Whisper of the Heart

"At the end of the day, this is an incredibly well-realized and beautiful depiction of someone who's just trying to figure out they're place in the world and discover their self-worth through their art. I cried multiple times throughout the course of the story. Even at parts the I doubt where intended to be sad simply because I felt them deep down in my soul. It's just beautiful. Not just my favorite Ghibli movie of all time! Not just my favorite animated movie of all time! But one of my Top 5 favorite movies ever made."

- Schaffrillas Productions

Whisper of the Heart is a 1995 anime film. It was written by Hayao Miyazaki, directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, musically composed by Yuji Nomi, filmed by Atsushi Okui, edited by Takeshi Seyama, distributed by Toho, produced by Studio Ghibli and Toshio Suzuki, starred Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, and Keiju Kobayashi, and is based on a manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi.

Plot
The film follows Shizuku, an inquisitive young girl and a voracious reader, who longs to be a writer when she grows up. One day she notices that all of her library books have previously been taken out by one Seiji Amasawa. Amid chasing after a large cat, befriending an eccentric antique dealer and writing her first novel, Shizuku aims to find this mysterious boy who may well be her soul mate.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) This is a great film to start out with for someone who is just getting into Studio Ghibli due to how subtly it tells its story, which is unusual for Hayao Miyazaki (even though he didn't direct this movie).
 * 2) This is one of few Studio Ghibli films directed by people whose not one of the main two, those being Hayao Miyzaki and Isao Takahata, here it is directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondō
 * 3) Amazing animation. The characters' movements have a nice touch of realism, the animation itself is smooth and flows in terms of the movements that occur within it very naturally, and the color palette is incredible to add to that. The colors are bright enough to make the film stand out in terms of appearance so that it doesn't seem too drab or dull, but it's not too blindingly bright to the point where it makes the film look overly saccharine or sappy.
 * 4) While the film does add muted fantasy elements, it doesn't become a straight up fantasy adventure story, and instead goes full throttle with the coming of age themes that it promises early on. And just other Studio Ghibli movies with slice-of-life stories such as My Neighbor Totoro, When Marnie Was There, and My Neighbors the Yamadas, the plot isn't complicated and therefore very easy to follow in spite of the large amount of depth to it.
 * 5) Good voice acting in both sub and dub. Almost none of the dialogue from the original Japanese version is changed in even the slightest way in the dub, and the voice actors in both versions did outstanding jobs playing their characters, such as Brittany Snow, David Gallagher, Cary Elwes and Ashley Tisdale in the dub.
 * 6) Both of our lead characters, Shizuku Tsukishima and Seiji Amasawa, are great. Their arcs are engaging, they're interesting, and their growing relationship has lots of very natural and strong chemistry.
 * 7) Shizuku and Seiji are also very relatable as teens trying to figure out what they want to do in life. Especially Shizuku herself, who deals with a tremendous amount of very relatable struggles over the course of the movie's runtime out of fear that she isn't good enough at what she dreams to do; writing. She constantly questions her ability to write, if it's good enough to show others and for them to appreciate her work, if it's truly worth it to keep pursuing her dream after all the intense struggles she faces, and if she's good enough to be with someone like Seiji who's someone who much more confident in his work and what he can accomplish than her. Every single one of these problems she has to overcome over the course of the movie is portrayed in an unflinchingly real way that makes the audience care for, sympathize deeply with and relate to her as a character.
 * 8) Excellent soundtrack, one of the best of any Studio Ghibli film. Take Me Home is the best standout track, it's extremely emotionally impactful. But given the premise of the movie, that's pretty much to be expected! (along with the fact that it's a movie made my Studio Ghibli, which is a company known for the phenomenal music they incorporate into their movies along with how many phenomenal movies they generally make).
 * 9) Great supporting cast which helps to add to the complexity of the main characters, especially Seiji's grandfather.
 * 10) This movie would later spawn a spinoff The Cat Returns, which features the Baron in a more prominent role.
 * 11) Many moments range from funny to heartwarming to emotional to downright amazing. One of the most notable examples being the scene where Shizuku and Seiji perform Country Roads together, which eventually causes the latter's grandfather and friends to join in on performing with them. Not only is is absolutely amazingly well-built up to, but it also helps being Shizuku and Seiji closer together and help their already strong chemistry (as previously mentioned in WIR# 5) become even stronger and more developed.

The Only Bad Qualities

 * 1) The poster is somewhat misleading. As it heavily indicates that the film would be a fantasy adventure film, but it's actually a slice-of-life one and the scene shown in the poster only lasts for about a minute in the film itself.
 * 2) The part where Sugimura confess his feelings to Shizuku felt abrupt and out of nowhere and served no purpose to the story.

Reception
Whisper of the Heart has a 94% critic rating and a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.9/5 on Letterboxd, an 8/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), an 8.3/10 on MyAnimeList, an 82.65% user approval rating on Kitsu, and a 4/5 on AnimePlanet.

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