Line #66 Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere


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6	[[caption-width-right:349:''"Promise we'll remain a secret, forever."''[[note]]Anna on the left, Marnie on the right.[[/note]]]]
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9	->''"In this world, there's an invisible magic circle. The circle has an inside and outside. These people are on the inside… And I'm on the outside."''
10	-->-- '''Anna Sasaki'''
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12
13	''When Marnie Was There'', (in Japanese ''Omoide no Marnie'' or "Marnie of My Memories") is the 22nd anime film produced by Creator/StudioGhibli, released in 2014. It was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and written by him in collaboration Keiko Niwa and Masashi Ando, and based on the classic 1967 children's [[FilmOfTheBook novel]] ''Literature/{{When Marnie Was There}}'' by Joan G. Robinson.
14
15	The film (and novel) tell the story of Anna Sasaki (Sara Takatsuki), an introverted, alienated and severely asthmatic twelve-year-old girl from Sapporo, who only finds solace in her talent for drawing. To aid her health, Anna's guardian sends her to stay with relatives living in a rural seaside part of Japan (Norfolk, England in the book), where Anna soon becomes fascinated by a large Western-style manor looming near the marsh next to the village she stays in. The first time she goes there she finds it abandoned and run-down but on her second visit, the house is suddenly full of life and light. More importantly, it appears to be home to a blonde girl named Marnie (Kasumi Arimura), who looks exactly like the girl Anna had been seeing in her dreams.
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17	The girls feel an immediate connection, which grows ever deeper each time they meet. Still, Marnie and the manor she is living in remain a mystery. Why does the place look abandoned when Marnie is not around? What is Marnie's true identity? And what are her ties to Anna?
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19	In typical Creator/StudioGhibli style, with [[SceneryPorn gorgeous animation]] and music, the movie gradually unfolds the meaning of Anna and Marnie's encounters, with Anna meeting several other important people along the way who all help her on her [[ComingOfAgeStory journey to find herself]].
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21	The film became Yonebayashi and producer Yoshiaki Nishimura's final film for Ghibli before its restructuring caused the duo to leave and form Creator/StudioPonoc. It is also the final film to feature longtime key animator Makiko Futaki, who died two years after the film's release.
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23	----
24	!!''When Marnie Was There'' provides examples of:
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26	* AdaptationalLocationChange: The original novel is set in Norfolk England. The movie changes it to a rural seaside town in Japan's Hokkaido prefecture.
27	* AdaptationalNameChange: Bar Anna and Marnie, all the characters' names are changed from English names to Japanese ones, reflecting the location change. Sandra becomes Nobuko, Scilla becomes Sayaka, Mrs. Preston becomes Yoriko, etc.
28	* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the book, Sandra is pretty rude to Anna, even taking into account Anna's introverted behavior, and the two never become friends. Nobuko, the movie version, is perfectly friendly towards Anna when she joins her at a festival. While she does upset Anna by pointing out her unusual blue eyes, it's more InnocentlyInsensitive than actual malice. (She does so because she genuinely thinks they're cool and pretty.) When Sandra gives an angry retort to Anna's outburst, she follows up with the suggestion that they put the whole thing behind them and enjoy the evening. By the end of the film, Anna has apologized for her behavior and Nobuko asks her to join in on trash clean-up next summer.
29	* AdaptationalSkill: Unlike in the original novel, Anna is shown to be an artist who enjoys sketching in the film.
30	* AdvertisedExtra: In the English dub, Kathy Bates has a ''tiny'' role as the mean girl's mother. That didn't stop her name being put all over the advertising.
31	* AffectionateNickname: Sayaka's brother calls her "Sherlock" in the English dub.
32	* AlcoholHic: Anna gets one after accidentally drinking wine and gets drowsy.
33	* AmbiguouslyGay: Anna develops a close and intimate friendship with the titular Marnie. They go on a OldFashionedRowboatDate, cute dancing together, and declaring their love for each other. She also gets upset when Marnie shows interest in a boy. The last-minute reveal that [[spoiler:Marnie is Anna's DeadAllAlong ''grandmother'' as a child]] really muddles up the story's intentions.
34	* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The women at Marnie's parent's fancy party are in fashions ranging from the 1920s to the early 1960s, making it vague as to when it takes place. Unless it's only Marnie or Anna's imagination of the party.
