{ "id": "epgy571tkp", "slug": "when-marnie-was-there", "title": "When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features", "label": "Japanese anime features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026", "label": "Released 2014 to 2026", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Released 2014 to 2026", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features", "label": "Japanese anime features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026", "label": "Released 2014 to 2026", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026" } ] } ], "excerpt": "When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー, Omoide no Marnie) is Studio Ghibli's 2014 animated film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, adapting Joan G. Robinson's 1967 novel with the setting moved from England to Hokkaido; released July 19, 2014 by Toho, 103 minutes.", "snippet": "When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー, Omoide no Marnie) is Studio Ghibli's 2014 animated film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, adapting Joan G. Robinson's 1967 novel with the setting moved from England to Hokkaido; released July 19, 2014 by Toho, 103 minutes.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.anime-features.yr-2014-2026", "markdown": "# When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)\n\n**When Marnie Was There** (思い出のマーニー, *Omoide no Mānī*) is a 2014 Japanese animated film produced by [Studio Ghibli](https://www.edgepedia.org/studio-ghibli), directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and adapted from Joan G. Robinson's 1967 British children's novel of the same name. It follows Anna Sasaki, a withdrawn twelve-year-old girl from Sapporo who spends a summer in a seaside Hokkaido village, where she meets a mysterious blonde girl named Marnie living in an abandoned mansion by the inlet. The film was released in Japan by Toho on July 19, 2014, with a running time of about 103 minutes.[1](https://www.ghibli.jp/works/marnie/) • [2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director | Hiromasa Yonebayashi, his second feature after *Arrietty* (2010)[1](https://www.ghibli.jp/works/marnie/) |\n| Release | July 19, 2014 (Japan), distributed by Toho; about 103 minutes[1](https://www.ghibli.jp/works/marnie/) |\n| Source | Joan G. Robinson's British children's fantasy novel, published in Japanese in the Iwanami Shoten's Bunko edition[2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/) |\n| Setting change | The novel's English setting was moved to Hokkaido, Japan; staff scouted Kushiro, Nemuro, and Akkeshi before production[2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/) |\n| Screenplay and music | Screenplay by Keiko Niwa, Masashi Ando, and Yonebayashi; music by Takatsugu Muramatsu; theme song by Priscilla Ahn[1](https://www.ghibli.jp/works/marnie/) |\n| Lead voices | Sara Takatsuki as Anna and Kasumi Arimura as Marnie, selected from about 300 auditionees; both were first-time voice actors[3](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0004212) |\n| Critical reception | 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 99 reviews; 88% audience score[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_marnie_was_there) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nAnna Sasaki is a first-year junior high school student living in Sapporo. Closed off by a painful family history, she spends her days alone, and when her chronic asthma worsens she is sent to spend the summer in a seaside village to recuperate. There she is drawn to an old, unoccupied mansion by the inlet, which locals call the Wetland House (湿っ地屋敷). The mansion begins to appear in her dreams, always with a blonde girl in it, and one evening the girl from her dreams appears in person. She calls herself Marnie and tells Anna, \"It is a secret between just the two of us.\" Anna opens her heart to Marnie alone, and the two form a close friendship over the summer.[5](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/348091) • [2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/)\n\nThe film carries what Yonebayashi described as two faces: a delicate portrait of Anna's psychological change through her encounter with Marnie, and a suspense-like thread asking who Marnie actually is. The answer, revealed late in the film, connects Marnie to Anna's own family history and allows Anna to recover a sense of herself.[6](https://mantan-web.jp/article/20140813dog00m200023000c.html) • [2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/)\n\n## Adaptation from the novel\n\nRobinson's novel is set in England, where the orphaned Anna is sent to stay with an elderly couple on the Norfolk coast. As with Yonebayashi's first film *Arrietty*, Ghibli moved the story to Japan, but this time it specified a location: Hokkaido. The production staff traveled to Kushiro, Nemuro, and Akkeshi for location research before work began.[2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/)\n\n**Yonebayashi's initial refusal.** When producer Toshio Suzuki handed him the novel, Yonebayashi found it moving but at first declined the job. The book unfolds through Anna's first-person narration and interior description, and he judged that material too delicate to translate into animation, saying his own ability was not up to it. The turning point came when he drew image illustrations and hit on the idea of making Anna a girl who paints, so that her posture while drawing, the pictures themselves, and her gaze could express her psychology. Illustrations of scenes not in the novel, such as the two girls dancing under a moonlit sky and a night picnic, convinced him he could carry the project through.[6](https://mantan-web.jp/article/20140813dog00m200023000c.html)\n\n[Hayao Miyazaki](https://www.edgepedia.org/hayao-miyazaki), who had publicly declared his love of the original novel, repeatedly brought image sketches for Marnie to the studio while working on *The Wind Rises* (2013). Yonebayashi also said that on *Arrietty* he had worked with Miyazaki keeping a desk in the same room, and that for Marnie he instead set out to make a film audiences could purely enjoy.[6](https://mantan-web.jp/article/20140813dog00m200023000c.html)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film was Yonebayashi's second feature as director, after his debut with *Arrietty*. The screenplay was written by Keiko Niwa, Masashi Ando, and Yonebayashi, with Ando also serving as chief animation director; Suzuki produced, Yoshiaki Nishimura was producer, and Koji Hoshino handled production. The music was composed by Takatsugu Muramatsu, and the theme song was performed by Priscilla Ahn.[1](https://www.ghibli.jp/works/marnie/)\n\nThe art director was Yohei Taneda, a veteran of live-action film production. He incorporated live-action set design methods into Ghibli's 2D background art to create a three-dimensional design, and the mansion's Western-style architecture was assembled from elements of real buildings seen during location scouting, including the former British Consulate in Hakodate, rendered as a Western-style house built in Japan.[7](https://yoheitaneda.com/en/works/when-marnie-was-there/) • [8](https://www.ehime-art.jp/files/FreepageDocuments/7a3e97a1-1775-45d3-ba64-af13b52fb6ae/H26.14_kiyou-sugiyama.pdf)\n\n**Casting.** Sara Takatsuki and [Kasumi Arimura](https://www.edgepedia.org/kasumi-arimura) were chosen from about 300 auditionees to voice Anna and Marnie, and neither had done voice acting before. The two recorded together in the same room, which [Takatsuki](https://www.edgepedia.org/takatsuki) said helped her play scenes in which Anna is present with Marnie. Because the film is quiet overall, sound carried unusual weight: Takatsuki reported that a single line of dialogue, saying the name \"Marnie,\" could take more than 30 minutes of recording to capture the right nuance for a given scene.[3](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0004212)\n\n**The opening fifteen minutes.** Yonebayashi named the film's opening as the part that caused him the most difficulty. To establish the complicated, self-enclosed Anna before an emotional outburst scene, he conceived the painting scene, arriving at it only after repeated meetings with Ando and Nishimura; the script for the first five minutes alone took months. He also said he deliberately exaggerated the contrast between characters beyond the novel, making the sullen Anna darker and the bright characters such as Marnie and Setsu brighter, because animation needs strong contrast for personalities and landscapes to register.[9](https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0071587)\n\n## Context at Studio Ghibli\n\nThe film's completion on June 25, 2014, capped an unusual year for the studio. *The Wind Rises* had opened in the summer of 2013, followed by Miyazaki's retirement announcement and [Isao Takahata](https://www.edgepedia.org/isao-takahata)'s *The Tale of the Princess Kaguya* in November, Ghibli's first new film in fourteen years from that director. Releasing three theatrical features within one year was a first in the studio's history, and Marnie was presented as a fresh work from a younger director following the two veterans' large productions.[2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/)\n\nThe release was accompanied by two exhibitions in Tokyo: \"When Marnie Was There × Yohei Taneda Exhibition\" at the Edo-Tokyo Museum from July 27, and the \"Ghibli's Three-Dimensional Structures Exhibition\" at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum from July 10. For the Taneda exhibition, built to open on the film's release date, background paintings still in production were viewed inside the studio to develop the exhibition's set designs.[2](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/) • [8](https://www.ehime-art.jp/files/FreepageDocuments/7a3e97a1-1775-45d3-ba64-af13b52fb6ae/H26.14_kiyou-sugiyama.pdf)\n\n## Reception\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 92% Tomatometer from 99 reviews and an 88% audience score, with the critics' consensus reading that it \"is still blessed with enough visual and narrative beauty to recommend, even if it isn't quite as magical as Studio Ghibli's greatest works.\"[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_marnie_was_there) In Japan, Yonebayashi noted that although it was not an exceptional hit among summer holiday films, it stayed within the top five by attendance in the weeks after release.[6](https://mantan-web.jp/article/20140813dog00m200023000c.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [思い出のマーニー（2014）, Studio Ghibli official works page](https://www.ghibli.jp/works/marnie/)\n2. [「野中くん発　ジブリだより」7月号, Studio Ghibli (July 10, 2014)](https://www.ghibli.jp/info/009591/)\n3. [『思い出のマーニー』高月彩良＆有村架純　単独インタビュー, Cinema Today (July 18, 2014)](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0004212)\n4. [When Marnie Was There, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_marnie_was_there)\n5. [思い出のマーニー, allcinema](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/348091)\n6. [思い出のマーニー：\"二つの顔を持つ\"この映画を作った意味　米林宏昌監督が語る, MANTANWEB (August 13, 2014)](https://mantan-web.jp/article/20140813dog00m200023000c.html)\n7. [When Marnie Was There, Yohei Taneda, Production Designer](https://yoheitaneda.com/en/works/when-marnie-was-there/)\n8. [「思い出のマーニー×種田陽平展」に関する論考, 愛媛県立美術館紀要](https://www.ehime-art.jp/files/FreepageDocuments/7a3e97a1-1775-45d3-ba64-af13b52fb6ae/H26.14_kiyou-sugiyama.pdf)\n9. [『思い出のマーニー』米林監督が語るジブリの作品作り, Cinema Today (March 17, 2015)](https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0071587)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)](https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there](https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/when-marnie-was-there. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "When Marnie Was There is Studio Ghibli's 2014 animated film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, adapting Joan G." }