Tangent: when looking up Mamoru Oshii I found an interview where he compared the work culture at Studio Ghibli to a communist dictatorship (“communism is when capitalism”), because people of the 1960s “Anpo generation” (like Miyazaki) have “no morals” when they believe their cause is just…
I have always wondered why studio Ghibli characters are always like falling in love at such a young age. One in particular was this boy and girl talking about marriage in middle school. That shit is unhealthy.
I remember some of us kids talking about marriage in elementary school. We didn’t super understand it yet, but still 🤷
I remember my teacher being disgusted at kids talking about sex in the later years of primary school — she thought it was the end of the world, I swear, she literally sounded like she was “coming down with a case of the vapors!” But the truth is, naturally, that when adulthood is treated as prestigious, that every signifier of it becomes prestigious in turn, and claiming those prestigious things then serves as a way for kids to “rebel” against the norms forced upon them — except really, this “rebellion” in practice just means “growing up faster”, namely having kids’ childhood or youth stolen from them, such that the value of their labor can be stolen more efficiently in turn. That’s how I understand it, at least.
This slander against whisper of the heart will not stand.
It’s really cute and like, obviously heart on the sleeve to think that love that could last a lifetime could start in middle school. As adults does it at time come off as a little cloying? Sure.
Doesn’t mean that something earnest and heartfelt like that (especially when the main plot is how to write a book or become an apprentice violin craftsman, and the struggle of artistic production/virtuosity) is instantly “unhealthy”. Especially because the main audience is still kids, even if there’s themes that are for audiences of all ages.
Also I’m sure you can read the story as doomed if you want as well (will she really wait for him, etc). It ends when they part ways, after all.
You never had a crush on someone as a kid and immediately jumped to thinking about your happily ever after life? It’s not uncommon, mostly due to how kids just haven’t been on this plane for all that long.
I had a crush on a girl when I was 7 years old. If anything it would be weird for kids not to talk about such things.