Coquelicot-zaka kara

This movie to me is just so charming. It's really cute and that's about all there is to it. It's a fluff-filled romance, not much drama, and not much action. It's the type of movie you'd watch in bed at night to wash away stress. The story, as well as the characters, are simple, making for a rather short and simple but still cute movie.

The art was great and was overall very colorful and pleasant on the eyes. There was one setting in particular, the culture club, that I found very enjoyable. There was so much to look at, similar to the way Howls ... room from HMC or the bathhouse from Spirited Away were designed. Studio Ghibli once again pulls through with the art.

As for how enjoyable it was, I remember the first time I saw this movie, I watched it twice in one night and then twice again the next night, and once more the night after that. Safe to say I enjoyed it ':)

Dig it hard. 60’s slice of life is my favourite underused genre. Holy shit I vibe with the style of this movie so much. Goro Miyazaki took his skills from Earthsea and put it into a realistic but bloody charming little venture. The cool side stores, the vintage uniforms and how people store potatoes in secret trap doors. It’s so cool to watch and I feel the vibe of living in this time and having a sense of ambition and life. The way how (Hayao)Miyazaki has approached his films has always had this sense of focusing on children’s world views and making them act. Goro ... raises it up so damn much the kids are running a crazy democracy village society all in an old extracurricular building. And the passion is hilarious. The enthusiasm brought from each tiny moment we see of the clubs is so great to watch. And this metaphor of using past skill and using it bring enjoyment into our lives and futures might be similar to what Goro Miyazaki’s experience was. Wanting to preserve and keep the passion of animation alive instead of it being torn down by a flashy consumer lifestyle. And I think it’s reflected well in the main girl. A totally fitting Ghibli girl with her kind and comittied attitudes and wanting to keep everyone around her comforted and stable. The parallels can be seen their and how she raises her flags as a sign of guidance hoping that people of her past will know where to go and see her. But she’s able to find new people she can stick by and walk her own path beside with confidence. I think this actually works better for an animator’s metaphor more so than Mary and The Witches Flower. Instead how this is cemented in a companies future. And the growth of the characters is a progressive step to continue on instead of a strange end to the beginning. I quite enjoyed this film despite having to borrow two scratched dvds to play it. But it was worth the weight.

From Up on Poppy Hill is about the people left at home after a war. There is rebuilding and housekeeping to do, and is set in a time where the youth began to demand a voice. Students having a big voice proved to be one of the big cultural errors of the 20th century, but this movie justifies its perspective well. The Latin Quarter is a beautiful building and setting so much in that location added to the atmosphere. I enjoyed this movie and the gentle story it was telling until it gave us an incest scare, which though defused later left a sour taste ... for the rest of the movie.
Other than the narrative blunder and the unsavoury premise, this was a charming movie worth a watch.

Poppy Hill is a straight up slice of life romance with no fantasy elements at all, except perhaps the fantasy that a Japanese high school student finding out the girl he likes is his blood-related sister would somehow turn him off from pursuing a romantic relationship with her. Have they never seen anime before? If anything it'd make him more willing to go after her, the pervert.

Okay so perhaps I've watched one too many modern light novel adaptations where brother x sister romance is treated less like an obstacle and more like the main goal, and perhaps Miyazaki was right that anime was a mistake ... (he never really said that, but something pretty close.) I think it would have been more dramatic to have to see these two learn to deal with the fact that they're siblings than the cop-out ending we got. Only time I've ever seen a story try to tackle something like that was Xenocide, and nobody wants to remember reading Xenocide.

The cleaning of the old school building was fun and I like all the tertiary cast and various club leaders. There's a real sense of camaraderie and history permeates the school scenes and it almost makes you feel like part of that group. Overall I had a fun time watching this, and while I said a minute ago that the ending was lame it's still fine. I like happy endings even when I think something a little more mature would have been more interesting. So I give this an 8/10 overall.

