I'm gay and no, that's just a really sweet bond. It happens. But I'm also used to anime pretty much always faking out when it comes to actual gay characters. They'd have to kiss or explicitly say so for me to consider it, and the way she says love in that case isn't really romantic.
I'm just saying, it's not too surprising to me that there's a LOT of people who read it differently with the way it's coded, and without knowing better. The ending clears things up, and a second viewing has Marnie's more cryptic dialogue/appearances make a lot more sense; but I absolutely thought they were being WAY sweeter than most normal/casual friends would be at that point. >__> Like I'm sorry, I rarely touched my BFFs as much as they do, or call them "my previous secret", then help row a boat with them at sunset, touch hands, and shout "I FORGIVE/LOVE YOU".
(Which lo and behold, yes, they are indeed "more than friends"
the ghost grandma part was certainly hard to predict tho).
I agree I didn't think anything
actually romantic would come of it given the history of Ghibli/anime to depict that sort of subject matter for the big screen, and also the focus tending to be "growing up" (with Anne having a lot of emotional/psychological baggage that was bigger than the need for a directly romantic plot to "fix things").
The gifs I shared are arguably more intimate than what a lot of other Ghibli movies put forward for its "main couples".
Okay, but the thing about When Marnie Was There that people seem to forget or leave out when they try to defend the movie making Ana and Marnie's relationship platonic is that Ana is re-living her grandfather's life. As in, she is watching the memories of when her grandparents fell in love through her grandfather's eyes. So it's supposed to be a completely platonic friendship, but at the same time it isn't supposed to be a surprise that the person whose memories she re-lived went on to marry Marnie and have a baby with her several years later...?
So because Ana is a girl, it's just a close friendship. But when literally the exact same scenario plays out from the point of view of a boy, it's a love story, because of course it is romantic when it is a boy and a girl. Even if their relationship started out as platonic and became romantic later (which is not what is implied), it's definitely carries some very uncomfortable implications for several reasons. So I hear you, OP.
I... am not fond of that movie at all.
Honestly bravo for this take/perspective, I totally forgot the grandfather part fitting into this.
While we're on the topic, fuck Ocean Waves. What a stupid ending.
It's ...not very good. I almost think it's reflected in the shorter-than-most runtime.
Kind of a shame since I love Ghibli's more low-stakes plots; and I kinda liked having more truly flawed leads.
