My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata)

My Neighbors the Yamadas is a slice of life anime comedy directed by Isao Takahata (One of Studio Ghibli's co-founders alongside Hayao Miyazaki) that was released in 17 July 1999. Perhaps one of the studio's most underrated films (Though most films directed by anyone other than Miyazaki tend to be overshadowed), the film notably uses a more unique art style that breaks away from the usual japanese animation style, and is also known to be the first Ghibli film to be entirely digitally painted (This was so that they could create a more watercolor look for the art style than a paint-on-cel one).

Based on the yonkoma manga Nono-chan (That was also originally titled My Neighbors the Yamadas) by Hisaichi Ishii that started in 1991 and ended in 1997, the series initially focused on all members of the Yamada family. But as the series progress, the daughter Nonoko (Or Nono-chan) was shown to be the most popular character on the series, and so overtime the strips began focusing on her and her point of view, it was by 1997 when the title was changed to reflect that change of focus.

The opening scene shows a proper introduction to all members of the Yamada family (As narrated by Nono-chan), a child's drawing of a sun, moon a mountain is shown, and from then on it progresses on into becoming her grandmother Shige, who is then properly introduced to the story as she begins walking down the street with their pet dog, who stops to admire the neighbor's garden, only to state that she was admiring a caterpillar, not the flowers, it is then where the mother, Matsuko...

Sassy granny don't take nothing from nobody.

She has her daughter to do that for her.

We get a brief insight into Matsuko's personality, while she is typical housewife, she tends to be quite lazy and is not the most creative of cooks, cooking curry for dinner most of the time for her family (Later on, despite having fallen ill, she does not dare miss out the chance of ordering take-outs when the rest of her family decides on it).

And finally, the father (Takashi) and son (Noboru) are introduced, where a humorous lecture takes place as the father begins repeating and contradicting himself when his son suddenly complains about studying. A small bird flies in then, landing briefly on Noboru's head before flying out and leaving the scene, through some tree branches covered in sakura flowers, before landing on the credit title.

Aside from clearly following the original manga's art style, Takahata had also interestingly followed it's narrative structure, where the daily lives of the Yamadas are shown in short vignettes of varying durations instead of one single plot (And most of the time most scenes do give off the look of a manga panel coming to life).

There is always a nice usage of negative space and simplified backgrounds that do
not take away our attention on the character.

While the style is really simple and cute, I still like the small gestures given
to the characters at times, without also putting too much into it, it is neither too
realistic or too stiff.

Did I mention how cute the style is…?

The edges are also pretty faded at times.

It would seem only Nono-chan's leg is moving in this entire scene, though the lines of her entire body are also moving a little, showing that it is not her leg and skirt that is animated. Still, it is interesting to see which parts of the scene they decide to keep stationary and others animated. This is an aspect that I find very important for my upcoming animation, as I have to decide on which parts of a scene should be animated instead of drawing every single thing over and over for each frame, while also making it all seem natural enough.

Despite being the little sister, she is actually not that much of a thorn in her
brother's side (Well, not on purpose anyway).

 

The dad's my favorite.

I found the art style surprisingly appealing (I really wasn't expecting much when I first watched this), Takahata especially made a wise choice when it came to the coloring style, the water color look giving it surprisingly soft and beautiful feel that gives the entire animation a rather vintage sort of look. This was of course taken advantage of during the more metaphorical or simply imaginative scenes.

If I remembered, most of the fantastical scenes actually focus more on
the mother and father.

Dang!

How pretty is this?!

While the pacing might seem slow at times, I found the comedic timing to work pretty well (I remembered finding myself laughing out aloud a few times, not many animations in the recent months have been able to do that).

And despite how crazy some scenes were at times, there is no denying how relatable the Yamadas actually are, from the way they act, down to the situations they get themselves in (I mean who hasn't had a struggling and/or awkward but loving relationship with their parent or child?), despite how much they tend to make fun of each other, fight over various things, it is clear that they love each other and are actually really close to one another.

A vignette I however found particularly interested was when Takashi (The father) attempts to get rid of a motorcycle gang that has been making a mess of their neighborhood with littering and loud noises, the scene where he alone approaches them is made more intense when the animation style suddenly becomes much more realistic (Perhaps the only time this really happens, with the exception of the baseball game that is shown on their television in another segment), this sudden shift of art style has always interested me when I first saw the film (It made me curious as to whether there was a similar comic strip in the original manga).

Poor Takashi, don't worry, your mother-in-law will save you soon and
change the animation style back to normal...

Eh... this song is still a lot less annoying than "Take Me Home, Country Roads".

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