History Anime / Arrietty

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Though his life prior to ''The Secret World of Arrietty'' has yet be given too much detail, what we ''do'' know implies Sho’s childhood was ''not'' a happy one. He was born with a palpitation and it can be assumed that his parents got so fed up with his condition that they decided to divorce and [[WhenYouComingHomeDad drown themselves in their work]], all the while [[ParentalAbandonment distancing themselves away from Sho as far as possible]]. For this, he has to live with his caring aunt and her paranoid housekeeper while preparing for a surgical operation that may or may not cost him his life. Need I go on?

* HateSink: Haru. She disparages the doll house that Sho’s great grandfather intended for the Borrowers, locks Sho in his room, captures Homily and sees the Borrowers as nothing more than absolute thieves. Her overall plot is to either exterminate the Borrowers with the help of Squeaky Clean Services or reveal their existence to the world.

* RiddleForTheAges / LeftHanging: Sho either survives his operation or does not and the Borrowers either reach their new home or end up not getting there. It's purposefully up to interpretation. While the Japanese dub refuses to clarify the characters’ ultimate fates, Sho’s closing line in the English dub gives the characters a HappyEnding.

* IllBoy: Sho, who was always a weak boy and will be getting an operation on his heart.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Though his life prior to ''The Secret World of Arietty'' has yet be given too much detail, what we ''do'' know implies Sho’s childhood was ''not'' a happy one. He was born with a palpitation and it can be assume that his parents got so fed up with his condition that they decided to divorce and [[WhenYouComingHomeDad drown themselves in their work]], all the while [[ParentalAbandonment distancing themselves away from Sho as far as possible]]. For this, he has to live with his caring aunt and her indifferent housekeeper while preparing for a surgical operation that may or may not cost him his life. Need I go on?

* RiddleForTheAges: Sho either survives his operation or does not and the Borrowers either reach their new home or end up not getting there. It's purposefully up to interpretation. While the Japanese dub refuses to clarify the characters’ ultimate fates, Sho’s closing line in the English dub gives the characters a HappyEnding.

* ActionGirl: Arrietty, natch.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Though his life prior to ''The Secret World of Arietty'' has yet be given too much detail, what we ''do'' know implies Sho’s childhood was ''not'' a happy one. He was born with a palpitation and it can be assume that his parents got so fed up with his condition that they decided to divorce and [[WhenAreYouComingHomeDad drown themselves in their work]], all the while [[ParentalAbandonment distancing themselves away from Sho as far as possible]]. For this, he has to live with his caring aunt and her indifferent housekeeper while preparing for a surgical operation that may or may not cost him his life. Need I go on?

* HateSink: Haru

* DisproportionateRetribution: Haru sees the Borrowers as nothing more than thieves [[LawfulEvil and will do anything]][[HeroAntagonist to protect her employer’s home.]]

!!Tropes:

''The Borrower Arrietty'' (借りぐらしのアリエッティ -- ''Kari-gurashi no Arietti'') is a 2010 Creator/StudioGhibli film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and written by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki, in what marks the former's directorial debut. It's based on Mary Norton's book series ''Literature/TheBorrowers'', with elements of Creator/HansChristianAndersen's "Literature/{{Thumbelina}}" thrown in for flavor.

The film is the highest grossing theatrical Studio Ghibli release in the US, with a gross of about $20 million. It's also the fourth highest grossing anime film of all time in North America.

''The Borrower Arrietty'' (借りぐらしのアリエッティ -- ''Kari-gurashi no Arietti'') is a 2010 Creator/StudioGhibli film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and written by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki, in what marks the former's directorial debut. It's based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "Thumbelina" and Mary Norton's book series ''Literature/TheBorrowers''.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: When the escaped Sho mets [[spoiler: Haru in the kitchen, she]] shouts surprised: "The door was locked!" His reaction: "What door?"
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Sho, upon meeting Arrietty on the lawn and they having their first real conversation together. He muses on the fact that the Borrowers might be a DyingRace, which understandably upsets Arrietty mightily. It's somewhat compensated for when he admits that he himself may be about to die due to a chronic heart condition for which he is about to have surgery, explaining why he seems so openly fatalistic.

* PragmaticAdaptation: Sticks far closer to the original book than either of the [[Film/TheBorrowers1997 two]] [[Film/TheBorrowers2011 live-action]] adaptations, but there are a lot of changes to both make the story more accessible and visually interesting. Aside from the shift in setting (Edwardian England to modern-day Western Tokyo), the most noticable ones are the addition of Spiller (who didn't show up until the second book about the Borrowers) and Nya the cat (who wasn't in the book at all, but seems partially based on the cat brought by the exterminator), and the fact Arrietty in the anime has a lot more freedom, being allowed to roam the garden whereas in the book she was kept confined to her home.

* HairDecorations: Arrietty and her little clothespin hairclip. [[spoiler:She gives it to Sho/Shawn in the end.]]

* CuteButCacophonic: Homily, Arrietty's mom. She constantly tends to go into a huge screaming fit when upset or frightened, so you'd better not be wearing headphones when she's in a particular scene.

* DramaQueen: Homily's first instinct at any sign of trouble is to dramatically announce that they're all doomed.

* CuteButCacophonic: Homily, Arrietty's mom.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Niya the cat is at least partly a CanonForeigner (there ''was'' a cat in the book, but it only appeared briefly), but the trope still counts with her as the book treats all cats as horrible threats. In that version, the storyline with Arrietty befriending Niya would be ''unthinkable'' because it's made very clear that cats can't be reasoned with.

* PragmaticAdaptation: Sticks far closer to the original book than either of the [[Film/TheBorrowers1997 two]] [[Film/TheBorrowers2011 live-action]] adaptations, but there are a lot of changes to both make the story more accessible and visually interesting. Aside from the shift in setting (Edwardian England to modern-day Western Tokyo), the most noticable ones are the addition of Spiller (who didn't show up until the second book about the Borrowers) and the cat (who wasn't in the books at all), and the fact Arrietty in the anime has a lot more freedom, being allowed to roam the garden whereas in the book she was kept confined to her home.

* BoyMeetsGirl
* CanonForeigner: Niya the cat doesn't really have any book counterpart. While cats are mentioned several times (especially the one rumored to have taken Arrietty's cousin Eggletina), and the Borrowers are legitimately afraid of them, no cats actually appear on-page.

Arrietty is a young member of a race known as the Borrowers. As one might suspect from that name, they make their living stealing items (borrowing, in their parlance) from the giant "human beans". Their primary rule is to avoid ever being seen by these [[HumansAreCthulhu terrifying creatures]]. However, Arrietty meets a human boy who seems to be gentle and kind. Nonetheless, she is forbidden from seeing him.

* DyingRace: The Borrowers, possibly. Borrowers live so far away from each other (in comparison to their size) that they have very little contact, so they can't be sure how many other Borrowers still exist in the world.

* An [[Anime/PomPoko untransformed raccoon dog]] appears.

* LastOfHisKind: Arrietty's mother references this, fearing that she and her family were the lnast Borrowers. [[spoiler:Later proven not to be the case.]]