![]() ![]() Other popular books written in the 1950s and '60s, including A Separate Peace by John Knowles, have had adaptations that play up potential queer coding. The film does take liberties with the book's plot. The real reason why When Marnie Was There never had a shot at being an LGBTQA story is because it's based on a mainstream British children's book by author Joan G. Former Hayao Miyazaki collaborator Hideaki Anno created the explicitly queer Kaworu Negisa in his series Neon Genesis Evangelion, while When Marnie Was There director Hiromasa Yonebayashi worked on shows like Serial Experiments Lain and Monster, both of which have queer-coding throughout. That's not to say Japan is too conservative to release a movie featuring queer characters, or even that Ghibli as a studio is too conservative to feature LGBTQA characters. In situations like this, it's vital to separate expectations from the reality of how the film was produced. RELATED: Hayao Miyazaki Has No Idea What A 'Streaming Service' Is Why Marnie Could Never Be an LGBT Film While this is a moving and fitting end to the story, it puts a serious damper on any potential queer reading, for obvious reasons. The spirit following Anna is a forever representation of her grandmother's love for her. However, that subtext is quashed when it's revealed Marnie is the ghost of Anna's grandmother, who briefly took care of Anna following the death of her parents before then passing on herself. Even if nothing came of the budding relationship in terms of romantic attraction, there are enough implications to foster subtext. ![]() ![]() They have more physical contact than Sophie and Howl, Ashitaka and San, or Chihiro and Haku. Even the film's poster depicts them with hands held back-to-back, a position that, were they members of the opposite gender, would immediately indicate to audiences that they're the story's romantic pair. Marnie and Anna are very physically intimate throughout the film, often holding hands and holding each other in comforting ways. But the nature of Anna and Marnie's relationship isn't clear until the end of the film, which might lead viewers to wonder, "Is Anna realizing she's gay?" It's clear early on there is something otherworldly about Marnie after all, she emerges in an abandoned mansion, and disappears without explanation. The two immediately become close, and, as the movie continues, their bond becomes stronger as Marnie helps Anna come to terms with who she is. She spends a summer at the house of one of her foster mother's relatives, where she discovers a mysterious old mansion, within which she meets the blonde spectral figure of Marnie. She doesn't know who she is, because her earliest memories were of foster care. She knows nothing about her biological parents, other than that they died in a car accident. The story focuses on a girl named Anna who's uncertain about her identity. ![]()
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