In an attempt to have a good and healthy summer holiday, Annie, a young beautiful girl, who suffers from health problems, has been sent to a distant village, where she befriends a young and weird girl, Marine, whom she finds out her dark secrets.
Yonebayashi has touched on the greater mystery underlying everyday life, a world pulsing with wonder and possibility, edged with a shadow of melancholy.
Japan's Studio Gibli has been responsible for some of the finest animated movies in recent decades, from 2003's Oscar-winning Spirited Away to last year's beautiful The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
To those film lovers attuned to quiet moments and emotional nuance, this film has a shine all its own. The old-school hand-drawn animation celebrates sweeping landscapes and but also the telling detail, revealing character through spare gestures.
The quasi-Sapphic intensity of Anna and Marnie's relationship - recalling Ghost World or a benign Heavenly Creatures - is poetically and sensitively handled.
Enigma takes second place to a sensitive exploration of adolescent turmoil and self-discovery, made even more beautiful and bittersweet by the film's delicate hand-drawn animation.
