Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
BabsVidal
I saw this yesterday and literally felt hapiness during this movie. It may not have spirits and magic (like another movies from Studio Ghibli), but this movie shines because it's realistic. What a shame this movie isn't popular in general.
History/Character (10/10): The story starts simple with a girl who isn't much interested in anything other than reading books, and is still half lost with what she's going to do with her life, doubting from the opinions of others whether or not she's good for a creative work of being a writer. She never fell in love or showed to be passionate about anything specific, until in an apparently neutral life, a different event happens in the girl's routine: she realizes that from the books she reads someone has the same interest as her in the same books. So,…
Read at the sourcepichuscute
I'm not really sure what happened here. I'm a massive fan of Ghibli, particularly of their more human stories (When Marnie Was There, From Up On Poppy Hill, Totoro, Ocean Waves, etc.). I read the manga this movie is based on and absolutely loved it. And yet... I hated this. Like, really hated it. I guess I better dive into why.
Story:
You already get a general description, so I won't go into it here, but the story here diverges a good bit from what is seen in the original manga. And most of it actually makes very little sense in context. It feels like they filled in the details, like they do so well in other Ghibli movies, but here they failed to take any care in HOW they filled those details in.
Important events are missing or entirely changed to remove their original meanings. Import…
Read at the sourcegingermemequeen
"Whisper of the Heart," is one of Ghibli's hidden treasures. It's a delicately crafted coming-of-age tale that still makes room for that mystical Ghibli wonder while also creating time for quieter, more thought-provoking moments. Oh, and there's a romance too. And some cats. So what's not to love?
Perhaps I hold this movie so dear to me because it felt specifically catered to my fourteen-year-old self the first time that I watched it. Like our lead, Shizuku, I, too, wanted to become a writer, and watching her struggle in her desire to achieve her career goals was relatable to someone like me, who was also starting out as a new writer.
"Whisper of the Heart," is a bit quieter and less fantastical than other Ghibli films. it is more mature in that sense, but especially through Shizuku's w…
Read at the sourceraisin-kun
Warning - may be quite long to read and can contain light spoilers
Mimi wo sumaseba (or Whisper of the Heart) is one of my favourite anime movies and movies in general for several different reasons. It's a wonderful movie that's almost 2 hours long yet doesn't feel anywhere near that length. It's not a movie you watch. It's something you experience. Ghibli have set the standard for great, classic anime but this one in particular is somewhat a special little gem among their archive. Directed by the deceased, taken-to-soon director Yoshifumi Kondou, Mimi wo Sumaseba is a coming-of-age story on par or even better than their more well-known classical movies like Spirited Away or Kiki's Delivery Service. But honestly never mind the comparisons to other Ghibli films. This movie stands well on i…
Read at the sourceOhWowzers
Honestly, it was really boring to me that I almost fell asleep. Also the ending just came out of no where. Idk is this is a spoiler but I don't care because this movie is like 22 years old, but when the 2 main characters were like, "We should get married someday."..."Yeah! We should!"... then the credits just roll up. I was like..."Wait....That's the ending?" It caught me by surprise.
The Story was boring, I couldn't get myself into it. It's just about this nerd girl who loves to read and she learns new things and she hangs out with this kid who she has a bit of a crush on later on. Idk, there just wasn't much too it.
Read at the sourcevini64
Today this enchanting work of art is completing 21 years. A Studio Ghibli production directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondō, with Hayao Miyazaki on the screenplay, Whisper of the Heart takes us to the life of Shizuku, a 14 year old girl that lives her day-to-day without worrying about anything. She likes to read a lot of books, to write poetry and to translate songs in foreign languages. Her life changes when she meets Amasawa Seiji, a boy that has a dream of becoming a violin luthier and is already training to do so. By meeting him, she starts to think about things concerning her future that never got through her head and then her life starts to take a different direction. I should say that it isn’t only her life that changes, but also the one of those who watch this film with their hearts…
Read at the sourcefloecity
Whisper of the Heart is an undermined cute, dorky movie of Studio Ghibli. (Similar to Only Yesterday)
It's a very simplistic, yet intriguing plot of adolescence that inspires young girls & imagination.
I'm VERY picky with movies, even with Ghibli FIlms (No matter what I've watched, I've always & only favored Howl's Moving Castle & Spirited Away), but this definitely changed that!
This is definitely in my Top 3 Fav. Ghibli films.
