Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: If You Listen Carefully, Ghibli Movie 10

Japanese: 耳をすませば

More titles

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 15, 1995

Producers: Tokuma Shoten

Licensors: Disney Platform Distribution, GKIDS

Studios: Studio Ghibli

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Romance

Demographic: Shoujo

Duration: 1 hr. 51 min.

Rating: G - All Ages

Statistics

Score: 8.22¹ (scored by 205,415 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #342²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #646

Members: 363,127

Favorites: 5,076

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Streaming Platforms

Netflix

May be unavailable in your region.

8.22

Ranked #342Popularity #646Members 363,127

MovieStudio Ghibli

Add to My List

Episodes: /1

Trailer English sub version

play

Synopsis

Shizuku Tsukishima is an energetic 14-year-old girl who enjoys reading and writing poetry in her free time. Glancing at the checkout cards of her books one evening, she notices that her library books are frequently checked out by a boy named Seiji Amasawa. Curiosity strikes Shizuku, and she decides to search for the boy who shares her love for literature.

Meeting a peculiar cat on the train, Shizuku follows the animal and is eventually led to a quaint antique shop, where she learns about a cat statuette known as "The Baron." Taking an interest in the shop, she surprisingly finds Seiji, and the two quickly befriend one another. Shizuku learns while acquainting herself with Seiji that he has a dream that he would like to fulfill, causing her dismay as she remains uncertain of her future and has yet to recognize her talents.

However, as her relationship with Seiji grows, Shizuku becomes determined to work toward a goal. Guided by the whispers of her heart and inspiration from The Baron, she resolves to carve out her own potential and dreams.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

Mimi wo Sumaseba is the highest-grossing Japanese film of 1995 and the first Japanese film that used the Dolby Digital sound format.

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Mimi wo Sumaseba
Spin-off:	Neko no Ongaeshi

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Tsukishima, Shizuku

Main

Honna, Youko
Japanese

Amasawa, Seiji

Main

Takahashi, Issei
Japanese

Baron Humbert von Gikkingen

Supporting

Moon, Renaldo

Supporting

Nishi, Shirou

Supporting

Kobayashi, Keijuu
Japanese

Tsukishima, Shiho

Supporting

Yamashita, Yorie
Japanese

Tsukishima, Seiya

Supporting

Tachibana, Takashi
Japanese

Harada, Yuuko

Supporting

Yoshiyama, Maiko
Japanese

Tsukishima, Asako

Supporting

Muroi, Shigeru
Japanese

Kinuyo

Supporting

Iizuka, Mayumi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Miyazaki, Hayao

Producer, Storyboard, Creator, Screenplay

Suzuki, Toshio

Producer

Kondou, Yoshifumi

Director, Key Animation

Asari, Naoko

Sound Director

Edit

Opening Theme

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" by Olivia Newton-John

Edit

Ending Theme

"Country Road (カントリー・ロード)" by Youko Honna

Reviews

Dec 2, 2023

Halcyon13

Recommended

Ambition is contagious, and Mimi wo Sumaseba stands in a separate category among Studio Ghibli's filmography. It manufactured a subdued idea of romanticism, in this case, toward the arts. Even as I say this, I'm still inclined to maintain neutrality regarding Yoshifumi Kondou's direction slightly deviating from what had been established by Miyazaki and Takahata alternating up to that point (excluding Umi ga Kikoeru) because the film's reserved personality is not without its pros and cons. Two students stumble upon a chance encounter through books, sparking a connection that's only genuinely romantic in its outcome, not subtext. It's unclear when their relationship takes that substantial ...

Open

Gift

Mar 1, 2024

OhsnapitsDavid

Mixed Feelings

The reason I only gave this movie is a 9 is because it's sort of clickbait in both the "whimsical" look of the cover image, and the description of the movie itself paints the story differently than what it is: a mundane tale of a girl just going to school.

If the movie started out by what it attempts to achieve in the first place, then this movie would no doubt be a masterpiece.

Unfortunately, this is more about a movie about a young school girl, who has an ordinary school life, and nothing is happening in a plot. So, if I just wanted to watch ...

Open

Gift

May 8, 2021

pichuscute

Not Recommended

I'm not really sure what happened here. I'm a massive fan of Ghibli, particularly of their more human stories (When Marnie Was There, From Up On Poppy Hill, Totoro, Ocean Waves, etc.). I read the manga this movie is based on and absolutely loved it. And yet... I hated this. Like, really hated it. I guess I better dive into why.

Story:
You already get a general description, so I won't go into it here, but the story here diverges a good bit from what is seen in the original manga. And most of it actually makes very little sense in context. It feels like they ... filled in the details, like they do so well in other Ghibli movies, but here they failed to take any care in HOW they filled those details in.

Important events are missing or entirely changed to remove their original meanings. Important details about characters are changed or removed, leaving far less of an impact and causing the relationships to feel far less believable. Some characters are even missing outright, like one of the cats or Seiji's older brother, both of which were very major parts of why the original story worked so well. The tone from the original is also quite different, putting a weird focus on the bustling city for some reason, which muddies the message a bit imo. And finally, the antique shop doesn't even look to be a shop at all for some reason, which really kills a lot of the awe there.

