Favorite Moments in Anime - "Only Yesterday"

Here we feature an anime that many of us hold near and dear to our hearts, especially with fond memories of the last five minutes of the film  and its ending theme song, which we have embedded below for all to enjoy.

[Source: Wikipedia.com] Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ, Omohide Poro Poro^?, lit. "memories come tumbling down"^[1]) is the sixth film by director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) and produced by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the manga of the same title by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone.^[2] It was released on July 20, 1991. The ending theme song is a Japanese translation "Ai wa Hana, Kimi wa sono Tane (愛は花、君はその種子^?)" of Amanda McBroom's composition "The Rose."

Only Yesterday is significant among progressive anime films in that it explores a genre traditionally thought to be outside the realm of animated subjects, in this case a realistic drama written for adult, particularly female audiences. In spite of its subject matter, the film was a surprise box office success, attracting a large adult audience of both sexes.

In 1982, Taeko is 27, unmarried, has lived her whole life in Tokyo and now works at a company there. She decides to take another trip to visit her elder sister's in-laws in the rural countryside to help with the safflower harvest and get away from city life.

While traveling at night on a train to Yamagata, she begins to recall memories of herself as a fifth-grade schoolgirl in 1966, and her intense desire to go on holiday like her classmates, all of whom have family outside of the big city.

During her stay in Yamagata, she finds herself increasingly nostalgic and wistful for her childhood self, while simultaneously wrestling with adult issues of career and love. The trip dredges up forgotten memories (not all of them good ones) -- the first stirrings of childish romance, puberty and growing up, the frustrations of math and boys. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.

Finally, she faces her own true self, how she views the world and the people around her, and has to decide what kind of person to become.