And when Anna suddenly finds herself in a new location with no memory of the previous hours, she consciously avoids the obvious implications. Even when Marnie disappears for days on end, Anna’s gut reaction isn’t to chock it up to her imagination but to berate Marnie for abandoning her like everyone else in her life. The two realities are incompatible, but Anna never questions Marnie’s existence. Anna’s treasured mansion is derelict and condemned, but at night, it becomes a haven for swanky parties thrown by Marnie’s upper-crust but negligent parents. There is much of the Southern Gothic about this tale (windswept marshes, creaky silos), which is fitting considering the source material, but the emphasis – as per all Ghibli films – is on a childhood sense of mystery and wonder. Their connection is immediate and their fierce friendship the instigator of Anna’s transformation. In her new seaside town, Anna remains a loner but becomes obsessed with a dilapidated mansion, eventually meeting Marnie – another young, troubled girl – who may or may not be a ghost, a figment of her imagination or even a symptom of growing madness. She has no friends, never knew her real family and has no sense of belonging. Anna feels wholly unwanted and unloved, especially after discovering her foster parents hide the fact that they are paid by the state to keep her. Just in the first five minutes, we hear her declare, “I hate myself,” and tell her foster mother, “I’m sorry I cost you money again.” The latter comes after a severe asthma/anxiety attack and prompts her parents to send her to the clean-aired countryside to stay with family friends. As Ghibli characters go, she is deeply troubled.

It tells the story of Anna, a twelve-year-old orphan living with her foster parents who is experiencing a very acute and resonant depression. Robinson, and according to Miyazaki it’s one of the can’t-miss children’s books of all time. When Marnie Was There is an adaptation of a 1967 children’s book of the same name, a young adult novel by Joan G. The hiatus is probably not permanent, but if it is then When Marnie Was There will prove to be a worthy final bow that brings this era of Studio Ghibli full circle. Helmed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi ( The Secret World of Arietty), it is a sumptuous film but one that bears the auspicious title of the “final” Ghibli film, with the studio having announced its hiatus in August 2014 after Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement. The studio’s latest When Marnie Was There studiously blends both into a melancholy portrait of family, place and timeless friendship. The Studio Ghibli oeuvre is a gorgeous mix of childhood fantasy ( My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away) and elegiacal explorations of the past ( From Up On Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises).

When marnie was there studio ghibli