A Fitting Swansong For Ghibli’s Final Bow

Just recently, I did a one-off Blog Post about ending sequences and climaxes to films and how the best of these closing scenes, can simply manage to not only finish-off the contextual aspect of the narrative, but also provide meaning and emphasis towards the characters and themes that are on display, whether it’s in a positive or negative manner. While it can be argued that, in their highly marvelled yet artistic body of work, that Studio Ghibli don’t typically feature films that are renowned for their endings, and are instead known for their attention in meshing realism and fantasy as a whole, in recent years, Ghibli certainly know how to milk you with an emotional conclusion. It has been 3 years since Hayao Miyazaki, the former Japanese animations figure-head and conjurer-in-chief of Ghibli’s wondrous enterprise, announced his retirement after the release of The Wind Rises which has subsequently been the catalyst of this arguable decline of low quality and production in Japanese animated film-making. The Wind Rises, along with Isao Takahata’s  The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, are master-works that eclipse Ghibli’s expectations of bowing out of the game, if this is their end that is. They’re films that certainly provided an emotional edge to them, reflecting to us the extraordinary aspects of what animation can uphold. Their potentially last film of When Marnie Was There, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s second full-length feature animation, undoubtedly does this as well; sweeping you over with its tender, whisper-delicate charm. While it may not have the outlandish fantastical spectacle that you normally associate with Ghibli, what you do get in abundance with When Marnie Was There, is a supernatural and mysterious tale that is mature in it’s story-telling; exploring the deepest and darkest emotions a child can go through, and is accompanied by beautiful animation that makes this film live up to its poetic nature.

Based on the 1967 novel by English author Joan G. Robinson, Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There centres its story on Anna Sasaki, a timid and introverted 12 year-old girl who’s sent by her foster parents to family friends near the seaside in the summer, in the hope that the clear air and fresh surroundings might ease her asthma and be more open to making friends, rather than being a nervous back at home. Upon her arrival, Anna becomes entranced with this old mansion on the far side of a stretch of marshland. She keeps finding herself drawn to this European styled mansion as though its something that she has seen before. Through many sketches and attempts of walking up to the mansion, Anna subsequently investigates to which, through a glowing window, she momentarily glimpses a blonde girl of similar age, who is revealed to be Marnie…

One of the main things to take away from Ghibli’s potentially last film, is how subtly different it is compared to the majority of works that we associate with Ghibli. For sure, like with so many Studio Ghibli films, When Marnie Was There  focuses its story around a young girl in the form of Anna who is essentially learning and developing into a more mature and social individual as well as solving the mystery surrounding Marnie and the mansion, very much echoing previous Ghibli characters of Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service and Chihiro from Spirited Away who both grow consistently throughout their own film as individuals. But what is apparent that distinguishes this film from a lot of other Studio Ghibli films, is this rather extremely mysterious yet oddly spooky and eerie contextual aspect that makes this film an engaging watch for all age groups. Don’t get me wrong, there is still some of that Ghibli charm, with the main protagonist of Anna connecting with Marnie at first as though they were sisters sharing their secrets with one another and playing within the mansion that Marnie lives in, Yonebayashi develops a nice pacing to the consistency of the much more serious and darker themes. Evidently, the film gets to nice point where the narrative turns into an engaging/supernatural tale, where we see Anna trying to crack down who Marnie exactly, which in turn, brings a new fresh of depth within the Ghibli films and in animation in general. It’s not often you find an animation these days both from the West or the East, that extensively lurches towards a story that focuses on a complementing blend of the subtlety of the paranormal and well constructed melodramatic intricacies. Even the frames of Anna approaching the mansion earlier on in the film, very much parallel that of James Watkins’ 2012 thriller/horror The Woman In Black. To give away the precise nature of the girls’ relationship would be cheap to say, but the manner in which the epilogue comes about, will leave you either mentally or physically tear-eyed. What was even more impressive of this film’s contextual elements being presented in a manner that it should, is how also the beautiful and atmospheric animation contributed to the set-pieces of the major plot-points. Indeed, Ghibli throughout their 25 year existence, have been masters of their craft in producing hand-drawn animation that is seamlessly gorgeous, in scenery and detail, compared to Western animation whom to which, don’t always employ the old favoured ways; turning their artistic minds towards computer-generated. When Marnie Was There takes their animation a step-further however, as Yonebayashi utilises the animation in a contextual manner for the more emotional and tense circumstances such as the sequence where Anna, roughly mid-way through the 2nd half of the film, is searching for Marnie in the abandoned silo in which we see a spectacle of rain and thunderstorm, followed up with a dream-like representation of Marnie being carried away into a white light. It is these filmic scenes in Yonebayashi’s film, that keeps us, the audience, fixated on the story and what ordeals the characters are going through.

