Whisper Of The Heart

 Isn't it funny how we stubbornly hold on to our opinion of things we know little to nothing about? A couple of years ago I discovered Harry Potter, having grown up in a household that regarded it as dark and witchcrafty I didn't ever watch the films or read the books growing up. Then one day my sister who had seen the movies with a friend decided I should watch the first one, I instantly fell in love and have now read all seven books. Later that same year I decided to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on a whim and a friend's recommendation. I'd turn up my nose at it for years because A) The first time I ever heard about it was when the movie was coming out and we all know what that was like. B) It was on Nick and I thought everything on that channel must be like Sponge Bob and other stupid cartoons I've hated since I can remember. And finally the stupidest reason, C) Because Aang was bald. And once again all my superficial preconceptions were dead wrong and I was hooked. There are even more examples of me being foolish and judgmental but for now I'll skip to the most recent. So currently my older sister is up towards Orlando doing a photography internship with a friend of our mom's, the two of us bunk together so her absence has left a creepy hush hanging over our room. Now I could simply play some music and take care of some stuff like cleaning, or reading, or actually writing down one of the million and ten novel ideas floating around in my head, but instead I've decided to pass my evenings watching movies. Now usually when sister of mine is gone it's only for a weekend and I'll just rewatch Sabrina and Roman Holiday for the umpteenth time, but since it's still a spanking new year I decided I wanted to watch something I'd never seen before. Since Big Hero 6 wasn't up yet I wasn't left with a lot of options since I wanted to watch something animated. "Ghibi!" whispered a little voice in my head. "Ghibi?" I scoffed, "I don't want to watch a Ghibi movie, those are weird!". Oh, but I did, readers, secretly I did indeed. Lemme tell you where this ill informed opinion came from; A few years ago my Titi (auntie to all the non Hispanics out there) invited me and my sister over to watch a movie, much to my surprise it was animated. And it wasn't even American! My Titi generally doesn't like animated movie so when she put on Howl's Moving Castle I was more than a bit surprised. Oh, Howl's Moving Castle...Word to the wise, if you want to introduce somebody to Ghibi do not start with that movie. Long story short it ended up weirding both my sister and myself out so much we turned it off and watched something else. Now don't think I'm against Japanese animation here, I've watched a small share of anime, and considering at that point it I'd only seen FMA and Bleach I really shouldn't have been that weirded out (not that I've ever found either of those shows normal), but I was. Hence forth I turned up my nose at anything Studio Ghibi, and let me tell you, that made trips to a certain pavilion in EPCOT a little awkward. But seeing all these gifs, screen caps, and fan art on Pinterest and Tumblr got me wondering if all their movies were really as weird as Howl's Moving Castle... And then about a week or two ago after consulting some trusted internet sources I decided to watch Kiki's Delivery Service and found the movie completely adorable. The animation and simple plot warmed my jaded little heart and soon my eyes were glued to the computer screen while I oohed and ahhed. Then tonight I decided to settle in with a slice of leftover birthday cake (I just celebrated my birthday on Saturday) and watch Whisper Of The Heart. I went in with cautiously low expectations only to once again have my eyes locked on my laptop the whole time and find myself cheering when everything ended happily. I started the film knowing very little about the plot except that it was a coming of age story and that Country Roads was somehow involved and I was pleasantly surprised when the main character turned out to be a young writer, and that like Kiki I found her very relatable. When the movie was over I found myself encouraged and my desire to write renewed. I drank up every moment of gorgeous animation, and was surprised to find out that the voices of Riku and Namine from Kingdom Hearts played the two main characters. Now I don't expect to like every single Studio Ghibi flick like most of the internet claims to and I don't expect I'll give Howl's Moving Castle another shot, but hopefully I'll be a little more open minded in the future about these things. That's it for now! Much Love, Gabby