History Headscratchers / WhenMarnieWasThere

** The Japanese equivalent is RomanticTwoGirlFriendship, which even cites the influence of Western fiction aimed at girls (ex. '"A Little Princess'' and a host of other, lesser-known novels) as an influence. People who read Marnie's actions as flirtatious or were expecting lesbians were watching from a modern Western perspective without taking into account that "normal" or "platonic" encompasses different things depending on the relevant time and place. Even in most Western societies, it's pretty normal for female friends to hug or kiss, especially on arrival or departure, without it spurring assumptions about sexuality.

** The Japanese equivalent is RomanticTwoGirlFriendship, which even cites the influence of Western fiction aimed at girls (ex. '"A Little Princess'' and a host of other, lesser-known novels) as an influence. People who read Marnie's actions as flirtatious or were expecting SchoolgirlLesbians were watching from a modern Western perspective without taking into account that "normal" or "platonic" encompasses different things depending on the relevant time and place. Even in most Western societies, it's pretty normal for female friends to hug or kiss, especially on arrival or departure, without it spurring assumptions about sexuality.

* Why does Marnie act so terribly flirtatious toward Anna throughout the movie? If Marnie really wanted to help her out, then making Anna fall in love [[spoiler:with her own grandmother]] would have been the worst possible outcome.
** There's signs that Anna is actually standing in for [[spoiler:Kazuhiko]], [[spoiler:Marnie's future husband]], in some of their interactions are actually [[spoiler:Marnie's memories with him]], such as when they go to the silo and she keeps calling Anna [[spoiler:by his name]]. Also, Marnie is a lonely girl, so she might just see her own actions as very friendly and not actually flirtatious. Still a little awkward though.
** In the novel at least, there was some implication that that sort of thing was DeliberateValuesDissonance. There were a few clues that [[spoiler:Marnie wasn't from Anna's time]], and for girls, things like holding hands, hugging, or giving a kiss on the cheek didn't necessarily have the same meaning as today. (In the novel, Anna also acted odd for a child, so that could explain why ''she'' didn't think anything of Marnie being rather cuddly towards her.)

** [[spoiler: I take it that Marnie dearly loves her granddaughter and wants to help her, but also the process of coming back from the afterlife apparently involves a lot of amnesia. Marnie doesn't know that Anna is her granddaughter. Even when she's saying goodbye, she only manages "I can't stay", as opposed to "I'm a ghost and I'm going back to the afterlife now." She only has a vague understanding of things. Plus, I don't think any of her interactions are flirtatious per se; she's just so innocent that she doesn't know what might look "flirtatious" from an outside perspective. For instance, she doesn't see dancing as a sign of romantic love; she just sees it as something that her glamorous parents do at parties, and she wants to imitate them. Likewise, the word "love" doesn't have to come with romantic overtones.]]
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* What causes Anna to change her outlook on life in the end? Anna's biggest issue is abandonment, and what basically happens is that [[spoiler:Marnie abandons her by the end of the movie, despite promising to stay with her]]. This should have made matters ''worse'' for Anna, since she again got left behind by someone she loves and trusts.
** Marnie mentions a couple times that Anna disappears and then reappears. It happens once early on when Marnie asks Anna a question, only for her to vanish for sometime before reappearing in the boat; then it happens again at the [[spoiler:silo--when Anna falls asleep, she must have vanished and left Marnie alone which is when Kazuhiko showed up.]] So, Anna forgiving Marnie is only fair at that moment, but more than that, Anna loves Marnie and genuinely doesn't want to stay angry at her one friend who in the end really didn't betray her. Also, Anna knows that [[spoiler:Marnie is dead,]] so she can't cling to her anymore--after that, she learns about their connection and then her foster mother admits that [[spoiler:they've been receiving a subsidy for raising her,]] which was the catalyst for Anna's abandonment issues. Knowing the truth and getting reassurance of her foster family's love, [[spoiler:along with gaining a new friend in Sayaka,]] are what really set Anna back on track.
** You have this exactly backwards. [[spoiler: Marnie is a ghost (or at least that's how I interpret it). Anna was initially "abandoned" by non-ghost Marie because Marnie was old and she died. But she didn't want to die. In fact, she had so much passionate love for her granddaughter that ''she came back from the afterlife as a ghost'' just so she could comfort her. (This process involves getting amnesia, which is why Marnie doesn't simply explain herself from the beginning). When ghost-Marnie leaves at the end, she's not leaving because she wants to. She says "I can't stay". I think this means that she can only maintain her ghost-form for a certain length of time before she gets pulled back into the afterlife. Yeah, it sucks that Marnie can't stick around, but Anna learns that her grandmother truly loves her, which in turn makes her feel loveable. Plus, her foster mother confesses that she's been getting money from the government, and Anna's biggest problem with that wasn't the money itself, but rather the fact that her foster mother was keeping it secret.]]
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* How is Anna related to the Oiwas? She calls them Aunt and Uncle, and we know that unlike "Auntie" she is biologically related to them. However [[spoiler:since Marnie was an only child, and only had one child herself, and no one knows anything about Anna's father, Anna would have to be related to them through Kazuhiko. This would make sense since he grew up in that area. But if one of the Oiwa's is Kazuhiko's younger sibling wouldn't they already be familiar with Marnie's story and be likely to mention that Anna's grandmother lived there when telling the story of The Marsh House? If they're a distant enough relative that they don't know the story then how is Anna related to them?]]

