealing that his master thinks he has a lot to learn but could become a truly good violin maker one day, so Seiji plans to go back there and continue studying after graduating. As they struggle up a hill together, they eventually reach Seiji's 'secret spot', where he often comes when he needs inspiration. As the sun rises, Seiji reveals that his grandfather told him everything and he apologizes for not being here to help her, but Shizuku says he did plenty by inspiring her to try. Overcome by the moment, Seiji blurts out a proposal to Shizuku, saying that they should get married someday when he's a violin craftsman and she's a writer, and Shizuku agrees, prompting Seiji to confess his love outright. As the credits roll, 'Country Roads' plays and Shizuku and Seiji ride the bike together again, as Yuko and Sugimura meet up after school to walk home together, suggesting that there may be romance in their future as well. Review: When it came time to choose something to review to mark the occasion of the blog's one year anniversary, I knew that I wanted to cover something very different from what I was currently reviewing. I also knew that I wanted it to be something stand-alone – something that I would review once and be done with, so that I wouldn't necessarily have to revisit it out of necessity a year later to prepare for reviewing the next installment of it. As such, I turned my eyes towards anime films that are unrelated to any particular series that I planned to review one day. I initially had chosen something out of the works of Mamoru Hosoda, as he's one of my favorite directors when I think of stand-alone animated films. But then, at the last minute, I remembered this movie and how much it means to me. And after re-watching it, I'm all the more certain that this was the right decision, because there's just no over-stating how much this film touches me. Hell, my now default avatar wherever I go, that represents both myself and this blog as a whole, is a Picrew recreated drawing of myself in Shizuku's 'Lofi Girl' meme form. It only feel right to make my first anniversary review be about the film that inspired that branding choice, so without further ado – let's talk about Studio Ghibli and Yoshifumi Kondo's Whisper of the Heart. Oh, but as one last quick footnote – I did write this review based entirely upon the English dub of the film, so if there are any errors present based on that, then I take full responsibility for that. The story of Whisper of the Heart is a simple one, especially compared to many of the other films in Ghibli's catalog. There's no magic, no fantasy, no talking animals – well, okay, there's one talking animal, but only in the lead character's imagination. Despite the Baron's popularity however, he's not the main character. His creator however, Shizuku Tsukishima, is, and she's one of the most compelling leads in any of the studio's films. Shizuku is a girl trying to live out her life to it's fullest by doing the things that she enjoys, but she's at an age just at the precipice of adulthood, at least in the vein of our world's expectations of young people. She's just about to enter high school, which means she's at the point that society – and her family – are all expecting her to start figuring out what she wants to do with her life. Unfortunately, Shizuku doesn't have any natural inclinations towards school or normal career paths, or at the very least, she hasn't put much thought into such things yet. The one thing that Shizuku does know is that she loves to read, particularly fairy tales, and she's even begun to dabble in writing. It's her love of reading that first brings Seiji Amasawa to her attention as she begins noticing his name on the checkout cards of all the books she's reading at the library. The two meet, and while at first chafe in each other's presence – or at least she does with him – they quickly form a bond built upon their shared interests. And it's through that bond that Shizuku first begins to realize what it is she wants out of life. The character of Shizuku is an excellent stand-in for anyone who's ever felt drawn to express their creative side, and her journey through-out this film is so perfectly parallel to what most of us seem to experience that it's almost uncanny. At first, Shizuku isn't reading or writing because it's what she wants to do for a career, it's just something she does for fun. She does these things because she likes to do them, but that's as far as it goes – she doesn't even really consider herself that good at it, scoffing away compliments towards her writing as not being great, and explaining away her reading as just reading fairy tales. This is something that most creative types seem to go through at least a few times, especially earlier on in their lives. Meeting Seiji changes all of that however. It's through her interactions with him, and seeing how he already has his life figured out that she starts to realize that it's possible to make your interests your dream in life as well. She comes to realize that if what she truly enjoys is reading and writing, then why shouldn't she give writing a more earnest try than she ever has before? Shizuku makes the brave decision to give it her best shot, but rather than making thing's easier...this actually starts to make things harder. Despite how glitzy and glamorous the allure of fame may look to people sometimes, the world actually is built against supporting the dreamers and the creatives of the world. For every person that makes it, there's another substantially larger group of people that never do. Seiji knows this, as he's already a little further down the path of creativity than Shizuku is. He's already started to try and make his dream a reality, and as such, he's already started to become plagued by both personal and social issues that try to prevent him from carrying on. His parents don't want him to chase his dream, and would much rather he follow a normal path and just go to a good high school and get a normal job. As soon as Shizuku starts to focus on her writing, her own family (in particular her sister, who has already started