My Neighbors the Yamadas
Dir: Isao Takahata
1999
***
Released between two of Studio Ghibli's best and most successful films to date (Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away) My Neighbors the Yamadas is a strange addition to the portfolio of work but it isn't an unwelcome change of style. Without wanting to sound stupid and obvious, it is very Japanese. Based on a popular comic strip, Isao Takahata wisely keeps a short-story vignette format and a comic-strip aesthetic to keep up momentum, to give each character their fair share of screen time and give the film a certain authenticity, even though it is a departure from the studios usual style of animation. Each story has a moral tale attached to it, some are clearer than others and some are just completely unfathomable. Based on the Manga cartoons of Hisaichi Ishii that appeared daily (four cells at a time) in Japan's daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun from 1991 to 1997 until the format was dramatically altered to concentrate on just one of the characters and renamed Nono-chan. The animation is simple but charming and incorporates a watercolour style but surprisingly, this is actually the first Ghibli film to be 100% digital. Not quite what hardcore fans of Ghibli want or come to expect but a big hit among fans of the original comic-strip. It's a nice one off but probably my least favorite from the studio but that is largely because I was unaware of the original comic, have come to expect something else from the studio and understood only half of the story that I believe looses something through translation. I would argue that Isao Takahata is capable of much more than this also.