Frankly put, they really failed here somehow. I don't know what happened, but it was very disappointing, unfortunately.

Art:
This review won't be all negative, though. If Ghibli manages anything well, it's usually the art. And this movie is no exception. In fact, it might be the best example of their work from a realistic setting. The backgrounds in particular are just absolutely gorgeous and it makes me want to go to this city. If I have one gripe, it's that many of the locations changed how they look compared to the original story, sometimes in ways that don't make as much sense, but the art is still drawn well either way.

Sound:
On the other hand, this is the worst OST in a Ghibli movie, by far. I didn't realize an OST could be bad in a Ghibli movie until watching this and I'm still in awe a bit. The big problem here is the abysmal and repetitive use of the god-awful song "Country Roads" throughout the movie. This song has nothing to do with the source material at all (in fact, there was no topic of music in the manga at all), but it's EVERYWHERE here. You hear renditions of this song 3 times in a row in the first 10 minutes. And it just keeps bringing it back over and over and over. The 7th or 8th time I'd heard it was my breaking point and I stopped watching. I was only halfway through the movie...

This would be a lot less bad if the other music was any good, but outside of one scene at night, I can't say I enjoyed any of the other music in the OST either. It really feels like the composer just couldn't be arsed to make a proper theme and the director had some really bad ideas for the story, so they came together to make a special kind of shitshow. To be clear, they rewrote key details about the main characters just to shoehorn this song in as much as possible. Seiji is supposed to be an artist, not a musician. And Shizuka is supposed to be convinced to write from Seiji, not because of this shitty song. I hate it.

Character:
Since much of my complaints with the characters are intertwined with portions of what I've said already, I won't restate much here. But the combination of removing major characters, changing key details of characters, and changing character relationships to make them get along less makes the characters far less enjoyable than any Ghibli movie should be able to manage. Beyond what I've mentioned already, I think my biggest disappointment here was how they managed to change "Moon" from the type of cat in Cat Returns (which was also how this cat was designed in the original manga) to some ugly fat one instead. Not only is this change arbitrary, but it also just ends up making quite a few things make a lot less sense in the end...

Enjoyment/Overall:
Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this much. I did appreciate the art, but as a movie and a story, it's just not good at all. I would recommend reading the original manga, but stay well clear of this unless you really need to. And definitely don't try it if you can't stomach listening to "Country Roads" like 20 times within a couple hours, ugh.

In the end, it was great source material absolutely destroyed by bad execution, unfortunately.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Student Romances

by Majoux

50 Entries · 419 Restacks

List of movies by Studio Ghibli and it's branch studio.

by ZXEAN

28 Entries · 3 Restacks

Comfort Anime

by denkies

18 Entries · 21 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

North American Anime & Manga Releases for March

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for March Week 1: March 2 - 8 Anime Releases Amaenaide yo!! (Ah My Buddha!!) Blu-ray Aragne no Mushikago (Arag...read more

Mar 1, 2021 6:50 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (3 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for January

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for January Week 1: January 2 - 8 Anime Releases Kiss Dum: Engage Planet (incl. Meguriahi & Omokage) Compl...read more

Jan 1, 2018 10:02 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (7 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Mimi wo Sumaseba Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Beatnik - Jul 9, 2008	159 replies	by Cosplay_Joe »» Mar 23, 7:14 PM
Very overrated xONLYINHUMANx - Jul 9, 2023	22 replies	by KayKimii »» Jul 13, 2023 9:43 PM
Dub Discussion JTurner - May 2, 2009	12 replies	by jamsndu84 »» Jul 29, 2022 4:11 AM
Where tf did yall watch this doodlenoodle613 - Jun 12, 2021	20 replies	by MrFanatic »» May 13, 2022 7:11 PM
Giving proper kudos to Yoshifumi Kondo T-Wazoo - Dec 3, 2021	1 replies	by iDenisade »» Dec 3, 2021 9:25 PM

Recent Featured Articles

Top 20 Best Anime Movies to Kick-Start 2016

Tons of good anime movies have been made over the years. But why settle for good? We present to you a list of not 5, not 10, but 20 of some of the best anime movies in existence! Dig in and find some new and interesting Japanese animated movies to watch this year!

by samcook

345,059 views

Recommendation Collection Ghibli

Top 27 Best Hayao Miyazaki Anime Movies [Updated]

Hayao Miyazaki, one of the most famous directors in the world, has produced many extraordinary works such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Take a look at our countdown of Studio Ghibli films directed by Hayao Miyazaki based on MAL user ratings!

by Camelot3

371,170 views

Recommendation Collection Cute Girls Director Heart-warming Magical Family Supernatural GIF Ghibli

Mimi wo Sumaseba

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Tsukishima, Shizuku

Amasawa, Seiji

Baron Humbert von Gikkingen

Moon, Renaldo

Nishi, Shirou

Tsukishima, Shiho

Tsukishima, Seiya

Harada, Yuuko

Tsukishima, Asako

Kinuyo

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Mimi wo Sumaseba

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-