Reviews

Of the movies made by ex-Ghibli staff after it went on production hiatus, this was heavily overshadowed by Ponoc's Mary and the Witches Flower the previous year, with likely only a fraction of the production and marketing budget of that movie - but despite these constraints Director Kitaro Kosaka and the Madhouse team delivered a real gem.

While the story premise is fairly straightforward, Director Kosaka and Scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida wring the most out of it - emotionally engaging, very endearing and quirky characters, remains relatively restrained on the fantasy aspects, explores the heavy topic of grief but very much holds off on the melodrama and it's tone stays warm.

For whatever reason, Kosaka has never directed at Ghibli and seems never set to, and it's a shame he's not directed more at Madhouse or elsewhere as he's done a very solid job on meagre resources every time.