SO YOU THINK YOU CAN RANT

Episode 8: When Marnie Was There

My last episode asking me to do a rant about one sec let me grab the actual words... 

"inspired by your profile pic... what if you wrote a rant about how "When Marnie Was There" made us think we were watching a depressed girl get a cute ghost girlfriend, but then it turned out to be her grandma in disguise". 

Yeah, that's interesting, right? And When Marnie Was There is my all-time favourite Studio Ghibli film but I mean the ghost girlfriend would've been cooler. So I'll talk about it. And try to restrain myself with zero F-Bombs on this episode. I mean Ghibli puts zero words like that in their films. (because of this the next chapter will be me repeating the f word one hundred times in a row)

So the story of When Marnie Was There follows a girl named Anna who has severe asthma. She is sent out to the countryside to stay with relatives as she reciprocates. When she gets there she feels an attachment to an old marsh house. 

One night she heads there and almost crashes into a brick wall (oh no...) but is saved by the amazing Kiernan Shipka aka Marnie. (Note I absolutely adore Kiernan Shipka). And this is the point where we think oh I'm so happy for Anna. She got herself a girlfriend. And not gonna lie lesbian relationships in anime (especially when it's young characters) are absolutely adorable. It continues along like this throughout the story. With Anna sooner or later figuring out that Marnie does not exist. So it turns into a schizophrenic lesbian relationship (which is even cuter if you think about it). 

And then the point where we learn that Anna is actually living someone else's memories. We find out Marnie was actually Anna's grandmother and she is remembering the stories that she was told by her Grandma when she was very little. BYE-BYE LESBIAN RELATIONSHIP... 

I'm gonna state the fact that I actually thought when I saw the trailer for the first time that Anna, whose name isn't mentioned once (at least I think it doesn't) was a guy. So that's my stereotypical view of someone who didn't know what LGBTQ+ even meant. But I mean Anna at the time was pretty into it so I (along with a helper. Yes I can afford help.) have decided on the fact that Anna is LGBTQ+. So welcome to the outside of the closet Anna. 

Back to the fact that Marnie is actually a child version of Anna's grandmother though. Is it surprising? Yes. But Ghibli tries things a little differently so I'm surprised they didn't make it Manna. (I'm getting better at mixing names. Still haven't come up with one for my relationship. If you have any thoughts for Michael x Erin I'm all ears...) I think it's a great movie but I would've loved it more if they had added the lesbian relationship. (Note can't really change cause it's based on a book written in the 60s). 

But to be honest, watch this movie. It is a great movie and a real find. It will make you emotional. Also, if you have Spotify download Fine On The Outside by Priscilla Ahn. It's the credit song in the movie and it's absolutely beautiful. So my final rating decimal points included: 9.99999 out of 10. I absolutely love it... Also love you Marnie *kiss*.