Some Studio Ghibli are classics … and some are not. Today’s film is the latter. I saw it making its cicada-like 30-year anniversary appearance, and -like the cicadas- it disappeared immediately to be forgotten until the cycle renews. Whisper of the Heart is a very slight feel-good young romance, emphasis on slight. Much as the film is about young people challenging themselves, I can’t be sure either of these two actually put their hearts out on the line. Instead, they were just kinda whispered. Fitting, no?
Shizuku is a 14-year-old girl totally into books. One day she comes home with a backpack full of pleasure reads from the library only to discover that some have already been checked out by somebody named Seiji. Foreshadowing 
really doesn’t get any easier than this, my homies.
A couple notes here: Card catalogs! Check out slips! I had no idea no idea how dated this film was, but I’d guess that the viewers who match the ages of Shizuku and Seiji will not understand the mechanisms of library past. Heck, they may not even get the concept of a “library.” The film opens with a cover for “Country Roads,” a horribly out-of-place tune when juxtaposed with bustling Tokyo, where the film is set. I thought this was an odd inclusion – ironic, perhaps? Only to discover this is the major subplot. Aspiring writer Shizuku keeps re-inventing lyrics to “Country Roads.” In fact, it’s part of her meetcute with Seiji.
Long story short, Shizuku becomes obsessed with the kid who keeps pre-checking out her reads only to realize Seiji is a kid she knows by sight already and dislikes. Isn’t that always the case? Naturally, her feelings soften when she follows a cat (every cat in a Studio Ghibli film has an agenda) to an antique store only to discover Seiji is the grandson of the owner because of course he is.
Well, gosh darnit; this romance just has to happen doesn’t it? Well … that is after Seiji finishes his
extended violin-carving apprenticeship in Cremona, Italy, of course. Isn’t that always the case?
I’m slowly getting around to all the Hayao Miyazaki films. Miyazaki only wrote this one, but it’s certainly in tune with the genre. I’m always amazed at how Ghibli presents the fantastical (here in the form of a cat statue brought to life through fiction) and decides to make such entirely humorless. Is it an American trait only to find cartoons funny? Thinking back, I suppose anime like “Speed Racer” certainly had humor, but it was always comic relief; it never had anything to do with the players. I’m never going to get that.
As for Whisper of the Heart itself, if you need to love it, you can … but there is no shortage of better similar films. Better young romances, better animated romances, better Miyazakis, better Stupid Ghiblis, etc. There is very good chance that I will watch this again in thirty years, forgetting that I’d already seen it.
There once was a girl named Shizuku
Who preferred reading books to Sudoku
Her imagination was charmed
And entirely disarmed
By the 1990s equivalent of Roku
Rated G, 111 Minutes
Director: Yoshifumi Kondô
Writer: Aoi Hiiragi, Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: A logical approach to romance
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Romantics so hopeless they’ll settle for junior high
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “There really isn’t a whole lot in this film, is there?”
