By choosing to conceal Anna’s history until the final act of the film, we very realistically progress through most of the story by judging Anna as we would judge anyone who we don’t understand but whose actions are unappealing. When the audience first meets her, she is unhappy, self-conscious, and antisocial, and we don’t understand why aside from the assumption that she is a stereotypically angsty pre-teen. When Marnie Was There is Studio Ghibli’s foray into developing an unlikeable female protagonist, and it’s important, if only to dilute the shock over the realization that a heroine can be compelling without being typical.Īnna, the protagonist of Marnie, is an orphan living with foster parents. There were many valid reasons for this, but I would argue the very idea that the underdog single-mother who genuinely loved her son could simultaneously hate his very existence was more terrifying than any demon, ghost or serial murderer. Similarly, last year’s critically acclaimed, female-centered horror film The Babadook was considered one of the most frightening films of the year. So much of the hype surrounding Gone Girl was merely reverberations over the shock that it deigned to feature a sociopath who was a woman. The progression of female protagonists in film seems to have moved slowly through multiple stages, from the existence of a woman in a central role, to a woman whose role isn’t purely to be saved by the man, followed by the boom of the Strong Female Protagonist, and more recently the development of complicated-potentially unlikable-women characters.
![anna when marnie was there anna when marnie was there](http://basementrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/when-marnie-was-there-2014-movie-review-ill-never-forget-you-studio-ghibli.jpg)
It’s a brave choice precisely because it’s an uncomfortable one.
![anna when marnie was there anna when marnie was there](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/studio-ghibli/images/2/22/Anna_at_the_Tanabata_Festival.png)
That’s exactly why I was so moved to find that these questions were at the heart of the most recent Studio Ghibli film, When Marnie Was There.
#Anna when marnie was there how to#
They expose a deep-seated fear of abandonment that people don’t know how to respond to.
![anna when marnie was there anna when marnie was there](http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/38300000/Anna-Omoide-no-Marnie-when-marnie-was-there-38338691-1399-758.png)
These questions are inherently unlikeable.