Hey, remember when I reviewed that Japanese autobiography called Totto-chan: The Little Girl At The Window on my LiveJournal about 9 years ago? Guess what, in 2023 it got a movie! For those who don't know, in 1981, a woman named Tetsuko Kuroyanagi published a book centering on her experiences in an unusual elementary school just before World War II broke out. It became a best seller, and these days, she's known as a TV personality who, even at the ripe old age of 91, continues to host a daytime talk show she started back in 1976. I read the book, and while it was definitely cute and informative, along with being an effective commentary on how Japan writes off children who don't conform to society's rules, it was a bit too simplistic in its prose and rather episodic. I am kinda surprised it took several decades for it to be adapted into an anime, especially since another movie based on the Kuroyanagis, Chocchan's Story, came out in 1991 and doesn't have nearly as much fame and notoriety, though that one is more focused on Tetsuko's mother. But sure enough, Totto-chan: The Little Girl At The Window came out in December of 2023 to much success. I just watched a fansub of it recently, and I will say, the team they had work on this really did a stellar job at bringing it to life.

Just like the novel its based on, the movie centers on the early childhood of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, affectionately nicknamed Totto-chan by her family and peers. She's an energetic, excitable, curious child who is perpetually entranced by the world around her, much to the consternation of her teachers at the school she attends. While she means well, her behavior makes her a poor fit for the rigid 1930s Japanese public school system. Her wealthy parents pull her out of school and decide to enroll her at a very unusual school called Tomoe Academy, where classes are held in empty train cars and students call the shots in constructing the classroom curriculum. Totto thrives in this new school environment, making all manner of friends and learning all sorts of new things. But all is not quite well in Japan, as World War II looms on the horizon and sinks its claws into not just Totto's school life, but changes everything for the people around her.

The animation and colors are bright and vibrant, indicative of how a child like Totto sees the world around her. The actual character motion is really good, and the backgrounds are given the appropriate amount of period detail. Occasionally, we're given glimpses into Totto and Yasuaki's imaginations, and that's where the animation pops off, elevating the film to a new level. The art style completely changes, ranging from bright, experimental colors with bold lines, to surrealist, abstract cut-out animation depending on what they're imagining, becoming a literal feast for the eyes akin to The Elusive Samurai or the works of Naoko Yamada. That's not something you can do in a silent, static medium like books, which this is based on, and the animation team really put their all into this one...although there is one thing about the movie's overall art style that feels really off: The character designs. Actually, it's not so much the character designs as it is the fact that literally everyone's lips are painted in a way that makes them look like they all did a terrible job at putting lipstick on. It'd be one thing if it was limited to just the girls, but even the boys and men have this problem, and this particular art quibble makes them look like porcelain dolls come to life, plunging them straight into the uncanny valley. It really says a lot when I prefer the art style for Chocchan's Story, which doesn't have this issue.

On the other hand, the soundtrack is also very nice, even if sometimes it tries too hard to play on your feelings, like that one montage at the end where Totto is running through town in grief and there's a sentimental song playing as she sees injured men coming back from the war. The ending song is also very cute and well sung. Speaking of audio, I really have to give flowers to all the voice actors here, especially the child actors who really sell their performances here. Liliana Ohno in particular, who was seven years old when she was brought on to voice Totto, does a fantastic job at selling Totto's personality, everything from her cheerfulness, brattiness, and moments of sorrow and wisdom really comes through here. By the way, the movie doesn't credit all of its voice actors, and I'm really curious as to who the narrator is. I'm guessing it might be Tetsuko Kuroyanagi herself, since the narrator's voice is clearly that of an elderly woman, and I can't imagine it being anyone else. Do correct me if I'm wrong though.

