It’s a perfect elegy for Ghibli, reflecting the themes that have fascinated the company over 35 years; the film is essentially about embracing tragedies of the past so that we can move forward.
For a time, this remained the final film of Studio Ghibli, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and made just before a hiatus was announced and the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki. It’s a perfect elegy for Ghibli, reflecting the themes that have fascinated the company over 35 years; the film is essentially about embracing tragedies of the past so that we can move forward. Anna is a rare young-adult hero in that she is overtly depressed and unhappy — she talks about how she hates herself in ways that YA fiction doesn’t often allow — but everything changes when she’s forced to move to a seaside community after an asthma attack. Drawn to a mysterious mansion that’s said to be haunted, she essentially befriends a ghost. Or does she? As the emotions of the final act swell, it’s hard to separate how one feels about these characters specifically and how generations of movie lovers have felt about Studio Ghibli more broadly.