... simply because it made me cry. I won’t give away the plot, I’ll just say that you build up a lot of hope for the characters, but the ending is bittersweet. It was a good story, and I liked it, I just would have preferred it not so sad.

I found the trailer for this on YouTube as a “Related Video” while consuming a Ghibli film. It was so beautiful: the artwork, the music, and the language of the film. I didn’t know what it was about but the trailer alone left me feel happy.

After a little digging, I found the entire movie on YouTube and it left me even happier. The English dubbed sounded as nostalgic as the Japanese, but I could have watched this silently. I paused the movie more then once just to observe the detailed scenery. One such scene had Sayuri was in a library or bookstore and one of the boys walks in, then it pans out to reveal the bright windows reflecting across a white floor in vivid detail. Yet, from the books on the bookshelves to the character’s socks, not one other possible detail was left out. I’ve never notice such shadowing and light effects in an anime before. There was no fuzzy areas that were deemed “unimportant” to sketch. This impressed me so much.

If you want to watch a good light SciFi/Fantasy with little blood, soft romance, and few scenes that may jerk tears, then I highly recommend this film. If you want to watch a good piece of art, then I recommend this film. If you want to listen to dialog that can romance you, then I recommend this film.