[STORY]: 9.5 MINOR SPOILER
The story can definitely stand on it's own without the minimal love drama that happened between her & her friend's crush, BUT I think that little add on built the story.
It built the MC & how she is as a person.
Could her person have been built without it? Yes.
Is it a interesting add on? Yes. It genuinely surprised me lol
It isn't…
Read at the sourceLindle
Whisper of the Heart perfectly captures the anxieties of growing up and finding your place in the world, and the anxieties faced by any creator finding their creative voice, weaving the two into a spectacular coming-of-age story.
It's surprising that this is one of few Ghibli movies to not be directed by either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata (although Miyazaki was heavily involved with other elements of its production). It possesses both Miyazaki's incredible skill at visual storytelling, and Takahata's subtle mastery of conveying plot through emotion.
It's almost redundant to say this of any Ghibli movie, but the production job here is incredible. The background art is incredible, even moreso than in most of their movies. Despite its urban/suburban setting, the movie manages to seem al…
Read at the sourcektulu007
I've reviewed a lot of Studio Ghibli films. In January of 2014, one of those films was The Cat Returns. During that review, I mentioned that it's a spin-off loosely connected to this film, Whisper of the Heart. Now, that film was pretty good with plenty of strong elements. Let's look at Whisper of the Heart and see if the same holds true for it.
Story:
Shizuku has a pretty easy life. Her parents are easy-going and she has plenty of friends and lots of time to read obsessively. One day, she notices that all of the books she gets from the library seem to have been checked out by the same guy before her. She's curious about what he could be like and, by sheer coincidence, meets a guy she doesn't know. I'm sure these two plot points are completely unrelated. The film follows Shizuku in her d…
Read at the sourcevigorousjammer
What can I say about Studio Ghibli's Tenth Film, Whisper of the Heart?
Well, let's start with the story. The film focuses on a love story between two middle-school students, and their unexpected meeting. It goes in a few different directions from there, changing focus to the everyday trials and tribulations of a person's life. Anyway, the tale is told wonderfully, with each scene presented in a joyful almost fantasy-like nature. That's not to say the characters or their interactions are fantastical, quite the opposite, everything comes off as incredibly realistic. I guess the story just has a sort of dream-like quality to it, having heartwarming scenes that are strung together, while still being able to come off as genuine and not cheesy.
I feel like part of that has to do with the chara…
Read at the sourceAryaragi
Adolescence is among the most memorable phases in one's life. During this time, we tend to make decisions based on adrenaline instincts, work as we wish to, while repudiating any advice. Some of us even develop endearing feelings of love for someone, while also chasing our own dream or even remoulding them for the sake of someone else, often out of inspiration and seldom out of desperation.
Working on the themes of adolescence and infatuation giving rise to a wonderful journey of self discovery, Studio Ghibli presents us with Mimi wo Sumaseba also commonly known as Whisper of the Heart. The story mainly revolves around the female lead, Shizuku Tsukishima, a junior high school girl living in New Tama Town. The story progresses as Shizuku constantly finds a certain someone, named Seiji Awas…
Read at the sourceksyndrome
Whisper of the Heart is unique with respect to its Ghibli film counterparts in that it seems almost mundane. Here we have our main heroine Shizuku Tsukishima and her life as a middle school-aged girl. While the film is essentially a slice-of-life with a hint of the "boy-meets-girl" rom-com trope thrown in, the way in which its characters are presented is not only relate-able to the audience but also endearing; an adult could sympathize with Shizuku just as much as a child could. As someone who values character development greatly, I feel that the creators efforts really pay off in showing how our main heroine develops over a short period of time, providing insight into her stream of consciousness with her full range of emotions on display. Combined with a diverse ensemble of a supporting c…
Read at the sourcePyrakuu
I have no idea why people enjoyed this movie. I have never been a very big appreciator of these Miyazaki stamped films, although I don't necessarily dislike them all, but this film is the worst of them I've seen. Lets go through the details.
The animation is in constant conflict. While the backgrounds have some fairly impressive detail, the moving parts of the animation are inconsistent and often poorly done and all movement is extremely choppy. The backgrounds and characters also don't seem to work very well together in some situations as if they exist on different layers. Another example of this disconnect between background and the moving pieces is Scooby Doo, where it seems as if they locked the animators for the characters and those for the background in different rooms and never sho…
Read at the sourceMagdalen
Whisper of the Heart is unusual for a Studio Ghibli film in not featuring any magic, or at least nothing supernatural. That said, it is at least as much about magic as many of their films full of witches and spirits and demons. Rather than the usual fantastic adventure stories which are merely facilitated by magic, this is a celebration of story-telling, music, creativity and love - all the sorts of things that make real life magical.
