Only Yesterday

Genre: Slice-of-Life

Studio/Creators: Ghibli/Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone (created the manga), directed by Isao Takahata

Distributor: GKids

MPAA: PG-13

Running Time: 1 hour 58 minutes

My Review: 9/10 A

Summary: Takeo Okajima is a 27-year-old office lady who is going to a saffron farm out in the country to help them harvest the flowers to make fabric. While she is on the way to the farm and later working at the farm, the story switches back and forth from her memories of growing up as a child in the 1960’s.

Review: This anime is an example of what the Japanese refer to as iyashikei, a Japanese word meaning “healing”. The idea is to present a calming story with little conflict and low stakes so the viewers can experience healing as it evokes a pleasant atmosphere.

While the story has scenes that take place in the city as well as in the countryside, it has the beautiful environments that you can expect from Ghibli. This is true of both the scene where Takeo’s family visits a public bathhouse and the saffron farm.

I like Takeo’s growth throughout the story. At 10 years old, she’s still something of a brat, mostly because her father dotes on her and is less strict than her mother.

If you want to watch a pleasant story, this is a good one.

Violence: There is a scene where Takeo’s father slaps her because she comes into their house without taking off her shoes. For those who don’t know, this is a taboo in Japan, as it seems impolite.

Language: Mild swears at worst.

Nudity: There’s a scene where Takeo and her family visit a bathhouse and she is naked. Nothing is shown because Takeo is still so young. Another flashback shows when her class is learning about menstruation and the boys in the class are trying to look up the girls’ skirts.

Religion: Aside from the typical Japanese cultural customs, religion is not discussed.

Related Media: This is based on the manga Omoide Poro Poro, which translates to “Memories Come Dripping Down.”

My Neighbors the Yamadas

Genre: Slice-of-life/Comedy

Studio/Creator: Studio Ghibli/Hisaichi Ishii (creator of Nono-chan)

Director: Isao Takahata

Distributor: GKids, streams on Max.

Running Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG

My Rating: 2/10 (F)

Summary: A series of shorts about a family called the Yamadas and their children. The anime is based on the comic strip Nono-chan.

Review: To be honest, I forgot this movie existed. I recently decided to watch the entire Studio Ghibli catalog in preparation for its newest release, The Boy and the Heron, so that meant I now had to finally get around to this.

My first problem is the animation style. I assume this is being drawn this way to emulate the manga it’s based on. While the style might work for a comic strip, I don’t think it works as well animated. (Then again, I found it worked better on The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

I also didn’t much care for the lack of depth the characters had. Since this is a collection of vignettes with nothing to connect them, there’s nothing to make me like or dislike any of the characters. They are so flat that I was constantly checking the runtime to see how much longer I had left.

I was frustrated with this one. I normally don’t dislike Takahata’s anime, but this one just didn’t work for me. Maybe it would’ve worked better if I was more familiar with the manga.

Dub: I should note that the children in the anime are voiced by actual children (reminiscent of the cartoons based on Peanuts, interestingly enough).

Violence: There’s some occasional slapstick.

Language: Very little cursing, if any.

Religion: We just see normal Shintoistic practices.

Nudity: One of the children is naked as a baby in one scene.