Emilie's Media Diary

Yet another movie I see nobody talking about. The story is pretty simple but I did enjoy watching this movie. Not sure if I can call this a love story.. It is more like a teen angst story haha! The main character, Jun Naruse, was a chatty little girl. Like most children, she had a wild imagination and her positive and bubbly attitude made her everyday life into an adventure. One faithful day while exploring outside, she stumbles upon a castle. She is surprised to see her father driving out the castle with a beautiful lady she had never seen before.  She instantly thinks that her father must be a prince since he is coming from the castle with a "princess". Too happy to contain herself she goes home and tells her mother all about her recent discovery. However, her mother's reaction is something she did not expect. Turns out that the castle she saw did not belong to a fairy tale princess and instead the building is a love hotel.  ("A love hotel is...

Mamoru Hosoda's 2012 released film Wolf Children will never stop making me emotional, no matter how many times I see it. And I'm a person who avoids children if possible... I'm not going to reveal much of the plot. This movie is best to experience without knowing about the plot beforehand. The story is about a mother raising her two children, wolf children. Yuki, the older sister of the two kids, is narrating the story. It feels like she is remembering the old times while talking to someone. The story is powerful but the animation and soundtrack really bring it to life. As crazy a story about 2 werewolf children is, the movie feels very real. Like something that could really happen. The animation really pays attention to body language and expression the characters have. Both of the wolf children have some animal-like reactions mixed in. The movie has many long scenes with only the soundtrack and no lines. I wouldn't call them montages since those are ...

I've been feeling a little blue lately so I thought this would be a perfect chance for me to talk a little about Kiki's Delivery Service. The movie tells the story of Kiki, a young witch girl just old enough to leave her home. "Young witches must journey alone to find a new town to live in", that is the old custom Kiki too has to follow. But she is not worried as she already has a plan! She has always dreamed of living in a town with an ocean view and so sets off towards the unknown full of hope and optimism. The first night on the road was not easy, but by the next morning, Kiki has already found her dream city. Kiki's dreams soon start to crack. Just moments after arriving in the town, she starts to get unwanted attention, almost gets into a car accident, is driven off from a public park and then a hotel clerk refuses to rent her a room because of her age.  Things start to look hopeless, but when a kind bakery owner Osono sees Kiki fly...

I recently found out about this movie and after watching it, I was very surprised to see almost nobody knowing about its existence. This movie has a great theme, the animation is fluid and vibrant, the score is great... So why is no one talking about it? Penguin Highway is a story about a young boy named Aoyama and him trying to solve the mystery behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his hometown. The more Aoyama and his friends learn about the penguins, the more strange occurrences they discover.  The movie sounds simple, but rather than just being a funny magical adventure, the movie tells coming of age story.  The protagonist, Aoyama, is grade-schooler smart for his age. He is interested in science and is obsessed in growing up, going so far as to count the number of days he needs to wait till he can be regarded as a grownup. His cocky and conceited attitude and confidence in his own skills don't make him popular in class, and instead, make him a ta...

Jungle Emperor Leo is a 1997 made movie adaption of Osamu Tezuka's manga by the same name. The movie covers the last arc of the manga. Jungle Emperor Leo gets compared to Disney's The Lion King a lot and is mainly remembered as "the movie/series Disney ripped off". This movie deserves much more than that, so I am going to skip that drama completely and instead I will be talking about the great color choices some scenes have in the movie. The movie starts with very bright and happy colors. Even if there's rain, the clouds are not dark.  The animals celebrate Leo's children, Lune and Lukio. There seem to be no worries, only peace and joy. Very soon after, night falls. Humans have entered the forest. Leo has heard a gunshot but nothing has happened yet. But the forest is dark, something bad is coming. It's the calm before the storm. The very next day, the humans go after the animals and even end up setting the savanna...

Hello. My name is Emilie. I'm 21, soon to be 22 years old studying Media & Art. This blog was created for my studies in Media Channels and Platforms course, but I might continue it even after the course ends. In this blog, I am going to write about animated movies every week. The focus will be on Japanese animated movies. I'll write reviews and thoughts and maybe even add some background information for the older and more unknown movies.