Speaking of the characters, the movie itself is a well made character study on Totto, showing her learning and growing under the tutelage of Tomoe's principal Sosaku Kobayashi and the kids around her. In a society where everyone, even children her age, is expected to "read the room" and follow any number of unspoken rules, she eagerly does whatever pops into her head at any given moment. While her father and mother love her, they are worried about her and don't quite know how to handle her at first. Mr. Kobayashi is a man who fights against a society that writes off certain children because they're "too problematic" or have problems that aren't their fault, creating a safe haven for kids who have additional needs that the typical Japanese school system can't offer, like Yasuaki, a boy suffering from polio. Other characters like Totto's parents and her father's orchestra instructor are also given quite a bit of nuance and subtle depth to them without coming off like its beating you over the head with melodrama. I do wish Totto's classmates had gotten a bit more characterization and focus though. That said, Totto herself is a great, wonderfully realistic depiction of an energetic child without leaning into being saccharine or overly idealized. She's a gigantic tomboy, an imaginative girl who does whatever she wants in spite of the consequences, would much rather play outside and watch street musicians rather than sit at a desk all day, throws tantrums if she doesn't get what she wants, causes trouble, and doesn't always realize her actions can get herself in trouble, but she's still shown as a genuinely good kid who wants to make her friends happy and do the right thing. She's the kind of girl I'm sure you've run into at least once in your life, and I could definitely relate to some of her experiences, such as when her baby chick dies despite trying to raise it as best she can.

In the background of this collection of highly emotional stories, history marches on. Slowly but surely, we see the effect on Totto's upper-middle-class Tokyo family as the war begins and then continues to its inevitable conclusion. Through the eyes of a child, we can see the subtle effects of war—candy machines becoming empty, her lunches slowly becoming less healthy, and the steady increase of more and more injured men in uniform. It's heartbreaking and also a great example of visual storytelling at its finest. Totto-chan is similar to In This Corner of The World where the story is more interested in getting you to care about the characters and be invested in them before the more dramatic stuff happens, and the more haunting war segments don't happen until near the very end of the movie. Because Totto-chan is primarily a slice-of-life movie, it can be easy to dismiss it as just being boring. However, I'm of the view that Totto-chan is at its best when it's focusing on its characterization and showing Totto's life in detail, because that's what the book is like too, and the harder hitting tragedies won't hit as hard if we aren't made to have some kind of emotional connection with them first. Totto-chan as a movie knows what it is and has no problem with being what it is, a character study on Totto's life and a commentary on childhood education and the problems that come with forcing children to conform to rigid standards.

There is one other issue I have with the movie that was also in the book. Remember in my review of the book, I mentioned that my least favorite chapter was one where Mr. Kobayashi lets the kids all swim in the pool naked? Well, the movie decided to adapt that chapter, and my issues with that particular scene from the book still apply here. Japan has no problem with showing children in the nude unlike the West, and while I understand the message its trying to impart—that children shouldn't feel ashamed or embarrassed of their bodies—it can still be discomforting to people who aren't aware of this. There ought to be better ways to teach kids that rather than let boys and girls swim in a big pool in their birthday suits supervised by a male teacher. If someone tried something like this in America, they'd be accused of being a pedophile and fired on the spot regardless of their intentions. Interestingly, the movie actually removes mention of the kids' parents protesting this in the book. I still enjoyed the movie even with this, but if you're one of those people who can't stand even the slighest showing of stuff like this in any media at all, I don't know what to tell you. Calling it now, the second some company tries to release this in America, I bet some soccer mom is gonna see it and petition for it to be banned and accuse it of being child pornography. I've long since stopped being surprised at the increasingly stupid things people have done in the name of protecting the children or some bullshit like that. I watched Jurassic Park when I was three and I turned out fine!

But even with all that, I still think Totto-chan: The Little Girl At The Window is not only a great anime movie as a whole, but a stellar adaptation of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's autobiography, with a message that still rings true even today. I'm honestly surprised GKids hasn't licensed this yet since they've licensed other stuff similar to this previously, especially since Totto-chan is a TOHO property and GKids is owned by TOHO now. I actually hope it comes out on home video in the US soon, because this is a movie that needs to be seen and is a testament to how empathy and kindness should always take precedent over conformity. I know one of these days I plan to check out Chocchan's Story, even though that has no existing English subs at all.