#my neighbors the yamadas

Facts About MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS (1999)

The film is based on the manga Nono-chan by Hisaichi Ishii, which was originally just several four-panel comic strips. Because of this, My Neighbors the Yamadas does not follow one single storyline, but rather is made up of 5-15 minute vingettes.

The movie is was the third in Studio Ghibli’s lineup to be directed by Isao Takahata, his works before this being Grave of the Fireflies (1988) & Only Yesterday (1991).

Different from other Ghibli works with done with traditional oil paint-on-cel animation, the film is done in watercolor, giving it an almost unfinished look. In order to achieve this look, the production team had to draw all of the frames on computers, making this the first Studio Ghibli movie to be fully digitally animated.

David Ogden Stiers plays the Narrator in the English dub of the film. You may also recognize Stiers from his performance as Governor Ratcliff in Disney’s Pocahontas.

The film won an Excellence Award for Animation at the 1999 Japanese Media Arts Festival

I bet that at some point in your life you’ve thought that your family was weird, don’t worry you’re not the only one. Meet the Yamada’s!!

This is the ultimate family movie. When it started I thought ‘is this a thing for kids?’ Even though I watch movies made for children (child at heart <3) I was taken by surprise. It is nothing like any anime movie, Ghibli never cease to surprise me. No, it is not hand painted, the whole movie is made on computer and given water color effects.

It is a compilation of various incidents of the Yamada family. This is the story of a middle class Japanese family. What makes it special is its simplicity. The characters are well developed and you can’t help but smile at the quips. Shige, the grandmother is stubborn, wise and a little childish. The father Takashi is hard working and daydreams about taking a break. The mother Matsuko is a typical housewife, and every child can relate to her mom-hood! The siblings are great, Noboru, a teenage boy with witty remarks and his sister, sweet innocent Nonoko.

Sometimes the story gives us advice, sometimes it makes us laugh and sometimes it makes us emotional but it never bores you. You can understand the nature and personality of each of the characters, even the supporting characters in just 104 minutes. And the haikus just add to the charm of this movie.

My favorite characters in each Ghibli movie i’ve seen so far