This review contains *SPOILERS*.
Watched in Sub/Dub: Sub

Story: 7/10
From Up On Poppy Hill follows Umi, a high school girl who’s still grieving her late father and simultaneously doing housework for her sisters and grandmother as her mother is away studying in the United States. At the high school, the boys at the school are deeply upset that their clubhouse is to be demolished in order to make way for a new building. In a grand demonstration, Shun jumps off the roof of the high school into a small pool. Shun subsequently meets Umi and catches the attention of all the girls at school. Umi and her ... sister visit Shun at the clubhouse, only to find that the beloved building is in dire need of a cleanup/makeover. Determined to help her new friend, Umi gathers up the girls at school to help the boys clean up their clubhouse and win over those who want to demolish it.
Whew, now this plot seems like enough on its own, but to add even more to the story, Umi and Shun have started a little romance. Upon visiting Umi’s house though, Shun discovers that they have the same father. Tensions are strained as the two teens attempt to fix up the clubhouse and navigate their confusing relationship. Unable to overcome their passion, Umi and Shun confess their love to each other while still thinking they’re related. *pukes in mouth*. When Umi’s mother returns from the United States, she works with Shun’s adopted father in order to uncover the mystery behind Shun’s biological father. The film is resolved by having a mutual friend of both Umi and Shun’s fathers explain that they aren’t related.
Yikes… Well I definitely can’t describe this film as boring. Overall the plot is pretty interesting, if not extremely stereotypical. Most anime fanatics have most likely seen a “Oh no our club is going to be disbanded, we must save it!” anime, they’re pretty hard to miss considering that it’s most plots to any sports, school, or slice-of-life anime. They must’ve been shutting down clubs like crazy back in the day because these writers are obviously scarred. The seemingly incestuous plot is also an unfortunate anime trope as well. While From Up On Poppy Hill does take a significantly more tame approach to it than most other anime, it’s still a not-totally-uncommon route to take. So while people who don’t watch a lot of anime will see this as a shocking turn of events, this plot ends up being pretty generic in terms of anime tropes.

Art: 8/10
I appreciate that Goro Miyazaki stuck with his father’s style in his sophomore film. It’s well executed, and overall pleasing to the eye. 8/10 because it doesn’t strike me as particularly beautiful or extraordinary compared to other Studio Ghibli works.

Sound/Soundtrack: 8/10
The soundtrack to From Up On Poppy Hill is charming and well-done. “The Breakfast Song” is especially cute. Not to be redundant in all of my reviews, but this soundtrack also does not carry it’s own character to it. The music is obviously meant to be pleasant background music to whatever is happening on screen. I would give a higher score if it had its own character and story to tell as the soundtrack to Princess Mononoke does. This being said, it’s still good and I will be listening to it the next time I clean.

Character: 9/10
I think the characters in From Up On Poppy Hill are overall better written and more substantial than a lot of Studio Ghibli works. I apologize for not being able to articulate what exactly is different about these characters than say, the ones in The Secret World of Arrietty, but they just seem much more “real”. I have no experience in writing/developing characters. Shun and Umi’s separate reactions to finding out they’re related, for example, feel genuine. The embarrassment and shame they carry, in my view, makes for well-developed and realistic characters rather than having them both shout, “Nani?!” or the Ghibli equivalent to that. Studio Ghibli often creates characters that have over dramatic reactions, which works for many of Hayao Miyazaki’s works, but makes the characters feel empty in other directors’ works like Isao Takahata. From Up On Poppy Hill strikes a nice balance between realistic reactions and overdramatic fun. Overall, I enjoyed watching the characters interact and at least sort-of cared about many of them.

Enjoyment: 7/10
I really enjoyed the scenes of the students cleaning up their clubhouse and bonding over that shared experience. If the plot hadn’t turned from siblings to incest so quickly, I think I would’ve also found the sibling scare interesting as well. For instance, if Umi and Shun had just been really good friends and had found out they’d been related this whole time. But alas, we instead got a love confession when they still thought they were related which really just sullies the whole work for me.

Overall: 7/10
If it wasn’t a cringe-worthy lovers to siblings to lovers plot I would give it a higher score. Honestly, it’s a pretty good film but I think we could’ve all lived without ever needing to see a taboo romance story from Studio Ghibli.

