Saturday, September 28, 2013

From Up on Poppy Hill

Today I talk about a dvd that was issued on September 23rd in the UK.
Called From Up On Poppy Hill, this anime stage play by Hayao Miyazaki and lovingly directed by his son, Goro, is a coming of age romance set in Yokohama, Japan in 1963, just 18 years after the end of World War Two and the establishment of modern day Japan.
Set in the ramshackle club house of their high school , it charts the romance of Umi and Shun as they join forces to save it from demolition for a new sports facility for the (then) upcoming 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The musical score is jazz based and features Sukiyaki the World conquering  1963 Japanese song that had a cover version by Kenny Ball's trad jazz  band in the UK.
The animation as is usually the case from this studio, Studio Ghilbi, is unapologetically old school cell drawn and all the better for it allowing you to concentrate on the story.
Strongly recommended. 

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