Speaking of which, what was also pleasing to see from a Studio Ghibli film that wasn’t directed by either Miyazaki or Takahata, is how compelling and somewhat relatable the characters are. One of the problems that I do have with the Studio Ghibli films that aren’t directed by either Miyazaki or Takahata, is how they don’t necessarily offer an ‘angle’, as it were, to the overall experience of the story; most of the time they can come across as bland  characters that audiences can’t 100% attach to. With the characters in this however, you do get this attachment which is shown through the two main 12 year old girls of the story, Anna and Marnie. As mentioned before, the two coming of age females, when they’re together act as though they were sisters, by running around the mansion together and sharing secrets, questions, and feelings of ambivalence towards their parents between themselves. But there are also two things to consider as well. The first, is how they juxtapose between themselves, despite them acting as though they are sisters. In many ways, Marnie is Anna’s opposite; she’s warm, confident and expressive. Whereas Anna is uncouthly, awkward around those who are friendly to her and spends most of her time drawing in her sketchpad. But it’s their relationship throughout the story that evolves the two main heroines; with Anna not only figuring out the mystery surrounding Marnie, but also improving on a person and being more open to people that she cares or hates. This in return, echoes my 2nd point about the characters, of how relatable these characters can be for younger audiences. Despite their only being a small handful of characters, the film itself presents some of the realities of growing up that children more or less, need to be known aware of. While it’s a minute part of the film, a good example of this being shown is the scuffle between Anna and another girl at a festival in which Anna, spitefully, tells the girl upfront, that she is fat. But towards the end of the film, we see Anna, fully-changed from her acquaintances with Marnie, apologise to the girl she offended at the festival. It is these characteristic yet realistic intricacies that make When Marnie Was There, stand out from a lot of other Ghibli and Japanese animated films.

The only criticism that I do have with Ghibli’s potentially last run out into film production, is that within certain moments of the film, the mystery of the story and the puzzle pieces we are presented to solve as a voyeur, can be puzzling. The mystery element of the film, while incredibly engrossing, can every once and a while get a little too puzzling for its own good. But, once the film enters into the final stages of the story, it does become clear enough as to what this subtly spooky tale is trying to convey to us.

Over the many years that they’ve been in production, Studio Ghibli, whether you’re affiliated with them or not, have become this de facto figure for hand-drawn animation. While, in my own opinion, I don’t think that this will be the last time we see a feature-length Ghibli animation on the silver screen, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There is the perfect film to end Ghibli’s tree-decade run. If you are someone who is very much ensnared by past works of Ghibli, then it is required viewing, as it is one of their best filmic works. Quite simply,the film is a small emotional tale that won’t fail to move you. It not only has a mysterious narrative that meshes well with the beautiful animation, but it displays character depth on a realistic and mature note that all demographics can watch with great satisfaction. Even though it is one of the more different Ghibli films to see, it’s a Japanese animation film, non-the-less, that correctly sweeps over you emotionally and can be considered as the perfect goodbye… for now.

For sure, When Marnie Was There goes in accordance with the best that Ghibli have had to offer and I hope some of you can watch this film, in the U.K, when it’s released into cinemas around the country starting on the 10th of June. A always everyone, than-you for reading my latest film review and I hope you’ve enjoyed the read. If any of you have actually watched the film and have an opinion on the film or on what I have said, feel free to drop a comment down below. I will be back next week with another film review. So until then, thank-you once again and have a good day! Take care! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte