[A]sexuality,  Japan[ese],  Queer[ness]

Studio Ghibli’s 『思い出のマーニー』 // “When Marnie Was There”

just got back from seeing Studio Ghibli‘s latest (last?) feature-length film, 『思い出のマーニー』 (“Omoide no Maanii”), which is based on the 1981 novel “When Marnie Was There” by Joan G. Robinson. i kind of went and saw it on a whim after seeing the trailer, which sparked my interest.

searching the internet, it seems that i’m not the only one who picked up on this films seemingly platonic yuri/shoujo-ai (lesbian) undertones, although some of the comments that i’ve seen make me lose what little faith i have left in humanity. dear Cat God, homophobic people are fuckin’ ridiculous.

anyway, i went into the theater with reserved hope that Ghibli may have touched upon this topic in a good way and i came out of the theater with mixed feelings. the hints of shoujo-ai given in the film’s trailer were true to the relationship between the film’s two main characters. as the film progressed, my hope for the relationship between the two girls grew. talk about ドキドキする– Studio Ghibli, you wouldn’t dare queerbait your fans, would you???*

….but the ending… D; i won’t say anything because i myself absolutely hate spoilers.

anyway, i really like this movie. i can identify with the main character, Anna, on a very personal level, so i think that made the movie even more touching for me. will definitely buy it once it’s out on Blu-ray. 🙂

to all you Studio Ghibli fans out there, while this movie is no Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, it’s definitely a movie to see. hopefully someone will (fan)sub it and release it soon.

*note: given that this movie is based of a book, it can’t really be considered queerbaiting either way, right? at least, not on the part of Studio Ghibli, anyway…

YouTuber and Blogger, Vesper is an American expat currently living in Japan.

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