35	** Probably takes place around the time when the film was released, you can see cordless telephones and a widescreen television.
36	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Anna delivers a very emotionally powerful one towards Marnie during their final scene together.
37	-->'''Anna:''' "I love you, Marnie! And I won't ever forget you!"
38	* {{Arcadia}}: Anna is sent to the countryside to improve her health. She (and the audience) is treated to some [[SceneryPorn beautiful shots of rural Japan]].
39	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
40	** Unless Anna's father was also Caucasian, it's almost impossible for Anna to have blue eyes.
41	** Marnie's features are even more unlikely. Her father is a blond, blue-eyed "foreigner" of some kind but her mother appears to be a standard Japanese beauty (black hair and dark eyes.) Needless to say, the odds that their child would be a blond, blue-eyed girl are... remote.
42	* BaitAndSwitchLesbians: The beginning of the movie is virtually ''dripping'' with romantic tension between the two main characters, which led many viewers to believe that this would lead to a payoff. [[spoiler: Marnie is Anna's grandmother. As a girl she had feelings for Kazuhiko, a boy whom she later married. Marnie was effectively viewing Anna as a stand-in for Kazuhiko all along.]]
43	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Anna comes to terms with her abandonment issues and learns to appreciate her adoptive family, but only at the price of learning the tragedies that consumed her biological family. She finally appreciates what she has, because it represents everything her parents and grandparents lost.]]
44	* BlushSticker: Anna often gets them.
45	* BreakTheCutie: Happens to [[spoiler:Marnie prior to the film. She was a sweet girl growing up whose parents were never around and who was left supervised by abusive staff. When she grew up, she married her [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood sweetheart]], but he ended up dying when their daughter was young. Marnie broke down so badly she was sent to an asylum for several years, which ruined her relationship with her daughter as she felt she had been [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned]]. They never mended that bond, however after her daughter's [[OutlivingOnesOffspring death]], she took in her young granddaughter Anna before dying herself. She was a DotingGrandparent, but everything caused her to 'come back' as a ghost child and befriend Anna while she visited the countryside.]]
46	* ButNowIMustGo: At the climax, [[spoiler:Marnie has to say goodbye to Anna, and asks that the latter forgive her.]]
47	* CatchYourDeathOfCold: Sayaka, when remembering that Anna is in the rain, worries that she'll get pneumonia.
48	* ChekhovsGunman: The elderly woman, Hisako, who Anna notices painting by the shore. [[spoiler:She is Marnie's childhood friend, and provides Anna and Sayaka with the first half of the truth about Marnie's identity.]]
49	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: [[spoiler: Forms part of the backstory when Marnie marries her childhood friend Kazuhiko.]]
50	* ComingOfAgeStory: Anna matures a lot throughout her adventures with Marnie.
51	* ConvenientlyInterruptedDocument: [[spoiler:Marnie's diary has the pages about her silo adventure ripped out so that it wouldn't tell Anna (and the audience) what's gonna happen next. Sayaka finds the missing pages afterwards.]]
52	* CoolBigBro: Sayaka's brother takes her out into the rain to find Anna, then runs for help when they find her feverish and soaked.
53	* CooldownHug: Anna offers Marnie one on hearing her story after Marnie's sandcastle gets destroyed.
54	* CreepyHousekeeper: Marnie's housekeeper. Anna gets a taste of her too.
55	* DaydreamSurprise: After supper, the scene cuts to Anna walking through the marsh to the mansion and seeing Marnie for the first time. Then the scene cuts to Anna in her bed, suggesting that the whole sequence was a dream.
56	* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Marnie. She is Anna's grandmother as a child and died prior to the film.]]
57	* DefinitelyJustACold: Anna passes out several times over the course of the story but refuses to acknowledge she has a problem.
58	* DotingGrandparent: [[spoiler:Marnie]] died when her granddaughter was very young but was a caring grandmother for the time they spent together. She had an estranged relationship with her own daughter due to her daughter believing she [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned]] her. [[spoiler:Marnie's love for Anna is a focus of the film, though Marnie is presented as Anna's age until TheReveal at the end that she's Anna's grandmother.]]
