Karigurashi no Arrietty

While spending the summer at his aunt's house, the young but sickly Shou makes an amazing discovery: after following the house cat into the bushes, he gets a glimpse of a miniature girl about the size of his finger! Calling her kind "Borrowers," as they survive on tiny bits of human possessions, the girl introduces herself as Arrietty. As he discovers that she lives in the house basement with her parents, Pod and Homily, Shou becomes imaginably excited at the idea of such unique neighbors.

However, he fails to understand the adversities they face on a daily basis. In addition to keeping their existence hidden, they must also embark on perilous adventures into human territory, from the house to the outdoors, in order to make a living. Despite her parents' warnings, Arrietty befriends Shou, stirring up unexpected events that may change their lives forever.

Delighting the eye and conquering the heart, the breath-taking story of a friendship transcending the tensions between two different human kinds begins.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arrietty Main

Shida, Mirai Japanese

Shou Main

Kamiki, Ryunosuke Japanese

Spiller ing

Fujiwara, Tatsuya Japanese

Pod ing

Miura, Tomokazu Japanese

Homily ing

Ootake, Shinobu Japanese

Haru ing

Kiki, Kirin Japanese

Sadako ing

Takeshita, Keiko Japanese

Suzuki, Toshio Producer

Yonebayashi, Hiromasa Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, In-Between Animation

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Kasamatsu, Kouji Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 19, 2011

Kuro4735

Recommended

Studio Ghibli is quite renowned for it’s rather large portfolio of acclaimed family movies, and you could definitely add Karigurashi no Arrietty to that list. Ghibli usually makes two types of movies, either fantasy movies that focus on themes that are rather critical of problems in society (Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke and Nausicca come to mind), whereas in more recent times we’ve seen more slice-of-life fantasy adventure movies. Arrietty fits more into the latter, with it’s setting being modern day society with a small little twist; there are tiny, tiny people living under the house, and they borrow from humans to survive. Tiny as in maybe ... 5-8 centimeters tall.

One of the charming aspects to this movie is, without a doubt, the amount of attention paid to the little details that makes the presence of little people so believable. The creative, yet simple, ways in which Arrietty and her family are portrayed are captivating, such as the little toolsets Arrietty’s family made in order to explore the “human” house. They use everyday items like fishing hooks, double-sided scotch tape, and spools of thread to create their own little sets of backpacks filled with tools they use to make their lives a little easier, and make the characters fascinatingly believable. The creativity and thought put into the tiny details are awesome, from the fishing hooks and scotch tape, to the little neat cubes of sugar that fits like a well-sized package in the hands of Arrietty.

What I really enjoyed about this movie is how it is told from the point of view of little Arrietty as opposed to the perspective of us “regular humans”. Simple things that you could find in your everyday backyard, from Arrietty’s perspective, all of a sudden have a grandiose feeling to them. Things such as a simple vine you could find creeping across the wall of any old house transforms into an intricate ladder of leaves and stems to the rooftops, or a field of grass and flowers becomes a vast forest. This movie takes your everyday backyard, and turns it into a vast new world to explore. It doesn’t hurt that the scenery and artwork was vibrant and lush with color.

The soundtrack is especially fitting for this movie. The absense of Joe Hisashi’s music in this Ghibli film is instantly noticable, and while some of the pieces here may lack a slight bit of the grandeur of Hisashi’s works, the soundtrack is still well done. What is a bit unusual here is how the soundtrack was actually done by Cécile Corbel, a French singer and Celtic harpist, who was a huge fan of Ghibli works and sent samples of her work to the studio. The Celtic influence in the soundtrack is immediately noticeable, but it was definitely an excellent choice on Ghibli’s part.

Characterization of the actual characters wasn’t exactly anything mindblowingly original or exotic, but the main cast was rather believable for the most part, and had their own charms to them. I found the innocently curious, yet straightforward and resolute attitude of Arrietty quite likable. Her rather odd relationship with Sho, as well as how Sho perceived her, turned out to be quite fascinating and, in a sense, irable. The subtle tension between the elusive tiny people, and the gigantic humans, are played upon quite well here, which adds quite a few tense moments between Arrietty and Sho. I’d say characterization was quite tastefully handled here for the most part.

And now, for the biggest weakness for this movie. The plot progression and characterization were all fine and all, but the conflict and villain were practically a joke in of setup. Seriously, what grudge did old lady Haru have against the little guys? They didn’t explain in detail why she was hunting out the little people, giving only a flimsy excuse that they’re “theives” in a degrogatory tone. The villain just felt very underwhelming, and just doesn’t fit in with this movie’s atmosphere at all. The conflict was kind of discredited in my eyes because of the poorly integrated main antagonist, and there is certainly room for improvement here. Plot progression, while fine and all, was also rather slow at times. While I personally didn’t mind the slow pacing (it lets things sink in more), there were definitely plenty of slowly-paced scenes in this movie.

