I am totally shocked that I didn’t love this more... it’s been one I’ve been anticipating watching and expecting to love for the longest time, so I feel kind of disappointed that it leaves me not feeling much for it. It has some very cute moments and has gorgeous animation and colour palette but that’s where it mostly stops. This one felt a little cheesy and more childish than a lot of other Studio Ghibli films I’ve seen, although I did watch the English dub version, and I have heard the original Japanese version is better (?). I liked that it was a more grounded and realistic coming of age story as opposed to some of the grander, mystical worlds I’m used to from Ghibli, however I did miss a bit of that magic which I feel might’ve been what was lacking for me. I might have to rewatch it but I really wasn’t feeling it right now unfortunately.

(priority watchlist 2020) // (30x4 director challenge)