jjohnson - 2017-03-16 21:30:30

A masterpiece. I highly recommend this to everyone.

antonetta31 - 2016-02-17 02:34:17

When Marnie Was There is a heart warming story of two best friends with a surprise at the end. A beautiful studio ghibli piece, it has taken the spot for my favorite ghibli film. I love the art style and Annie brought a new character to the table unlike i have ever seen in a ghibli film. A beautiful film i would recommend to all.

ana.jakubowski - 2015-11-04 22:11:00

http://quanreviews.blogspot.com/2015/11/anime-review-when-marnie-was-there.html

russel.champlin - 2015-09-20 15:18:41

When Marnie was there follows a young girl Anna living in Sapporo a orphan girl who was adopted by a sweet family. Due to her asthma attacks and her being different she didn't have much luck making friends with her classmates she didn't even want to. After a bad asthma attack the doctor suggests she move somewhere more relaxing so she moves in with her aunt and uncle for the summer in the countryside. Separated from her mother she would often spend her time walking around the area and sketching things. She finds a seemingly abandoned house across the water which can only be walked to during low tide, it is actually there she meets Marnie and her life changes. Even though Marnie is her own age and the first kid her age she has ever gotten a long with there was something very weird and mysterious about her and to make things more weird Marnie wanted there friendship to be a secret. Anna has weird memory throughout this due to meeting Marnie sometimes she can remember her or her normal life what does this have to do with Anna and Marnie meeting and who really is Marnie that's the true question so check it out to find out! Honestly an incredible movie couldn't believe it was just sucked in from the first minute I started watching. Just a masterpiece like a lot of Studio Ghibli films.

tressa.hane - 2015-06-10 06:06:13

shyanne66 - 2015-04-04 23:36:56

At first, i didn't know what to expect from the movie. 
It confused me,because i wasn't sure, if Marnie was real or not and who she was. First i thought, she was Anna's inner self, trying to help her out of her depression to become happy. Then i thought she was real, but got really unsure again. For me, it was a crazy rollercoster ride of confusion, until the end of the movie, when they revealed, who Marnie is and why Anna is connected to her and feels so happy with her. When i found out, i started crying immediately.

And the Song at the end, broke me. I cried really hard, because the Song put most of my feelings i have today in words and made a song out of it. 

Truely a great movie and it will make you very emotional.

I would definitely recommend watching it!

erdman.deontae - 2015-03-31 19:54:23

Exactly what you could except Studio Ghibli to do. This movie was beautiful in every way. Not only was it enjoyable, but it was also one of those movies that has you think about what the movie was trying to tell you. This movie is defiantly a must see for any anime fan. It will pull at your heart strings, but in one of the best ways. This review does not do this movie justice. The only thing I can say, is go watch this movie. It is an experience of a life time.

jdare - 2015-03-30 14:02:57

The story is my first 10/10. Why? It touched my heart.

Not immediately but slowly, step by step the anime unfolds its magic way of seeing the world from a slightly different perspective.

It is about the supernatural but is never out of touch with reality.

Have you ever asked yourself how to make peace with the past? The anime gives some uplifting answers.

dovie79 - 2015-03-25 04:22:12

The latest and presumably last Studio Ghibli film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, When Marnie Was There touches on a lot of the same ideas as his previous work, Arrietty. Themes of loneliness and parental abandonment are dealt with, and both stories feature a sickly child being sent to live with relatives in a rustic environment as a form of therapy; there's even evil housekeepers in both films. That said, they're still very different films, so it would be unfair to accuse him of copying his own work.

One large difference would be in the protagonists of each work: while Arrietty was focused on the titular miniscule heroine, her "pioneer" family, and how she related to a lonely human boy, Marnie reverses the formula, by focusing on the alienated youth and her "salvation" through meeting a very special person. If Arrietty was about a well-adjusted and loved but naive girl being forced to face harsh and frightening truths about life, Marnie is about a girl who knows nothing but harsh truths learning to accept the love of others.

Having watched this very good essay on Akira Kurosawa recently, and especially the comparison of his show-don't-tell storytelling with The Avenger's bland cinematography, the use of imagery to convey emotions and the essential meanings of scenes was something that was on my mind a lot while watching this. You don't need any dialogue to understand the ideas communicated in the above shots. Dialogue is a useful tool, but it should be used as a complement, which is something Yonebayashi understands. It's an extension of the characters themselves, and makes for some funny moments(the "fat pig" line), but it doesn't overwhelm the story in unnecessary wordiness.

I had difficulty placing the kind of story Marnie is at first, but after thinking about it, I would call it a Jun Maeda story that's actually competently written. I feel like leaving Ghibli could actually be a good career move for Yonebayashi, because it's unfair to expect him to live up to his predecessors. I think if he stayed there would be a danger of him being viewed as another Miyazaki Jr., and this comparison would miss his own unique idiosyncrasies, like his interest in magical realism, subtle usage of three-dimensional camera work, and sense of dramatic atmosphere. I also think he'll be better able to develop his own style without Miyazaki's shadow looming over him.

Either way, I hope he lands in a good place and keeps making interesting films.