Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window - A Lovely Anime Movie Based on the Successful Autobiographical Novel

When my wife found out there was going to be this movie released in certain Indonesian cinemas, she was excited and wanted to see it as soon as it was available. However, we did not realize it had a special one day screening two weeks ago and were to late to catch it. So once it was finally having its premier date few days ago, we decided to see the movie last Saturday, after we saw another film. All right, let's get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the 1940s Japan about a very young girl named Tetsuko Kuroyanagi nicknamed Totto-chan (voiced by Liliana Ono) who was too active and did not really fit in in public schools. Totto-chan's mother (Anne Watanabe - Tokyo MER: The Movie, Japan Sinks: People of Hope TV series etc) and father (Shun Oguri - Godzilla Vs Kong, Weathering With You etc) were relieved when she was finally accepted in a unique elementary school called Tomoe Gakuen managed by its principal Mr. Kobayashi (Koji Yakusho - Perfect Days, The Days TV series etc) and the teacher Miss Oishi (Karen Takizawa).

In Tomoe, Totto-chan learn a lot of things through unconventional method that truly suit her and other students. She also met and befriended with all of them, including the timid and polio boy named Yasuaki. But as the war getting imminent, it also had an impact on the life of Totto-chan.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As I said above, my wife was the one who was really looking forward to see this movie as it was adapted from the book that she read in her adolescent years. I myself had never read it and did not know anything about the story. But I am sure it was really good if it left a nice impression on her. So even without knowing its premise, I was happy to accompany my wife seeing the film. It turned out, I was really delighted to have seen this as it was a beautiful movie having great friendship value and showed us different kind of education could be the key to successfully teach young children.

When the movie started, my wife and I were immediately fascinated by the adorable Totto-chan and sometimes shook our heads looking at her behavior and active imagination. Her actions were always hilarious in our eyes and audience who filled the studio seemed to enjoy them too as could be heard from their burst of laughter in various scenes. I thought that the lovely and life-like animation really helped in convincing us that it was set during the 1940s period. But best of it all to me was the voice acting. Liliana Ono was perfect in her role as Totto-chan, while Koji Yakusho was really suitable as the voice of the very patient headmaster. Too bad I could not find out the name of the actor voicing Yasuaki as he left a deep impression for us. The background music also enhanced the emotions we felt in here, whether it was the happy, adventurous, or the very sad moment that left us in tears. 

With the story progressing, the tone gradually changed from very light to a bit darker, especially with the imminent war coming. There was no major war scenes shown here, but we could feel the effects on them through some scenes that were smartly included which made my wife a bit sad. During the part which seemed like a conclusion, it suddenly hit me that the movie might be based on actual person. After reading about it, I found out that the 1981 novel of the same title that this film was adapted from was indeed an autobiography of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, a Japanese actress, TV personality & UNICEF Goodwill ambassador. The book was a huge success and translated to many languages including obviously Indonesian.

The movie was directed by Shinnosuke Yakuwa and written by himself together with Yosuke Suzuki. Yakuwa's past experience was directing several Doraemon anime movies, so he sure had the capability of making children films. Although this one focused on children, but the story had a bit of maturity especially towards the end as Totto-chan grew bigger. There was no mid or post end credit scene, but we were accompanied by a nice song during the closing credit titled Ano Ne by Aimyon. It had a duration of 114 minutes which seemed long but I think it was worth the time. Only thing that I was a bit disappointed was the yellow and white subtitles which were very difficult to read especially since the movie were bright and colorful. Such text colors were better suited for films that are mostly dark.

Overall this was a very enjoyable movie. It might seem like a usual children's film as the focus was on the young elementary school girl, but it had deeper story and many great values. Btw, there was a brief message before the start of the movie basically mentioning that some of the things occurred were quite common at the time then, hence there was no need to worry/analyze things that happened here. So if you have read this book, definitely you would love this movie adaptation. But if you have not, I think you would like it too, just like I did. Both of us were pleased to have experienced watching this movie. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars