something that i love about ghibli films is so many of them facilitate the romanticization of the “ordinary”: activities of day to day life, humble living spaces, people who could be your neighbor. in mainstream western cinema we see tremendous emphasis on the extraordinary: the super-rich, the super-powered, the super-attractive. when ghibli characters encounter the extraordinary, it’s usually offset with dualistic qualities – the beautiful wizard howl is humanized by a homely, unambitious hatmaker; the story of a witch in training is more about her adjustment to independent life than Magic; an unwelcoming bathhouse full of spirits exists to conjure new appreciation for the imperfect comfort of home; the eponymous, powerful totoro is only relevant to the plot insofar as he facilitates the development of a family. You know what I mean! after i watch a ghibli movie i feel like it could be romantic to clean my goddamn house. I Love That!!!!!!!!! please keep giving me ways to envision my boring life beautiful. Thanks for coming to my fucking ted talk
Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver except it’s playing from your neighbor’s radio that you can hear from your back porch, which you sit out on to relax in spite of the loud buzzing from the lightbulb and the hoards of moths that flock to it on summer evenings like this.
This is just literally what it’s like to sit on my porch