My Neighbors the Yamadas

The new Ghibli Studio production, Tonari no Yamadakun, is two years after "Mononoke" a new masterpiece of animation. The story... Well, there is no story. Just a superposition of sequences, each being more hilarating than the preceding. Director Takahata, using computers generated "hand-like" drawings, wanted the result to be as close as possible to the original newspapers comic, and he fully suceeded. In spite of the apparent graphic simplicity, the astounding quality of the animation makes the characters so lively that it seems sometimes more "real" than conventional cell animation.

The yamadas are a typical japanese family, living in the Kansai area (Osaka). They do not speak standard japanese, especially the Granma, so as almost all of the gags are not visual, so if you plan to see it in Japanese, you should have very strong basis of the language. This is one of the most inventive animation movies I've seen since a very long time...

While Miyazaki is the best known (and most successful) of the non-demon-fixated/violent-porn anime directors, his sometime producing partner and fellow Studio Ghibli alumni easily equals him in breadth of vision, commitment to art and passionate filmmaking. And although it's Miyazaki who alone seems to possess the Midas touch of his uniquely innocent, melancholic, optimistic, whimsical sensibility, Takahata has arguably pushed the envelope further back in terms of Japan's commercial animation vocabulary. Witness the neo-realism of Grave Of The Fireflies, fearless indictment of globalisation in Pon Poko, and now this utterly charming adaptation of the popular manga, My Neighbours The Yamadas, rendered in a style new to Anime features, but utterly faithful to the original text.

A series of vignettes rather than one overall plot, it is nevertheless easy to find the running time flying past you as you take in the idiosyncratic characters, semi-bizarre situations (although a moment's thought reveals that your family was probably just like this), and beautiful performances (from animators and voice artists alike), finishing with a sense of the family's strength as a unit through a love for each other that's expressed more through their tolerance of each other's peculiarities than in open declarations of affection. And like Grave Of The Fireflies and Whisper Of The Heart, a popular western song that no one of my generation (20s) would ever dream of listening to seriously is made poignant, rousing and brimming with emotion.

Ten out of ten: films this good are rare.

This is a Studio Ghibli movie: The Totoro is displayed at the opening, and the animation is very well done. There end all similarities. The word to describe it is "different". Different graphics, different animation, different kind of story... Nothing my knowledge of previous Ghibli films could have prepared me to see. Especially coming from the director of such films as "Hotaru no Haka" (aka "Grave of the Fireflies")

When seeing the very first pictures, I wondered what these drawings were, so far from the characters I got used to see, and like... And then, the magic of its humor took me. The auditorium was fully filled (some people had to sit on the stairs), and everyone was laughing out loud, having no problem at all to follow the jokes (the movie was subtitled) even if we may have missed a few of them, due to a possible lack in cultural knowledge. Yet, I don't think I missed so much... This Yamada family is close enough to us, and their behavior seemed rather universal to me.

I spent a great time watching it... But I have perhaps only one regret: I'm afraid I won't find the same pleasure I always find to see a Ghibli film again and again. The graphics aren't the main interest in the film, and when you already know the jokes, well... Therefore, I would rate it differently for the first seeing, and the ones after. A high rating anyway, especially for having been able to make us laugh so much without ever using any "dumb" easy joke as we could now find so (too) often in nowadays films. But I will never watch it again and again as I could do with a "Kiki", a "Nausicaa", or (my favorite) a "Mimi o Sumaseba" (aka "Whispers of the Heart").

So, don't hesitate if you have the opportunity to go and see it. You should appreciate it at least once. Then you could wish to own it, most probably to be able to show it to some friends or family.

I do not think this is Studio Ghibli's best film, but I liked it because it was different and it still maintained their charm. I do think though out of the English dubs this is one of the weaker ones. Don't get me wrong the voice acting is fine, it's just that the script as has been said before has many references that some mayn't get. That said, it is a very funny and charming film. The animation is excellent, different in a sketchy sort of style but I liked that, and the music is cool. The story is engaging while working at being simple, and the characters are sheer delights, I can never get enough of the grandma. Overall, not their best but I still really liked it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

My Neighbors the Yamadas is a pleasant series of stories that are loosely connected. It's likeable, but it doesn't feel like one cohesive film. I presume this is much like reading the comic strip the movie came from. While I enjoyed the animation and laughed a few times, this probably would have been better suited for a television series.