59	* DramaticThunder: Twice at the silo. First, powerful thunder [[PaperTiger prevents the two maids from going through with their plan]] to [[BreakTheCutie force Marnie to enter the detested silo]] as a prank. Later, dramatic thunder scares Marnie big time when inside the silo with Anna.
60	* EpiphanyTherapy: The encounter with Marnie helps Anna to overcome her deep-seated [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment issues]].
61	* EveryoneHasStandards:
62	** Anna and Sayaka are horrified when they learn that Marnie's governess and maids abuse her.
63	** Marnie's maids -- while horrible, abusive women who have no business taking care of a child -- get some credit because they don't just leave Marnie at the silo on the night, they get too scared to go near it themselves. The same maid that forcibly dragged Marnie by the arm to the silo also explicitly makes sure she has Marnie's arm when they run like hell. It's a small gesture that doesn't get any focus, but it seems to indicate some sort of limit to the amount of abuse they're willing to inflict on Marnie. Though how much of that is genuine concern for her and how much is fear of her employers' reaction should any harm come to Marnie is debatable.
64	* FaceYourFears: Anna does this with Marnie when urging her to enter the silo and overcome her fear of this place.
65	* TheFerryMan: Alluded to. The first time Anna visits the manor, she found herself stranded on the other side of the bay after the tide came in. A silent fisherman finds her and brings her back to the village.
66	* FlyawayShot: The last scene before the credits is a zoom-out from the house into the sky [[spoiler:(where Marnie lives)]].
67	* {{Foil}}: Yoriko is thin and makes a big deal out of pretty much any inconvenience her daughter faces, whereas Setsu is plump and is calm and patient with Anna's issues until she is faced with a serious problem such as getting lost in the rain.
68	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
69	** Anna has blue eyes. This is foreshadowing that she is of mixed ancestry. [[spoiler:Who else has blue eyes? Marnie, who turns out to be Anna's grandmother.]]
70	** Marnie dresses in a vintage fashion that resembles styles from the early to mid-20th century. It's unusual for a girl her age, but not particularly unheard of, and it establishes her [[GirlyGirlAndTomboy the girly girl to Anna's tomboy]]. [[spoiler:It also foreshadows that Marnie is DeadAllAlong and not a modern child]].
71	* FosteringForProfit: Anna feared Yoriko only adopted her for the money. Turns out, it wasn't the case.
72	* FosterKid: Marnie's governess abuses her when her parents aren't around.
73	* FriendlessBackground: Being an overly introverted and quirky girl, Anna has no friends at home.
74	* GhibliHills: A given.
75	* GhostlyGoals: [[spoiler:Marnie wants to spend time with Anna, who is truly her granddaughter, and help her grow beyond her abandonment issues.]]
76	* GildedCage: Marnie lives in a luxurious mansion with wealthy parents, but her governess is abusive, and the maids bully her. [[spoiler:Hisako]] explicitly says that Marnie was neglected.
77	* GrandFinale: This film became the final film for Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura as producer, as the latter left during Studio Ghibli's restructuring and formed Studio Ponoc, with Yonebayashi joining soon after.
78	* HairContrastDuo: Blond Marnie and brunette Anna.
79	* HandsOnApproach: The physical connection when Marnie shows Anna how to row the boat properly.
80	* HauntedHouse: Marnie's house and, to some extent, the silo.
81	* HauntedHouseHistorian: The uncle alludes to the silo and the mansion being haunted.
82	* HealthyCountryAir: Anna stays the summer with her aunt and uncle in the countryside to help her asthma.
83	* HighClassGloves: Most of the ladies at the dinner party have them. [[TheFashionista Marnie's mother wears them in every scene she appears in]].
84	* HistoryRepeats: Marnie [[spoiler:repeats her parents' mistakes, sending her daughter off to boarding school at a young age due to Marnie being ill, leaving her daughter Emily to grow up independent and estranged. Emily, like her mother, went off to get married in a rush, only to die in a car accident with her husband and leave their baby orphaned. The cycle finally breaks when Anna makes up with her foster parents]].
85	* HopeSpot: For Marnie, it was [[spoiler:getting a chance to raise her granddaughter better than she raised her own daughter. She then died a year later from shock and health complications, leaving Anna in foster care.]]
86	* ImaginaryFriend: Anna comes to this conclusion about [[spoiler:Marnie]] when reading her diary.
