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THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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Music is Jazz feel, which is nice.

This movie talks about the main guy and main girl falling in love, and about their fathers on ship (mysteries on who is which father). At first they thought falling in love is impossible but it's possible.

Even though the voices are somehow weird for non seiyuu doing them, but I think I can accept them (especially the main guy is voiced by one of the members of V6, idol group).

The megane guy, the student council rep. (who was Yugi) has a nice singing voice.

Just finished the movie. It was a pretty good watch. I particularly enjoyed the soundtrack.

I found Kokurikozaka Kara very enjoyable! Comments I've read which allude to the film's "slow pace" and unremarkable characters, I believe, are misrepresentations of it's subtlety.

Besides being beautifully drawn, great care was taken in the characters' facial expressions and body language. These were not mere cartoon characters. They were real people in animation form. I found the lack of the typical fare of exaggerated reactions to be refreshing.

Care was also taken in creating the feel of the time in which this story takes place. Of course there were visual cues, as well as references within the dialogue, but the stories secondary to the main arc made for a rich, immersive experience.

I don't often re-watch shows/films, but if I happened upon this somewhere down the line, I don't think I'd have any trouble getting into it.

The acting was very subdued and down-to-earth just like the whole movie itself. The romantic subplot with the misinterpretation could have been incredibly melodramatic if done wrong but thankfully it remained realistic thanks to the mature and level-headed protagonists.

It was a nice watch, with a good accompanying soundtrack and setting. It had the nostalgia of other Ghibli films, like that of Whisper of the Heart, but not nearly as memorable, both in story and characterization.

What it lacked was a clear theme. The activism and Latin Quarters affair was fun, and the sibling situation was somewhat interesting, but there wasn't a strong enough connection between the two. The two events involved the two main characters, but the relation ends there, and isn't enough.

I also felt more could have been done with the setting, but that's minor. The Ghibli faces also bothered me a bit more than in the other movies, because of the sibling situation. Albeit being a bit lacking and disconnected, it was a fine movie, with the usual charm of a Ghibli film.

I actually really liked it! The setting was beautiful and I loved the scene in Tokyo near the harbour and the train where Umi told Shuu that she still liked him.

I didn't so much like the whole "Oh my god we're siblings so we can't be together. Oh wait, we're not, yay!" plotline but I guess it turned out okay. The ending song was great.

I REALLY LOVE THIS!
Before, I read that a lot of people overestimated this movie so they felt a bit disappointed while watching this.
When the trailer was out, I knew I would already love this. Today, I try not to expect too much of this, but it turns out that I really don't mind if the story was super simple or mundane. I really like this era in Japan. I like Ghibli (especially like kind of character design). I like it when there are students in Ghibli's works. I like strong protagonists. I like Aoi Teshima. I like pure and sweet love. I like how the people are differents than how they are now. This movie is perfect too me and bring a smile to my face. :)

Between, did anyone notice that the big boat is called Ghibli?

Question: Why does everyone call Umi "meru"? Mail?

I loved it, it feels great that father and son managed to make this together even if seems that it was a real struggle for them both according to the NHK documentary...

Anyone know where I can watch the documentary with English subs? I've found it here, but no subs -_-

http://wildgrounds.com/2011/12/22/the-making-of-ghiblis-from-up-on-poppy-hill/

This was just perfect to me. I enjoyed the subtlety of the storytelling, and the artwork was superb. Who could forget Umi and Shun, and the biggest character of all: the Latin Quarter clubhouse?

I think part of the reason for the negative responses I've been seeing is that many Ghibili fans are more accustomed to the fantasy and action of Miyazaki Hayao's films, which have become so synonymous with the studio. They have big, loud stories and characters that have inspired even the most unaccustomed viewer of Japanese animation.

But this isn't exactly an unprecedented work for them. What this film really shows off is Ghibil's consistent attention to detail and passion for their art.

Personally, I have a passion for slice-of-life tales and so was absolutely enthralled by the simple stories being told in this film. I couldn't get enough of the clubhouse especially, and the film warrants a rewatch just to catch all that glorious detail a second time around.

In my opinion, this surpasses Ponyo (though I adore that film as well), which was painted in such big strokes and had those loud characters, but didn't have quite the level of visual detail as this. In fact, Poppy Hill is a fine follow up to Arietty, which was also an incredibly detailed film.

I think this is a fine sign of things to come at Ghibli, and I look forward to their next masterpiece.

This is as of now my 2nd favorite Ghibli movie after Whisper of the Heart, it's so very enjoyable.

It's a wordplay. “Umi” means “sea” in japanese, and “meru” (pronounced “mer”) is the French word for “sea”. That connects to the French that is established in the title: "Kokuriko" is “Coquelicot”, "poppy" in French.

Ohhh! I see! Thank you so much for clarifying this! It makes sense now. Even though Meru doesn't sound like "mer" at all in french. XD

Fair enough, my french mostly consists of words that are replaced by various characters due to censorship xD

Personally, I enjoyed this movie a lot. The scenery, soundtrack, the voice acting, even the characters were perfect to me (even though some people say they weren't as memorable as others), but the storyline about being siblings but then nope they're not it's a little cliché and has been used so many times in movies and series.

Even though, they managed to give a good ending to it, and thank god it wasn't all about Umi crying because they were brothers. I liked how she got over it and just continued with her life.

Also, I appreciate this kind of ghibli movies, were there's nothing "magic". Just normal people with "normal" problems and lifestyles, like in Whisper of the Heart.

I'm not the fan of Ghibli. Or more correctly I don't really fond of their main "fairytale-like" stiorys. But this one was really good. Maybe I should watch Whisper of the Heart now.

If you're curious, the flag signal that keeps reappearing in the film means "Have a safe voyage."



Also, when Shun first hoists the flags from the tug boat, the triangular flag above these two is the answering pennant, which means he is replying to Umi.

I'm a sucker for Ghibli movies and this one yet again made me smile. I really enjoyed the story and art. It was an emotional roller coaster of seeing whether or not the main characters were siblings or not. I'm probably over rating it, but I give it a 9/10.

Can't say it was much better then mediocre. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly good either. On the same level as Arriety. It had a surprising lack of creativity for a Ghibli film.

Completely agree.

To put it simply, this Ghibli was LAME.

Nice ending though.
The ending tried too hard to make up for the lame movie.