12 Days of Anime: Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty

As we’re still rolling into 12 Days of Anime we’re still going strong through our Studio Ghibli celebration. The secret world of Arrietty is one film I’ve seen many times and never could remember the name of the film. This is the funniest thing to me as I’m playing the film I’m looking at the first few scenes and I realized I know this movie about the tiny humans that live under the house. I adored this movie when I was a teenager because it fueled my imagination about other creatures that could live in this world.

Spoilers Ahead!

The Secret World of Arrietty Trailer

I loved this film and would recommend everyone to watch. The main message I got from this film is to be kind to one another, Sho who is a human that came to live with his great aunt discovers the tiny people that live under the house. The story is told as a flashback of how Sho remembers the little family he met when he was a young boy. This film doesn’t really have a storyline to me other than trying to show the way different people react in situations.

This film was very direct to the point of following the tiny human Arrietty as she goes through trial and error trying to navigate through the world as a borrower which is what the tiny people call themselves. We’re following her life as she befriends a human that doesn’t want to harm her but is fascinated about her existence. I found her to be very brave when it came to leaving her home to go do something but also stupid because she’s putting herself and family in danger by being so bold to play with humans.

I think Arrietty is lucky Sho was the one she ran into in this house. There is also Sho’s great Aunt who has the stories of the tiny humans under the house and she’s excited about their existence. If she was to have seen them it would have been a good experience like Sho but the housekeeper is the negative aspect of what humans do when they discover new things. The housekeeper discovers Arrietty’s mother after doing some snooping around and takes her to the kitchen and put her in a jar then calls pest control. Her goal was to destroy the little people instead of letting them live alongside them.

The crazy part is that the housekeeper was there when the great aunt was telling the stories about the tiny people and how hopeful she is about meeting them. The way she reacted towards them calling them thieves when the other two people in the conversation were very positive about the possibility of seeing them. The housekeeper shows how most people react to new things that they may deem abnormal to their beliefs.

The ending was a great one and I’m happy this did turn out well but I honestly thought Arrietty was going to stay with Sho and live in the dollhouse but I’m happy she left with her family. I couldn’t remember the ending of this film but as I rewatched I was rooting for Arrietty to stay and live in this beautiful dollhouse that has been passed down in this family for the tiny people that live under the house.