87	-->'''Anna:''' [[spoiler:Marnie is... someone I made up. An imaginary girl, only in my mind.]]
88	* ImColdSoCold: Said word for word by Marnie inside the silo.
89	* InescapableNet: The bedsheet Marnie throws on the CreepyHousekeeper keeps the latter trapped long enough for Marnie to fetch the key and lock her up.
90	* InnocentBlueEyes: Anna and Marnie. This is significant, as blue is a very exotic eye color in Japan and Anna's blue eyes do not go unnoticed, which just feeds her sense of isolation.
91	* IntimateHealing: When Marnie starts freezing in the silo, Anna crouches beside her to warm her up.
92	* {{Jerkass}}: The governess and two maids abuse and bully Marnie when her parents are away. In addition, from the description we're given, the governess and maids were bullying Marnie [[ForTheEvulz for no apparent reason other than sheer malice]].
93	* JerkassRealization: Downplayed; Anna over the course of the movie, realizing that her ParentalAbandonment issues make her unwilling to trust the people who care for her.
94	* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Marnie is Anna's grandmother. Kazuhiko is therefore her grandfather, and Marnie's mother and father are Anna's great-grandparents.]]
95	* LoveLetterLunacy: [[spoiler:Parental love version: Anna's isolation and disillusionment began when she found a hidden letter to her foster mother that rocked her whole world.]]
96	* MamaBear: Setsuko is one when Anna is accused of being a delinquent.
97	* MeaningfulEcho: [[spoiler:On the boat, Sayaka wants the diary to be her and Anna's secret, which echoes the scene earlier at the same place where Marnie asked to keep her relationship with Anna a secret. The connection is that Marnie's diary brought Anna and Sayaka together as friends.]]
98	* MelancholyMoon: There are haunting images of the crescent moon shining over the bay at night.
99	* MistakenIdentity:
100	** Sayaka asks Anna, [[spoiler:"Are you Marnie?"]] and claims she found the latter's diary.
101	** Later on, when Anna finds Marnie in the silo, the latter calls her [[spoiler:Kazuhiko, her boyfriend.]]
102	* MsExposition: Hisako, blatantly so. Her story fills in many of the gaps by the end of the movie.
103	* {{Mukokuseki}}: Subverted. [[spoiler:Anna's blue eyes attract notice and are an important clue to her heritage]].
104	* NeverTrustATrailer: The imagery used in promotional materials led quite a few people to believe that the movie deals with a budding romance between the two female leads. [[spoiler:It doesn't.]]
105	* NewParentNomenclatureProblem: Anna calls her foster mother "auntie". Towards the end Anna, who has resolved all of her issues, addresses her as "mother".
106	* NoAccountingForTaste: Marnie falls for a guy [[spoiler:that left her alone in a silo, a place she fears, all night to help with her phobia.]] That guy would later become [[spoiler:Anna's grandfather.]]
107	* NoAntagonist: This is a ComingOfAgeStory with the focus on figuring out just who Marnie is. There are some instances of cruelty but there is no real antagonist.
108	* NotNowKiddo: Anna when Sayaka reveals that she [[spoiler:found the rest of Marnie's diary]] right when Marnie goes missing near the silo, and Anna knows that the silo is Marnie's worst fear. Sayaka lampshades this.
109	* OldFashionedRowboatDate: Marnie teaches Anna to row and often bonds together with the rowboat.
110	* ParentalAbandonment: Marnie's parents are present, but often leave her with an abusive governess; Anna's abandonment issues stem from several traumatic early childhood incidents.
111	-->'''Anna:''' My real parents died when I was little. My grandmother, too. I know they didn't die on purpose, but... sometimes I feel like... I can't forgive them... for leaving me all alone.
112	* PensieveFlashback: Towards the end when Hisako fills Anna in on Marnie's life story, we see Anna being present in the flashbacks.
113	* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Marnie to her parents every time they leave, and to Anna in the silo.
114	* PluckyGirl: As expected in a Creator/StudioGhibli film, Marnie is fairly plucky (though her pluckiness has limits) and she teaches Anna pluckiness by example.
115	* RaceLift: Anna is presumably white in the original novel. In the film, she's multiracial (Japanese and white).
