Whisper of the Heart 720p - (1995 Lang: English, Japanese)

Shizuku Tsukishima is a bit of a book-worm, spending her last summer vacation in junior high school reading and translating popular foreign music into Japanese. With aspirations to one day become a writer, Shizuku can't help but notice that the name Seiji Amasawa appears on every one of the books she borrows from the library.

Through a series of curious and magical incidents, she comes to meet Seiji and discovers he has dreams of becoming a famous violin maker in Italy. While their life-long goals pull them in two different directions, Shizuku and Seiji are determined to remain true to their strong feelings for one another.

Director: Yoshifumi Kondou
Year of Production: 1995

A very moving animé film from Studio Ghibli, as good as anything either Miyazaki or Takahata have made. It's a very simple and down-to-earth movie about a young teenage girl who is experiencing her first love, as well as doubts about her future. Whisper understands its characters as few films do, and I became quite intimate with our heroine, Shizuku. It also has a sense of mood unmatched by any other film I can think of set in everyday life. The way it feels to live in a cramped apartment, the emotions of the first day of school, and the way the sky looks after it has rained – so many generic memories of my life brought right to the forefront, as if they were the only moments that mattered. The film enveloped me so completely, I could smell the odor of the antique shop. The music is so wonderful, the score by Yuji Nomi. And I never could have imagined that John Denver's song `Country Roads' would make me weep. Well, it was in Japanese, but still. It's frightening. Each Ghibli film I see makes me think that the next one cannot possibly match it, yet each film inevitably does.

Whisper of the Heart (Japanese: 耳をすませば Hepburn: Mimi wo Sumaseba?, literally "If you listen closely") is a 1995 Japanese animated romantic drama film directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki based on the 1989 manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi. The film stars Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi and Keiju Kobayashi. It was the first theatrical Studio Ghibli film to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Isao Takahata.

Whisper of the Heart was Kondō's only film as director before his death in 1998. Studio Ghibli had hoped that Kondō would become the successor to Miyazaki and Takahata.

It was the only Ghibli film not directed by Miyazaki or Takahata for seven years until The Cat Returns was released in 2002, which focused on a minor character of the film, Baron.

Shizuku Tsukishima is a 14-year-old student at Mukaihara Junior High School, where she is best friends with Yuko Harada. Living in Tokyo with her parents Asako and Seiya, as well as her older sister Shiho, Shizuku is a bookworm and is keen on writing. During an ordinary evening, she looks through the checkout cards in her library books. She discovers they have been checked out by Seiji Amasawa (天沢 聖司). Over the next few days, Shizuku encounters a young man, later revealed to be Seiji, who often annoys her.

Finding a cat riding a train, Shizuku follows it to discover an antique shop run by Shiro Nishi. In the shop is a cat statuette, "The Baron". After Shizuku returns home, she learns from Yuko that Sugimura has inadvertently upset her, as he does not know that Yuko likes him and instead had a crush on Shizuku. Sugimura's actions cause an argument with Shizuku, and she turns him down.

At the antique shop, Shizuku sings "Take Me Home, Country Roads", a song she has been translating for her school graduation, accompanied by Seiji and Nishi. Seiji is revealed to be the grandson of Nishi, and Shizuku and Seiji befriend each other. Seiji is learning to make violins to follow his dream as a master luthier. Days after the two meet, Seiji leaves for Cremona, Italy, for a two-month study with a master violin-maker. Firming her resolve, Shizuku decides to test her talents as well. Discussing with Yuko, she decides to pursue her writing seriously during the two months. She asks Nishi if she can write about The Baron, to which Nishi grants his consent on the condition that he will be the first to read the finished story.

Shizuku begins to concoct a fantasy story featuring herself as the female protagonist, the Baron as the male hero who is looking for his lost love, Louise, and the cat she followed from the train (who is, among other names, known as "Moon" and "Muta") as the story's villain who took her from him. Devoting her time to her writing, Shizuku eats snack food, stays up until early in the morning, and her school grades drop. Shizuku argues with her family over her grades, and as she continues to push herself into finishing the story before Seiji returns, she begins to lose heart.

When her story is complete, Shizuku delivers the manuscript to Nishi. After Nishi reads Shizuku's writing and gives her his benevolent assessment, she breaks down in tears as the stress of the last two months finally turns into relief. Consoling her with udon, Nishi reveals to Shizuku that when he studied in Germany in his youth, he found his first love, Louise. They discovered the twin statuettes of the Baron and his female companion in a cafe, but they could only purchase them singly because the female statuette was in repair at that time. Nishi kept the Baron while Louise would hold onto the Baron's companion, and they and the two cat statuettes would reunite at a later time. However, the two lovers and the statues were subsequently separated during World War II and were never reunited.

Deciding she wants to attend high school to learn more about writing, Shizuku is returned home by Nishi and announces to her mother that she will return to studying for her entrance exams full-time. The next morning, she discovers Seiji below on his bicycle. He has returned a day early, and decided to finish high school before returning to Cremona to become a luthier.

The two ride Seiji's bike to a lookout and watch the sun rise over the city. While they are there, Seiji professes his love for Shizuku and proposes future marriage, and she happily accepts.

This has to be one of the greatest, most inspiring films. The story's about a young girl and how she meets the boy of her dreams. It sounds rather cliché but it's actually off the beaten track. Even though the characters are in 8th grade, they're rather mature and understand the consequences of their actions. It's very heart warming and nice, and rather different, in a very good way, than what most people would think. You get to see the characters develop and go through crushes, friendships, and many other things that are just part of growing up. The best part is that the film makers don't exaggerate or make it over dramatic; they make it so that you care deeply for the characters and identify with what they're going through. The movie also has the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as it's main theme, and the characters even sing it in the movie in a moving scene. It may sound strange at first, but everything's very tastefully and well-done. The movie also makes one remember that dreams do come true, even when you least expect it, and that sometimes reality can be better than your greatest dreams; and in light of the times we're living in, it makes you appreciate the smaller but more important things in life.