Our heroine is Shizuku, a girl of around fourteen who dreams of being a writer, and like most aspiring writers she reads heavily. Borrowing book after book from the library, she keeps noticing one name re-appearing as a previous borrower in them - a boy at her school, who shows some interest before being unreasonably mean to her, in the way that boys usually…
Read at the sourceOolong
The strength of Whisper of the Heart is the strength all films that have been touched by Miyazaki seem to have. That is, the details. In this film the things that have impressed me were the little extras that are contained in each characters movements. It's something that you very rarely get—at least this consistently—outside of Miyazaki films. Whether it be reaching for the lamp cord from bed, failing, and needing to sit up to do it properly, or whether it be the normal silences in conversation (as apposed to dramatic silences), everything just feels a lot more real, a lot more vibrant than most films.
Regarding this film in comparison to other films Miyazaki has been a part of, this one seems to by far have the fewest fantastic elements (that is, elements which contain impossible occurr…
Read at the sourcetrzr23
High school has always been a popular setting for anime. Most anime associate high school with slice of life, comedy, romance, and of late, harem. This has worked out very well for most anime, but there was one little thing that always bugged me for some reason – it was all just a backdrop and never actually felt like one. The teachers are non-existent, the school is magically empty when the male and the female lead need to be alone and most importantly, the main characters were always a two-goody shoes or a precocious little punk, on whose shoulders the fate of the world rests. Even an anime called “School Days” revolved less around the actual school days. Very few anime actually use this backdrop to carve a story out of.
And one of them is Whisper of the Heart, an anime movie produced b…
Read at the sourceJTurner
Yoshifumi Kondo's first and only film for Studio Ghibli (he died a few years after it was completed), WHISPER OF THE HEART, is an absolute delight. Gentle but not syrupy, this modern-day story about a girl and boy discovering that they have a lot in common is beautifully animated, compellingly characterized, and full of heart (pun intended).
Based on a graphic-novel by Aoi Hiragi with a script by Hayao Miyazaki, the movie centers on Shizuku Tsukishima, a somewhat absent-minded but sympathetic young High School student who would rather read books from the library rather than study for her school tests. Shizuku discovers that a certain Seiji Amasawa checks out the same books that she does, as detailed on the library checkout cards. When Shizuku first meets Seiji in person, she thinks he's…
Read at the sourceNotARandomName
I'm not a great fan of Studio Ghibli's films, but this one is definitely worth seeing.
Story
The main plot is quite simple but its plain beauty makes it endearing rather than dull. The pacing is very relaxed, fitting with the general nostalgic atmosphere of the story. Of course there're a few flaws, such as a few very cheesy scenes (ie ending) and a side plot which feels somewhat out of place and is almost separate from the main storyline (the couple at Shizuku's school).
Art
The backgrounds are excellent. Not only are they detailed, but also have a certain artsy charm that makes them stand out among the sea of look-alike anime depictions of urban landscapes. The only thing that could be improved about these are the colours, as they feel a bit faded. The characters, however, in classic…
Read at the sourcefluffyindrag
A beautiful story that is so true-to-life and poignant...
The characters have the depth to give what might have been merely another daily life story that magical twist that has made Studio Ghibli so iconic.
With the honest depiction of the struggles teenagers encounter when facing "growing up" and the obvious thought put into every scene, the whole film moves the characters from nondescript children to young adults destined for something more. A coming-of-age that is anything but ordinary.
There's really no more to say for it. Simply outstanding.
Read at the sourcehikage11
Story:
The story is based on a manga by Aoi Hiiragi. What I like about it is that it focuses on a problem that each of us go to at a certain point in our lives, what we want to be when we grow up. This is usually affected by our own capabilities, dreams, certain circumstances and people around us that either pull us down or help us keep going. I think students can relate to the plot better since they are going through similar to what the characters in the story are.
Art:
The characters are drawn in the usual Ghibli style. Although simple, the characters are able to portray the emotions needed to make the story believable. The background is very well designed and the little details like thrash on the street, pipes from the houses are all there. They make the environment the character moves…
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