** It's stated in film that the Oiwas are "Auntie's" sister and brother-in-law respectively. But there is a minor plot hole why nothing is said of anyone from Kazuhiko's family, unless the folks glimpsed in Anna's flashbacks of [[spoiler:her grandmother's]] funeral service, which included a couple of them discussing who would care for Anna, were Kazuhiko's relatives.
** She's not biologically related to them. (If she was, they surely would have adopted her after she was first orphaned.) She's only connected to them via her adoptive mother. "Aunt" and "Uncle" are simply the best terms she has for them.

** My headcannon goes like this: First, the maids and Nan scared Marnie with stories of the silo. Later, the maids tried to scare her even more by dragging her up there, but they got scared of the storm and went home (with Marnie in tow). Later still, Kazuhiko came up with the idea that he and Marnie should go to the silo together to confront her fears, but Marnie backed out when they got to the door. (This part is not specifically depicted, but it would fit with everything else.) Later still, Marnie feel ashamed that she chickened out, and so she went to the silo ''alone'' to confront her fears. Unfortunately she got caught in a storm and her fears got the better of her, so she was trapped inside the silo for several hours. Fortunately, Kazuhiko noticed that Marnie was missing, figured out where she had gone, and showed up personally to rescue her from the silo. Many years later, Ghost-Marnie is reliving some of her old memories and fears, and Ana gets the same idea that her grandfather once had: Let's go to the silo together to confront your fears. Along the way, Ghost-Marnie conflates this moment with the previous experience of when she and Kazuhiko went to the silo together (before she chickened out), so she refers to Ana as "Kazuhiko". Ana gets distracted by Sayaka for a moment, and by the time she reaches the silo Ghost-Marnie is now reliving a ''different'' silo memory, specifically the one where she went to the silo alone and Kazuhiko came to her rescue. This is why she again mistakes Ana for Kazuhiko for a moment.

** My headcannon goes like this: First, the maids and Nan scared Marnie with stories of the silo. Later, the maids tried to scare her even more by dragging her up there, but they got scared of the storm and went home (with Marnie in tow). Later still, Kazuhiko came up with the idea that he and Marnie should go to the silo together to confront her fears, but Marnie backed out when they got to the door. (This part is not specifically depicted, but it would fit withe everything else.) Later still, Marnie feel ashamed that she chickened out, and so she went to the silo ''alone'' to confront her fears. Unfortunately she got caught in a storm and her fears got the better of her, so she was trapped inside the silo for several hours. Fortunately, Kazuhiko noticed that Marnie was missing, figured out where she had gone, and showed up personally to rescue her from the silo. Many years later, Ghost-Marnie is reliving some of her old memories and fears, and Ana gets the same idea that her grandfather once had: Let's go to the silo together to confront your fears. Along the way, Ghost-Marnie conflates this moment with the previous experience of when she and Kazuhiko went to the silo together (before she chickened out), so she refers to Ana as "Kazuhiko". Ana gets distracted by Sayaka for a moment, and by the time she reaches the silo Ghost-Marnie is now reliving a ''different'' silo memory, specifically the one where she went to the silo alone and Kazuhiko came to her rescue. This is why she again mistakes Ana for Kazuhiko for a moment.

* My headcannon goes like this: First, the maids and Nan scared Marnie with stories of the silo. Later, the maids tried to scare her even more by dragging her up there, but they got scared of the storm and went home (with Marnie in tow). Later still, Kazuhiko came up with the idea that he and Marnie should go to the silo together to confront her fears, but Marnie backed out when they got to the door. (This part is not specifically depicted, but it would fit withe everything else.) Later still, Marnie feel ashamed that she chickened out, and so she went to the silo ''alone'' to confront her fears. Unfortunately she got caught in a storm and her fears got the better of her, so she was trapped inside the silo for several hours. Fortunately, Kazuhiko noticed that Marnie was missing, figured out where she had gone, and showed up personally to rescue her from the silo. Many years later, Ghost-Marnie is reliving some of her old memories and fears, and Ana gets the same idea that her grandfather once had: Let's go to the silo together to confront your fears. Along the way, Ghost-Marnie conflates this moment with the previous experience of when she and Kazuhiko went to the silo together (before she chickened out), so she refers to Ana as "Kazuhiko". Ana gets distracted by Sayaka for a moment, and by the time she reaches the silo Ghost-Marnie is now reliving a ''different'' silo memory, specifically the one where she went to the silo alone and Kazuhiko came to her rescue. This is why she again mistakes Ana for Kazuhiko for a moment.

** It's stated in film that the Oiwas are "Auntie's" sister and brother-in-law respectively. But there is a minor plot hole why nothing is said of anyone from Kazuhiko's family, unless the folks glimpsed in Anna's flashbacks of [[spoiler:her grandmother's]] funeral service, which included a couple of them discussing who would care for Anna, were Kazuhiko's relatives.