So like many people I am a HUGE fan of a Japanese animation studio named Studio Ghibli! Studio Ghibli is best known for their movies such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away

Though for the longest time I haven't seen a large chunk of the Studio Ghibli library, so I'm correcting that today by watching a bunch of Ghibli animations that I haven't watched!

I figured since I'm doing this I might as well take a break to write a few mini-reviews on the movies, spoiler free of course!

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"Romantic Depression"

Up Upon Poppy Hill

So I thought I'd start on the one that most people haven't seen... as in the newest one. Up Upon Poppy Hill is set to have an English dub and international release next Spring, but I thought I'd get an early start at it through the original Japanese version.

To describe the movie, its a very simple movie. Unlike some of the other Ghibli films, this one doesn't have any monsters or spirits, but just people. Its a simple slice of life movie. And actually I rather like this. The movie was pretty cute actually. It stars a young woman who works hard for her family and then she meets a peculiar young man who is the obvious love interest. On top of that, at their school there is an old club house that is threatened with demolition and the students try to save it. Its a really basic plot really... until the romance arc takes a few turns...

Well the romance arc is pretty much half the movie and a plot of its own and although at first its adorable... it has a VERY odd twist to it... a very Japanese twist to it...

Still even with a questionable twist, the movie still feels like a heart warming slice of life movie. Its nothing too flashy, but it still manages to entertain me.

Grave of Fireflies

So I decided to go from a nice heart warming romantic slice of life movie to... well... pretty much the polar opposite!

Grave of Fireflies is also a movie that doesn't have any supernatural qualities to it... actually its a historical piece.

Its also probably the most depressing movie I've seen in my life!

It takes place in Japan during World War II... and aside from maybe the infamous concentration camps, Japan may have been one of the worst places to be during World War II. Mostly because the constant bombings and people starving to death.

It is by all means NOT a pleasant movie to watch. That's not to say its bad, but to put it bluntly, you'll feel like shit afterwards.

The basic plot is a young boy and his little sister try to survive World War II.. and that's basically it.

The movie is kinda nice enough to spoil the ending a bit at the very first moment of the film. From the very first piece of dialogue you know that there is no happy ending and you just have to sit and watch things get worse!

Not for the faint of heart.