Omoide no Marnie is yet another superb piece from Studio Ghibli. This time narrating a tale crafted by Joan G. Robinson and being the second movie of the studio directed by Hiromasa. The result is simply impressive. This is a story of sadness, isolation, prejudice, and discovery. It is a movie that can bring about many emotions at different moments, an experience worthy of the studio’s name.

The tale is about Anna, an adopted young girl with no place in the world. She feels rejected, she feels out of the world. Her appearance is part to blame, being different from the others around her, but her health problems and the sensation she has that her foster parents don’t like her make her world an impossible place to live. This all start to change when she is sent to a small fisherman village with the hopes of alleviating her ashtma, yet there she befriends the mysterious Marnie from the Marsh House, a girl Anna doesn’t know is real or not.

Modern issues, real problems, a real protagonist

Omoide no Marnie starts its good run when it picks a young girl with problems you can truly understand. She is a shy girl, truly shy, and she feels she is out of the norm, different, mistreated, lost in the world. Anna shows that in her behavior every scene, she acts accordingly to what you could expect and surprise you by staying natural and interesting in every situation. There are no forced events upon her, she doesn’t do things unmatching her personality for the sake of progressing the plot, instead the plot progresses according to her behavior, and that’s a necessity for a great show.

And it’s fuc*n Ghibli

I don’t typically venerate animation studios, but from Ghibli you can expect a set of production value from another world. Omoide no Marnie is no exception. The studio signature is there, with expressive characters, fluid animation, and an attention to detail which is simply outstanding. Every tiny movement from Anna, every piece in her aunt’s messy house, every scenery shot is a piece of work you can observe in awe.

It has a tale worthy being told

Using this amazing production value is a tale about a mysterious friend you can’t easily dismiss as real, imaginary, a ghost, or anything else. Marnie makes you wonder about what is happening, makes you care about her friendship with Anna, about their incredible loving bond as they forge in such a short moment. Marnie break’s Anna’s barrier, and the two nicely lead the show around with the aide of simple, yet charming side characters.

It can get sad

With expressive characters and a tale about the loneliness of Anna, Omoide no Marnie is bound to be sad, and it is. There are many moments of tension, drama, and moments bringing the inner emotions of the audience. It gets even stronger by the end, when you slowly understands who is Marnie and how it is much more important than you could have ever thought during the movie. It is a surprising closure that works not only to make you care about the movie, but also evokes some memories of your own. When a show manages to do that, you can’t get more saddened than that. There is a catch however, this last moment tool may work only on the older audiences, especially those who have felt and forged a similar bond as Anna’s at some point, but anyone can feel the emotions it evoke to some degree.

Omoide no Marnie is amazing. It is kind of hard to say it is one of the best Ghibli movies because many of them are amazing, but this certainly succeeds in evoking feelings that can catch the older audience off-guard and may appeal less to children. This is a sad tale about lost memories, about being isolated from society because you are different, about Japan’s invisible barrier against foreigners, about a kid thinking her foster parents care for them only to earn money.

There is a lot going on on Anna’s life for such a short moment as in the movie, and it is all resolved in a timely fashion and with the typical charm you already know from Studio Ghibli. An amazing piece of work. If you are into sad tales you should watch it, there are very few shows in the industry to bring out your emotions such as this.