The naivety and development of the main couple is good. The scenery is beautiful and the club building is interesting. Even all dirty and filthy, the way in which students work in harmony and are interested in different things is really cool. They enjoy studying and value the culture. And speaking of culture, the story is also about the consequences of the world war, in addition to portraying the navy (although these are not the focus).

The soundtrack is beautiful and we can count on "Sukiyaki", wonderful song made by Kyu Sakamoto, who sadly died in a plane crash. There are many small details that go ... unnoticed. The secondary characters may not have much potential, but they do have the ideal screen time. I've seen a lot of movies where there seem to be only the main characters, and this one managed to show that there is a world beyond them, which is great.

Finally, the unfolding of the novel is full of twists and turns. I watched it with my parents and I confess that I was "no... it can't be, this is so wrong!". The script certainly doesn't look like a Studio Ghibli movie. It doesn't have magic, it doesn't have the fascination that usually enchants us. It's basically an everyday romance movie from that time. Which, by the way, the characters are good but not deep. Far from it.

A very solid entry in the Ghibli library.

I am a big fan of post war Japan and there isn't a lot of anime out there that cover the 60's, not that i have seen anyway. Even better to have it set in a sleepy bit of Yokohama. If you go into every Ghibli movie expecting the next spirited away or Howls moving castle you are going to be disappointed most times.

I went into this knowing very little about it and not really expecting a whole lot bar Ghibl's always present charm and i found it in spades here being set in the real ... world early 60's Japan a school girl by the name of Umi befriends a boy called Shun. The 2 soon join forces to try and halt a old school clubhouse building from being demolished in the post war rebuilding of the entire country.

I really enjoyed the first look at the club house when Umi first enters and it really shows the Ghibli charm and style in a very imaginative way. I also found the cast to be likeable and just the right size as not to get lost at who's who and what is happening.

The soundtrack is very catchy and does a great time showing off the time period the scenes around Tokyo also really show the hustle and bustle of a booming city unlike the normal mostly sleepy part of Yokohama they are in.

The animation i found wasn't Ghibli's best for a movie made in 2011 i think it looks worse than some of the earlier movies perhaps that was because of the budget but i am not sure that being said it certainly doesn't look just more of a observation.

SPOILERS AHEAD!


The biggest drawback of this movie for me was when Umi and and Shun think they are related but still confess their love for each other anyway. It's weird no matter what way you look at it and when we learn that Shun was actually adopted . . . . Again before being adopted i found it to be very unnecessary and felt it would have been better just to ditch the story of him being adopted by Umi's father only to be immediately given away.

As for the rest of the movie i quite enjoyed the whole thing bar the above paragraph. The club house shows lots of personality and i would have liked to have seen more time spent in it but the sounding world is just as enjoyable.

If you want a film that you can just switch off your brain for and just chill out with and enjoy for 90 mins then this one. It's not going to smash any records or become a cult classic but it is certainly worth the watch and i very much enjoyed it

8/10 overall for me

It may not have been the best of the best, but I enjoyed watching this movie. It was completely predictable for me also in terms of the plot twist that the creator wanted to introduce into the characters' relationship. In fact, this movie didn't make me very emotional, but it wasn't too long so it kept me interested until the end.

I feel that the purpose of this film was very specific. Everything was interconnected - the students wanted to save the clubhouse, which led to a stronger relationship between the main characters, and this revealed the stories of both families. It was quite a simple ... yet interesting storyline. And even though it wasn't very emotional, I have really warm feelings about this story.

(may contain minor spoilers)

I had high hopes for this anime movie as a huge fan of cute romance anime movies, but I was extremely disappointed. This would have been such a better movie if they removed the whole "sibling" arc, which made me feel uncomfortable, and even after it was sorted out, made me not support the relationship as much I would have. Instead, they should have focused on the actual characters, because after watching this movie, I can barely tell you even one of their personality traits. As with all Studio Ghibli movies though, the art and music were absolutely amazing.

Would not waste your ... time watching this movie. Go watch Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, or any of Studio Ghibli's many amazing movies.