From Up On Poppy Hill [コクリコ坂から Kokuriko-Zaka Kara] (2011)
Starring Masami Nagasawa, Junichi Okada, Keiko Takeshita, Jun Fubuki, Yuriko Ishida, Takashi Naito, Shunsuke Kazama, Nao Omori, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruka Shiraishi
Directed by Goro Miyazaki
Studio Ghibli has been doing a lot of adaptations. Howl’s Moving Castle, Tales of Earthsea, and Arrietty were all direct novel adaptations, while Ponyo was loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. From Up On Poppy Hill marks their fifth adaptation in a row. Ghibli was always the go-to source for fantastic, original anime films. Except they haven’t made one in over a decade now.
This may seem like a minor point, but to me it’s not. In the anime industry, film has generally played second fiddle to TV series. The films are almost always adaptations, and I think it hurts them more often than it helps. Films like Fist of the North Star, Dagger of Kamui, and Fate/Stay Night are all hampered by their attempts to tell a story not meant to be a mere two hours long. Ghibli showed that even in the modern-day anime industry, original films could not only be successful, but they could also be at the pinnacle of the industry. There are others now that make original films, like Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda, but Ghibli was the best. It just makes me a bit sad to see them leave their roots.