Whisper of the heart and a box!

This is a title in the Studio Ghibi Catalogue originally released in 1995 I had very briefly as I had a lot of pausing issues on the original 2006 dvd that proved most frustrating so unfortunately it had to go.

In essence this is a coming of age story around junior high student Shizuku Tsukishima, who is quite popular, has a real talent for writing which can be seen in her new lyrics for the John Denver song Take Me Home,Country Roads which is to be performed for her junior high graduation. She's also a very avid reader taking book upon book out of the library that is just switching from paper card booking systems to a computerized one. 

The change saddens her because she likes to see who took out the book previously and notices a boy called Seiji Amasawa has taken out many of those she reads.

Taking the train to the library one day she notices a ginger lone cat sitting next to her who leads her off onto an adventure introducing her to an antique shop who we later learn is owned by the boys grandfather and although things are awkward between them at first in time, it becomes obvious they are in love with each other and both have self doubts about their talents, Seija with his violin making and playing abilities and Shizuku with her writing whose preoccupation with appears to override her need to get good grades to go the a good high school to complete her education.

Spotting in the antique shop a cat statue of The Baron and its story, this inspires her to work very hard for hours per day writing a story that promises to show Seiji's grandfather first and this leads to her exploring her hopes and fears set out in her book Whisper Of The Heart.

That is really the main focus of this anime rather less than the romance between her and Seiji, looking at what it is she wishes to do in her professional life, and indeed the new lyrics to Take Me Home Country Road, is not only about the personal road upon she is set but expresses a nostalgia for the rapidly disappearing rural landscapes of Japan.

I really enjoyed watching this full length anime for its themes and where The Baron 's sequences inspired Studio Ghibi to make The Cat Returns in 2002.

If you were rather observant you may of noticed something on the top of the first picture that hasn't been on any of the anime entries here before.

 

Er yes two words "Blu Ray" cos after the end of the VHS era circa 2000, we had a dvd player where most of my anime titles were first bought on and I bought my last dvd player April 28th 2014 which was a Toshiba that played discs from anywhere in the world.

Since then a number of things happened such as our main tv got bigger (32 inches) and the market has stabilized somewhat with disc prices coming down so I acquired a Panasonic Blu Ray player.

Mine though has been ahem modified  so the dvd playback is multi-regional which as as well as just over half my dvd's are North American releases while the blu ray section is just Region B (GB and Ireland, Europe and Australasia)

 

It also has RCA sockets for audio output and even composite video which is seriously retro apart from HDMI, the modern does everything including handshake digital standard.

Its reproduction of the anime was extremely good with loads of definition and sharpness on the newer television.