All of the Studio Ghibli movies, ranked - Entertainment Weekly
10. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) ... The movie that made Studio Ghibli was technically produced before its founding, but since ...
Only Yesterday
There are no flying pigs or playful forest sprites in <anchor>Only Yesterday</anchor>, but Isao Takahata's understated drama has a magic all the same. Its simple plot seems more akin to a Sundance coming-of-age indie than an animated tale, following a 27-year-old city dweller as she journeys to the countryside by train and reflects on her childhood. For years, the film was hard to find, and although it debuted in Japan in 1991, it didn't get a U.S. release until 2016 (presumably because its intimate look at female life and frank talk about menstruation didn't exactly mesh with your standard American kids' movies). But although Only Yesterday may not be one of Ghibli's marquee titles, it has a quiet, contemplative brilliance, mixing memory and reality to craft a poignant story of what it means to grow up. — Devan Coggan
'Only Yesterday': EW review​
'Only Yesterday': EW review​[Skip to content](#main)

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# 'Only Yesterday': EW review

By

[Devan Coggan](https://ew.com/author/devan-coggan/)

[Devan Coggan](https://ew.com/author/devan-coggan/)

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Devan Coggan (rhymes with seven slogan) is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly. Most of her personality is just John Mulaney quotes and Lord of the Rings references.

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Published on February 25, 2016 09:22PM EST

![Image](https://ew.com/thmb/B5KBmldN9g_bsbd_G8_8xqw1xsA=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/only-yesterday-686a0dd2be8f46868524db32f6ef800e.jpg)

Photo: Studio Ghibli/BVHE

The iconic Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli may be best known for Hayao Miyazaki’s work, but some of the studio’s most beloved movies came from his co-founder, Isao Takahata. Takahata is responsible for acclaimed animated films like _The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,_ which earned a 2014 Oscar nomination for best animated film, and _Grave of the Fireflies,_ the heartbreaking 1988 tale about two young siblings struggling to survive in post-World War II Japan. Most of Studio Ghibli’s films — including Takahata’s work — have made their way to the States, but there’s one that never saw a U.S. release _._(It aired once on Turner Classic Movies, and that’s it.) Now, 25 years after it first hit theaters overseas, Takahata’s forgotten masterpiece _Only Yesterday_ is finally making its stateside debut. And it’s long overdue.

The English-dubbed version recruits Daisy Ridley (of recent _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ fame, adopting an American accent) to voice its adult heroine, the 27-year-old Taeko Okajima. Unmarried and working an office job in Tokyo in 1982, she decides to leave big city life behind to visit her relatives in the country. As she travels by train, she’s struck by vivid flashbacks to her fifth-grade self in the 1960s, reflecting on burgeoning crushes, first periods, and struggles with fractions. The rest of the film alternates between Taeko’s time in the countryside — where she meets the young farmer Toshio (voiced by Dev Patel) — and her memories, as she starts to wonder what it means to grow up.

Takahata frequently experimented with animation style — compare the sparse design of the 1999 comedy _My Neighbors the Yamadas_ with the lush detail of _Grave of the Fireflies_ — and _Only Yesterday_ is no exception. The 1982 country landscapes are intricate and gorgeous, while the minimalist flashback scenes use pastels and extensive white space, like a memory that’s a bit fuzzy around the edges.

But as gorgeous and creative as _Only Yesterday_ is, it isn’t hard to figure out why it had such a long path to American distribution. The narrative is largely plotless, and it functions more as a melancholy meditation on coming of age. _Only Yesterday_ is hardly the only adult-oriented animated film, but its subject matter can be startlingly mature: Disney distributed many of Studio Ghibli’s greatest hits, but _Only Yesterday_ has some decidedly un-Disney moments, as Taeko recalls being slapped by her father and learning about menstruation for the first time. (GKIDS is distributing _Only Yesterday_.) But it’s that refusal to shy away from big themes that makes this such a rare and powerful film. _Only Yesterday_ may have been released in 1991 and take place in 1982 and 1966, but Taeko’s reflection on girlhood is truly timeless. **A**

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