In the Studio Ghibli canon Whisper Of The Heart is one of my favourite films. It's a straightforward story about a young teenage girl named Shizuku Tsukishima. Her life seems usual, but it takes a turn when she meets Seiji Amasawa. In the absence of action, director Yoshifumi Kondo focused on what Shizuku does daily. This is handled with care, Shizuku is a good character (doing what girls do). Her circumstances are portrayed realistically and imaginatively. The film is very sweet, it makes one feel good for sure. When one is depressed, Whisper Of The Heart is the right film to watch. Viewers can sympathize and connect with the characters here. The animation is, for the most part, standard Ghibli fare. There are beautiful and detailed backgrounds. Some scenes are truly magnificent (like the fantasy scene where Shizuku and Baron Humbert von Jikkingen fly, catch the updraft). Yuji Nomi's score is often exquisite. It fits the film perfectly. While similar to Hayao Miyazaki's works like Kiki's Deliver Service (1989), Whisper Of The Heart is very much Kondo's film. His touches are evident in the animation, the characters and the story elements. He was groomed to take over the directing reins at Ghibli after Miyazaki retired, but unfortunately Kondo died of an aneurysm in 1998. Whisper Of The Heart remains an insightful and good-natured look at the lives of young people in Japan. It captures that period of peoples' lives perfectly. I highly recommend watching it.

This was on the TCM channel late one night, and I discovered it by accident, having just turned on the TV, which often helps me get to sleep. I didn't expect an anime movie to be this involving, but I stayed up for what turned out to be a very pleasant movie.

The story tells of a young girl named Shizuku who enjoys reading, and has a desire to write stories herself. She notices that many of the books she has checked out of the library show the same name of a boy who has checked out all these books. She becomes curious who this person with similar tastes to her own is.

It turns out to be a boy from her school; they meet, and almost like an old MGM musical, initially have friction, but it's obvious they are warming up to each other. The scene where they sing "Country Roads" together is charming and joyous. Their budding "first love" romance is sweet, but beyond that, has an extra dimension, in that they inspire one another to utilize their talents to pursue their dreams and ambitions.

The animation is exquisite; the backgrounds resemble paintings, almost looking like real places, not animated pictures. There's even quite a bit of attention to create a three-dimensional world.

Good, uplifting movie, with a lot of heart and optimism. Well written, and you can't help but love these appealing characters, and root for them that a happy ending comes their way.

A Studio Ghibli film, 'Whisper of the Heart' differs from most anime produced by the company in that it is not about cute creatures or other-wordly adventures. Instead, it is a bittersweet tale of a normal teenage girl and the trials of growing up.

The film follows Shizuku, a girl in her mid-teens, who lives for her love of books and writing. During her numerous visits to the library, she become aware that all the books she has taken out have been previously checked out by a boy named 'Seiji Amasawa'. It doesn't take long to realise that this Seiji is, in fact, a fellow classmate at her school who she finds infuriatingly arrogant. But as she comes to know him properly, discovering he is a boy with firm ambitions to be a great violin maker, he leaves her yearning to find her own path in life as well as tasting love for the first time.

What makes 'Whisper of the Heart' so beautiful is its honest depiction of what it is to be an adolescent on the cusp of adulthood, avoiding pitfalls like descending into sap, depicting teenagers as being perpetually stroppy and difficult or sexing up characters in a vain attempt to make them more appealing to the shallow. We've all been in Shizuku's shoes: feeling the turbulent tugs of first love, floundering over what do to with one's life when it seems everyone else seems to know their own dreams for the future and juggling the turmoils of school life and exams at the same time. Anyone who has ever been fifteen years old will be able to empathise with Shizuku and Seiji and that's what makes them such strong, concrete characters. It also offers an interesting insight into the Japanese culture as we get a close-up look of everyday family and school life in Japan, which in itself is as fascinating as the actual story.

'Whisper of the Heart' is much more than just a teenage love story. It's a charming, poignant tale about life and dreams. Another first class film by Studio Ghibli.