Hey all, time for another Ghibli post, but with a comparison this time, because I watched both the Ghibli and live-action versions.

Novel origin. Animated film ran for 102 minutes, and the live-action ran for 108 minutes.

Anime

The story is just nice and sweet. Setting may be a little bit on the overused side, but the concept pays off by making it unique. Pacing on the 102 minutes movie been pretty slow, but it didn’t bore me down, the story always have something happening, be it cute or funny, it pretty much have everything under control. Character development isn’t really a lot, but I don’t see it as a flaw. Climax is little bit on the low side, and the wrap-up felt pretty anti-climatic, making me want to have more. Overall, even though the story was pretty flatline and didn’t bring much to the table but Hayao’s direction made the movie entertaining in a way that I couldn’t really explain.

Animations by Ghibli. Signature character design. Watched the Bluray remastered version, and it still looks great even back then when they were still utilizing cel animation.

Music is decent. BGMs were always one of Ghibli’s strong points and they maintained that.

Cast is pretty nice. Takayama Minami, Sakuma Rei, Toda Keiko, Yamaguchi Keppei, Yamadera Koichi, Kobayashi Yuko, Inoue Kikuko. The veterans that were still considered new back then did great jobs voicing their roles.

Live-action

The story is quite different from the anime. The prelude was a lot longer than the anime. Story for this one I would say, making the anime happening in real life, isn’t really that bad. They retained the comedy and unique charm from the anime. Which one is better? It’s really hard to tell, both are equally nice and share the same flaws. Pacing is a bit slower, that I think its longer than 108 minutes. Character developments were better in this one too. Climax was a bit more exciting this time, ending was pretty inconclusive, expected a lot more. Overall, its one of the best anime-turned-live-action movies I have watched so far.

Music is pretty nice, BGMs were great.

The live action cast were great. Koshiba Fuka was great at reprising her role as Kiki, the portrayal is close to flawless. Kotobuki Minako voices Jiji. Everyone’s portrayal of their roles were good, some were original characters, different from the anime.

Scores: Anime

Story: 8/10

Art: 8.5/10

Music: 8/10

VAs: 8/10

Scores: Live-action

Story: 8.5/10

Character Portrayal: 8.5/10

Music: 7.5/10

Cast: 8/10

Highly recommended to watch, be it you are a ghibli fan or not. As for the live-action, it’s safe to watch, I probably will actually recommend it over the anime.