Only Yesterday.
The reason why Only Yesterday might be the most realistic anime movie of all time is that, they did, care about the smallest things, the characters' movements, their eyes, their mouths, how the whole cast reacts to an action, how they gave everyone enough space to experience their opinions without being repetitive, how they completed the puzzle and at the same time they focused on our protagonist herself, this is important simply because it prevents predictability, generally helps you breathe with the characters, and doesn't make you feel -disconnected- with their world. Another important reason, if not the most important one, something you might find surprising and was barely done, is that, the audio was recorded before the animation itself which means the movements of the characters would fit their speeches perfectly. The script itself was, without any doubt written by someone who clearly put his soul on this project, to give such attention to the responses and interactions, you might ask what are you talking about but I find it rather simple that scriptwriters these days are lackadaisical.
The movie defines the word "seriousness" in a higher new level, there might be no movie as serious as Only Yesterday, no matter how they try to be, they'll never achieve its level because the most essential way to make a great movie is to never try to be what you want to be, in other words, Only Yesterday's story is so simple, a story about a young girl who travels to the countryside and recalls her memory while she's surrounded with people who love her. The concept is straightforward, but the idea is how to use every detail you have to create something far greater from what you initially started with.
The nostalgic and heart-breaking movie knows how to draw the characters very well with a variety of lines, colors and shades, if you could take a second from your life to stare at one of the characters' faces, I think that would be great and even though I noticed the movie has received countless criticisms about how in some way or another the characters look very similar except for their hairstyles and colors, look no further, to how 'us' look identical, and so I say that the movie has yet achieved another level of realism.
Only Yesterday has never failed to draw a smile on my face the whole two hours thanks to Isao Takahata's great directing skills. The movie is very mature and was released when the word "mature" had no meaning in such films, most anime were filled with blood and action or family oriented or purely directed to kids, I don't think you can give this film to a child expecting to see him knocking at your door the day after explaining how the film has changed his life or anything like that or even expect him to even like it, this was different from Isao Takahata's other works including "Akage no Anne" or "Heidi" for instance cus here, our protagonist is old and in that case, kids didn't get it or appreciate it as much as we did, it was very risky and the idea could have easily been done as life-action.
This movie has realized that it's a butterfly and finally found its wings, but looking back now, maybe it was just flexing them pointlessly.
Only Yesterday, for the people who want to realize that the movies they're watching nowadays are utter shit.
Story/Plot: 8/10
Animation/Art: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Character: 9/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Thank you, Isao Takahata.
