Stimme des Herzens (1995)

Stimme des Herzens: Directed by Yoshifumi Kondô. With Yoko Honna, Issey Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi. A love story between a girl who loves reading books, and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses.

“A very moving animé film from Studio Ghibli, as good as anything either Miyazaki or Takahata have made. Itu0026#39;s a very simple and down-to-earth movie about a young teenage girl who is experiencing her first love, as well as doubts about her future. Whisper understands its characters as few films do, and I became quite intimate with our heroine, Shizuku. It also has a sense of mood unmatched by any other film I can think of set in everyday life. The way it feels to live in a cramped apartment, the emotions of the first day of school, and the way the sky looks after it has rained – so many generic memories of my life brought right to the forefront, as if they were the only moments that mattered. The film enveloped me so completely, I could smell the odor of the antique shop. The music is so wonderful, the score by Yuji Nomi. And I never could have imagined that John Denveru0026#39;s song `Country Roadsu0026#39; would make me weep. Well, it was in Japanese, but still. Itu0026#39;s frightening. Each Ghibli film I see makes me think that the next one cannot possibly match it, yet each film inevitably does. 10/10.”