If it isn't a fantasy epic with imaginative visuals, then it's a humanistic war drama focusing on Japanese traditions. Surprisingly, this newer addition to Ghibli's canon is far more lesser than the heavy themes that are typically conveyed. Goro learnt from his previous directorial effort and, with the advice from daddy anime genius Hayao Miyazaki, has crafted a sweet romantic tale. A young girl and her friends assist with renovating the Latin Quarter clubhouse at her academy, although soon starts developing a romance with one of the boys there. Think of it as teen romance but substituting silly school comedy with stunningly gorgeous animation. I sound like a broken tape recorder, but my word the animation is absolutely picturesque. Studio Ghibli consistently pump out amazing anime feature films like a rabbit humping anything that moves. Efficient. Gloriously efficient. From the homely aesthetics of Poppy Hill to the vibrant blue waves of the nearby sea, every single frame was a work of art. Then Miyazaki beautifully blends the mesmerising musical score to create a symphony of colours that invades all the senses. To then embed the bustling port town ambience with the other imperative elements really does create a world. It's not just a painting, but a window to this idyllic environment that feels alive. The story, whilst competently told, does feel too minimal and that's mostly down to the underdeveloped characters. Umi and Shun clearly adore each other in a subtle way, however there is a lack of expression that detracts from the relationship between these two teenagers. There were about five emotional scenes where only one really impacted me, that's due to how one-dimensional the plot and characters are. It comes across as a soap opera, which is a shame. There are nice touches such as the daily flag raising and Umi's motherly routine that injects some personality, but on the whole it feels monotonous. A perfectly animated film is let down by a story that lacks power.

Gorō Miyazaki's sophomore effort finds the new director in better control of his craft and is a much improved feature that is brought to life with fine elegance, patience & composure. And while there are a few things that could've been better executed, it is a delightfully sweet & engaging movie for the most part.Set in Yokohama, Japan during the 1960s, the story of From Up on Poppy Hill follows a high school girl who one day meets a member of the school clubhouse and learns that their building is going to be demolished, following which she suggests renovating the dilapidated place in order to persuade the school's chairman to reconsider.Directed by Gorō Miyazaki, the film does benefit from Hayao Miyazaki's input in the screenplay, as its story has a more rigid structure, a better sense of where it is headed, and the arcs of two leads is wonderfully progressed. The characters are believable, their inner struggles are aptly portrayed and the high school ambiance evokes a nostalgic feel too.Production design team does a stellar job in recreating the 1960s scene while its lush camera-work adds more colours to the frames in order to intensify its vibrant tone. Editing is skilfully carried out for the most part although a couple of scenes did feel unnecessary. The background score further uplifts the entire experience and the voice actors do a fabulous job in their given roles.On an overall scale, From Up on Poppy Hill is by every means a sincerely crafted tale but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table. Its theme of long-lasting effect of war on future lives as well as the importance of preserving the past while heading into the future is effectively addressed but where it leaves the most lasting impression is in the gentleness of its narration & rich details of its period setting.

In 1963 Yokohama, high school girl Umi puts out signal flags to passing ships, partly in remembrance of her captain father who died at sea. While getting involved with a project to save a local clubhouse, she meets and falls in love with fellow student Shun. But Shun's father was also lost at sea, and he carries the same photograph as Umi...This animated movie from Studio Ghibli has no fantasy elements: it is a simple drama with several intertwined threads. The animation is satisfactory without being dazzling, the backgrounds are lovely, and the film is, at times, very moving.I enjoyed it a lot.

Directed by Studio Ghibli's Goro Miyazaji, son of master animator Hayao Miyazaki, "From Up on Poppy Hill" tells the story of Umi Matsuzai, a high-school girl living in 1964, Yokohama, Japan."Poppy's" first act finds Umi locked in a world of rigid ritual. With her father dead and her mother abroad, Umi spends her days taking care of family members and tending to various domestic duties. Umi's life takes a turn when she meets Shun Kazama, the cute kid who runs her school's newspaper club.From this point onwards, "Poppy" resembles Yoshifumi Kondo's "Whisper of the Heart" and Isao Takahata's "Only Yesterday". Umi and Shun flirt amidst gorgeous landscapes, bicycling through bustling cities, strolling along walkways and attending dinner parties at Umi's picturesque home, perched high above the Japanese coastline. And if his father's films tend to be preoccupied with air-planes and airships, Goro's "Poppy" is awash with ocean-liners, freighters and tug-boats, which seem to perpetually glide across the film's many distant horizons.Like ships in the night, Umi and Shun similarly, tentatively, approach and avoid one another. The film's later acts then find our puppy lovers joining forces to save a school clubhouse which is set for demolition. They hope to restore it, to prevent its demise, a restoration project which points to a rejection of Japan's process of post-war modernisation. "We can learn from history!" Shun says, but nobody's listening. With the 1964 Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, Japan seeks a clean break with her past, but it's this past which Shun and Umi hope to preserve. They advocate a careful conservation of tradition, culture, and historical memory, a project which, ironically, requires them to appropriate the language and tactics of pre-WW2, nationalist, Imperialist Japan.It is here where Umi and Shun realise that they may in fact be brother and sister. The past, then, prevents the couple's present love affair. It taints, makes things impossible and exposes horrors which subsequent generations rather keep buried. Umi and Shun's inability to make sweet incestuous love is then mirrored to their own parents' rejection of conservative values; their mother and father came from upper and lower class families, and so are themselves emblematic of a love which was once forbidden.Of course no children's film is going to advocate incest. As such, "From Up On Poppy Hill" eventually reveals that Umi and Shun's consanguinity was just one big misunderstanding. The duo are granted love, but history remains a messy mine-field which threatens to explode and disrupt at any-time. Avoiding its pitfalls always means familiarising yourself with your forefathers."From Up On Poppy Hill" eschews the fantastical elements typical of Studio Ghibli productions. This is a simple but not simplistic melodrama, beautifully animated, at times heart-wrenching and filled with atmospheric locations. Like his father's work, Goro's lines are clean, his facial expressions subtle, his landscapes overly idealised and perhaps too steeped in nostalgia.8.5/10 – More very good, recent, Eastern animated films: "Whisper of the Heart", "Only Yesterday", "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", "The Sky Crawlers", "The Secret World of Arriety", "The King of Pigs".