| Average |
8.6 |
| Design |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Alternative title: ''If you listen closely'' or as it is more widely known ''Whisper of the Heart'', the manga that inspired the Studio Ghibili classic movie.
I read the very good scanlation and translation by Shoujomagic. A short one volume manga and one of the good titles, made in 1989. For a manga to be able to be adapted by Studio Ghibili and its sequel as well (Baron:the Cat Returns), it has to be simply good and magical.
If you've seen the movie there are some major differences. It is as if we're talking about two entirely different stories here.
Of course both the movie and the manga are worth in your collection. To sum up the story here's a short description of the movie:
Shizuku Tsukishima, a young girl in junior high, loves to read. Yet, every time she opens a library book, it seems the same name appears on the cards: "Seiji Amasawa". As Shizuku learns who this person is, she also begins to learn about herself and her goals in life - a discovery that will change her life forever.
But the manga, though never able to reach the impossible charm of the Ghibili films, it has a charm of its own. It adds more characters and has a better and more fitting ending than the movie.
First of all Seiji and Shizuku arent only son and daughter as in the movie.Instead of the magic of the movie in the first two chapters there are mainly a love and romance story and only in the final third chapter the manga resembles the magic of the Ghibili movie, though the pages are very few for good character developement and the nice story ends quickly. Though the characters here are different from the anime, I liked them more than the anime.
Where the anime adaptation manages to enhance the manga visually and accoustically the manga on the other hand has a very good and simple design and the characters expressions are also good.
Unfortunately the only thing missing is the wonderfull tune ''Take me Home'', the major reason to watch the movie.
A must read if you liked the Ghibili movie and of the best one volume mangas I've read.
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