down the 'normal' path) start to stress her out over the same thing. Seiji also deals with an even worse barrier, self-doubt. He doesn't think that he's nearly as good at making violins as people tell him he is, just as Shizuku constantly downplays her own writing ability. The difference between the two with this struggle however is that Seiji's already been through what Shizuku is just now really starting to fight against. He knows his own brain is telling him he's not good enough, and he's learned to ignore it, at least in part. As Shizuku writes her first story, she struggles with that concept, and it's that exact struggle that makes her so identifiable. While I've gathered that it's a fairly common problem among writers, I'm going to be speaking for myself now, and my own experiences in life. Growing up in a small town in Arkansas, the town where I still live even now, I well know the frustrations of how the world seems to be stacked against dreamers. Whether it was writing or acting, something else that I used to have an interest in, there are constantly forces out there telling you that you can't do it. That you're not good enough. That you need to be realistic. Sometimes those words come from a good place, from someone who is sincerely trying to help and warn you what the world is like, but more often than not, they come from people trying to keep you down. And even when they come from people who care and that you care about, those words are a poison that only serves to feed and bolster that self-doubt that lingers inside. The voice of your own brain trying to tell you that you're not good enough, and that you should just quit, and go down the same path as everyone else, even if it hurts your very being to do so. That's where the character of Seiji's grandfather, Shiro Nishi, comes in. Nishi is the supportive voice that every creative type needs to find if they can, whether that comes in the form of another person, or a side of themselves that they need to try to listen to more often. Nishi doesn't sugar coat how hard things can be at times, as he's been no stranger to hard times himself. What he does do is tell Shizuku the truth, that she does have talent, and that she's made an incredible first step just by focusing and finishing a first draft for a story. He tells her that nobody's first efforts are perfect, far from it in fact, and that the real work only begins once you've made that attempt and can then begin to polish and shine your work afterwards. This is something that I'm admittedly still struggling with myself, proof that I need to listen more to the Nishis in my life and my own internal Nishi. I've talked a lot about what this film's story and themes are and not much about it's animation – that's because it's Studio Ghibli, and even with this being one of their lesser talked about features, that means it's pretty much guaranteed there's multiple reviews all over the internet gushing about how pretty it is, and rightly so. I also haven't talked much about it's plot overall however. The film's plot is pretty simple and on the nose – a girl discovers that growing up is making things change for her, both on a personal and social level, and she starts down the path to discovering what she wants out of life. Whisper of the Heart's simplicity is part of it's beauty. As stated before, there's no magic here, no fantasy that's not contained entirely within Shizuku's imagination – it's simply the story of a young creative receiving that first dose of inspiration to create and running with it. When I first saw this movie, I was in a relatively similar place, though I was a good bit older than Shizuku already. I knew that I wanted to be a creator of some kind, but I wasn't sure that I had it in me. I wasn't sure that I could ever do it. It's something that I'm still struggling to do even now. But seeing a character discover that part of themselves for the first time, to see them struggle with the same issues and challenges that I'd been dealing with for much of my entire life was very much like looking in a mirror. Whisper of the Heart is a masterpiece beyond even the expected standards coming from being a film attached to the Ghibli name, and it's easily my absolute favorite film out of any that the studio has ever produced. It also bears the significance of being one of only two films ever directed by someone who would only ever direct this film for the studio, with the other film being a sequel (of sorts) to this film to boot. Yoshifumi Kondo was a master of his craft, and it's clear from looking at all the heart that he put into this movie that he had already been through everything Shizuku was experiencing himself. Sadly, Kondo died only a few years after this film's release. It's an absolute shame, because if this was his first work, then there's just no telling exactly how far he would have gone with further films had he been granted the opportunity. He was already gone by the time I discovered this film, but I still miss him greatly every time I think about this movie. This movie is one of a select few films that are my absolute favorites of all time, animated or otherwise, and it means the world to me. Shizuku's discovery was like looking back at how far I had already come; Seiji's journey was realizing just how far there still was (and is) to go; and Nishi's encouragement and wise words remind me to take things slow, to be prepared, but to also never, ever give up on my dreams. That's a lesson that grows more important with each passing day and each new trial. It's a lesson I think more of us need to take to heart. Until next year! Favorite Scene: The scene where Shizuku sings Country Roads while Seiji plays his violin is absolutely touching, and encapsulates a lot of what the movie itself is telling us. Shizuku doesn't think she's good and is eventually convinced to try; Seiji doesn't think he's good either, but he's already willing to give it his best shot; Nishi wants to do his best to support them, at all costs. Simply beautiful.
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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