What makes Arrietty a great watch is the tremendous attention to the details of it’s setting, the beautiful art and music, and the wonderful direction for it’s characters. The plot is ittingly lacking (especially the major conflict, oh boy could it have used some more work), but as a premier film for a new director, this film turned out to be an pleasant surprise. The ending does feel very open ended, though, with a lot of loose ends that feel as if they have yet to be tied up. While the likelihood of a sequel for a Ghibli movie is very slim, I would be totally fine with a sequel for this particular movie.

Animation/Art: 9.0/10

Music: 9.0/10

Setting: 9.5/10

Characters: 8.0/10

Story: 7.0/10

Overall Enjoyment: 8.5/10 (Rounded up to a 9 on MAL)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 23, 2017

Moonywanderer

Mixed Feelings

Arrietty is a tiny person. When I say tiny, I mean only about 10cm tall! The tiny people live in the house of a sickly human boy named Sho, who has always heard about the little people of the house from his mother. Arrietty and her family are borrowers, tucked away in the house and ‘borrowing’ items that the humans are unlikely to notice are missing. After narrowly escaping being seen by Sho whilst outside, Arrietty is excited to start on her first borrowing herself, with her father, Pod. When an encounter with Sho leaves her family very concerned, Arrietty must decide whether the bridge ... into the human world is one which she wishes to cross.

So lets start with the characters. We have the suspicious house keeper, Haru, who is totally onto the family of borrowers. She’s quite a nuisance and you began to hate her weird reaction to the little people. Sho is quite tranquil and is not super insistent in intruding into the lives of the little people…rather, he leaves them little (or should i say huge) gifts like sugar cubes that will last them many cups of tea. We have Spiller, the outsider caveman little person that shows Arrietty and her family that there is life beyond their hideaway house. Arrietty’s mother and father keep things in their house running. From making tea to ensuring they have enough ‘borrowed’ resources, they work quite well as a team.

In of the plot, I personally felt it was quite lacking. Their is quite a bit of exposition on how the little people steal the things they need and seeing from their perspective is quite fun. Bugs, rats and birds are not their friend! They have glowing red eyes and are out to get them, but Arrietty turns out not to be such a weakling after she arms herself with a pin. The tension and story progression is what appeared most lacking to me. Arrietty hates Sho and hates how encountering him has turned her life upside down. And then she doesn’t anymore. There are no true villains, except for Haru, who really falls short in that criteria. She does look like a titan from Attack on Titan though…so bonus points for that?

The relationship between Arrietty and Sho was meant to be deep, meaningful and a merging of their worlds of the little and big human beans. Did I mention they call them human beans? No idea why, but this movie is filled with nature and foliage, which is definitely the most visually appealing aspects of this anime. Arrietty really only comes to him out of desperation, he helps her out and thus they have an eternal bond forever that can never be overcome by any obstacle right? Wrong. Really, not much happens at all between them. Sho wants a glimpse into Arrietty’s world which she doesn’t want to provide, but when there is no way around collaborating with Sho, she does. So romantic right? Even though the romance/companionship is quite strange and hollow in the first place, the significance of Arrietty giving her little ‘borrowed’ hair clip to Sho was quite cute.

The animation, though was pleasing, didn’t appear extremely memorable to me. Though the huge tissue boxes, sugar cubes and Arrietty’s little home and the dollhouse were well detailed and pleasing to the eyes, nothing really stood out to me.The music on the other hand is lovely, with Arrietty’s song carrying with it the magic that this movie was trying to portray.

There are too many questions left unanswered. Where are all the other little people like Arrietty? Why did Sho’s mother leave her critically ill child with his Aunt? Quite a jerky move by the way.

My favourite character was most definitely the sassy yet dependable cat. You can never go wrong with cats in an anime. Go check this out if you’re looking for a nice relaxing break from the human world.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 11, 2018

Laphi4052

Not Recommended

Funny

I don't have any complaints about the art style, voice, or artwork, but I honestly just can't get over the plot. In what world is it okay to steal and call it borrowing. I couldn't bring myself to finish the movie.

I personally don't understand why this movie is rated so highly. I would have been more okay with the movie if they had chosen to use a different world or acknowledged what they were doing is stealing, but nope.

I read in a review on a different website that it wasn't immoral because the people needed it and what they were taking was so ... minor it wouldn't have even been noticed as missing. I beg to differ. First off, I don't define their situation as one of need. There are other ways of procuring their goods and the little people could also aid the home owners in small ways as a way of giving back. Do they need to take to survive? Sure. But so do viruses that infect human bodies. Most people would sooner call that a leech rather than accept it as okay. My other issue is the little people have no idea what is of no importance as opposed to something of value. Something could be of sentimental value and they would have no idea. They most likely have to learn the hard way regarding what is and is not okay to take which doesn't seem like a great situation in my opinion.

I am aware this is an adaption of a novel with a near identical concept, but I still don't approve of this movie. If you are okay with something like "borrowing" / stealing or this concept doesn't bother you too much, then feel free to watch it. Aside from this aspect, the movie wasn't bad at all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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