Tonight on Netflix: An unfairly overlooked Ghibli flick

Shizuku Tsukishima, a 14-year-old high school student, is a dreamer and obsessed with novels and short stories. He often borrows books from his library. But one day, on the borrowed pages of the novel, he notices the mysterious Amasawa Seiji reading the exact same works in front of him.

Surprised, Shizuku wants to know more about this stranger. Then she accidentally meets a young guy who she initially finds very annoying… not surprised when she discovers that he is Amasawa Seiji. But his feelings for her will quickly change and she will help him realize his talent as a writer…

Since arriving in 1987 as a Studio Ghibli mainstay alongside Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, Yoshifumi Kondo has been one of the studio’s most brilliant character designers and lead animators. He worked notably on Princess Mononoke, Tomb of the Fireflies, Porco Rosso, Kiki the Little Witch… He was also considered the successor of Hayao Miyazaki.

For his first performance at Ghibli, Kondo accepted Miyazaki’s proposal to direct Si tu tense l’oreille, based on the manga of the same name. Although the latter was involved in the creation of the film, the work remains Kondo’s original work.

Unfortunately, Yoshifumi Kondo died suddenly in 1998 at the age of 47 from a ruptured aneurysm, which was one of the reasons for Miyazaki’s retirement that year, although he later changed his mind several times later.

Kondo’s only achievement if you listen It is a brilliant film, with graceful and elegant animation, between scenes of reverie and the concern of realism deeply embedded in the everyday life of its main character.

A must-see or discover little gem whose notoriety is often (and unfairly) completely overshadowed by other, more famous Ghibli works. The film won’t be available in France until 2015, when it will be released straight to DVD/Blu-ray.