116	* RedHerring: Brief, early flashbacks Anna has of herself as a little girl show her clutching a doll that resembles Marnie, which causes observant viewers to assume that Marnie is entirely an imaginary friend, which Anna herself comes to believe for a moment. [[spoiler: Marnie is revealed to have actually been much, much more: Anna's grandmother as a young girl.]]
117	* TheReveal: ''Three'' over the course of the film, all regarding Marnie's true identity:
118	** Anna [[spoiler:was only ''imagining'' Marnie the entire time]].
119	** Marnie [[spoiler:was born ''decades'' ago, and eventually married, bore children, and [[DeadAllAlong died in her old age]], which leads up to the final reveal...]]
120	** Marnie [[spoiler:is Anna's deceased grandmother]].
121	* SceneryPorn: This is by Creator/StudioGhibli, so this is to be expected. Still, the animation of the water in that marsh is ''gorgeous''.
122	* SecondaryCharacterTitle: The film is about a girl named Anna who befriends the titular Marnie.
123	* SecretDiary: [[spoiler:Sayaka finds Marnie's diary and shows it to Anna, upon which the latter realizes that she just imagined her encounters with Marnie.]]
124	* SettingUpdate: From 1960s Britain to 2010s Japan.
125	* SheCleansUpNicely:
126	** Marnie when she dresses for the party in a pink dress.
127	** Anna in her festival clothes.
128	* ShesAllGrownUp: [[spoiler:Marnie at her wedding.]]
129	* ShrineToTheFallen: A variation of the living. The uncle and aunt have kept their daughter's room as it was when she grew up and moved out.
130	* SinkOrSwimMentor: [[spoiler:Kazuhiko]] left Marnie alone in the silo for one night so she would have to face her fears. He comes back for her in the morning.
131	* StandardFemaleGrabArea: Marnie is dragged around this way by Nan and the maids. Justified in that she is a child and they are full-grown adults.
132	* StepfordSmiler:
133	** Anna is this around everyone, hiding her feelings unless provoked because she knows that she has a good life and thus she shouldn't complain. The few times that the façade breaks are heartbreaking, like when she tells Marnie that [[spoiler:she found out her foster parents were being paid to look after her, but they use it to take care of her, and she hates that it was being kept a secret.]]
134	** Marnie is a CheerfulChild, up to the point where she reveals that [[spoiler:her Nan and the maids were abusive, and her parents, while good people, aren't always around to protect her]].
135	* SuddenlySpeaking: [[spoiler:The fisherman at the end, upon hearing the name "Marnie".]]
136	* TimeTravel: [[spoiler:Combined with LivingMemory. Both seem possible in the beginning and the difference matters in the end.]]
137	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Anna and Marnie, respectively. It's a rare example with an introverted tomboy and an outgoing girly girl.
138	* TroubledFetalPosition: Marnie when two maids tried to drag her to the silo, and later on when she's trapped in there due to her own fear.
139	* TrueBlueFemininity: Marnie favors wearing blue dresses. [[spoiler:Her style of dress could be {{foreshadowing}} that she's not a modern-day child]].
140	* UnfinishedBusiness: [[spoiler:Marnie came back in ghost form to assist with her granddaughter's ParentalAbandonment.]]
141	* UnnamedParent: Both Anna's birth and adoptive fathers.
142	* TheVoiceless: The fisherman apparently hasn't said a single word for quite some time, but [[SuddenlySpeaking breaks his silence at the end]] upon hearing the name ''Marnie''.
143	* VoiceoverLetter: When Anna reads Marnie's diary, it's voiced by Marnie herself.
144	* WeatherSavesTheDay: See the first part of Dramatic Thunder above.
145	* WhamLine:
146	** [[spoiler:Sayaka's "Are you Marnie?"]]
147	** Yoriko talking about a photograph: [[spoiler:"Someone at the orphanage told me it belonged to your grandmother."]]
148	* WhenSheSmiles: Anna's laugh is quite sweet since at best she gives a repressed smile.
149	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Marnie is scared of the silo because "naughty children get locked up there" and the maids as a prank nearly did lock her up there on a stormy night.
150	* WriteBackToTheFuture: [[spoiler:Marnie's diary]] in effect, though not in intent.

Context Anime / WhenMarnieWasThere