From Up on Poppy Hill

From Up on Poppy Hill (a.k.a. Kokuriko-zaka kara) is a 2011 Studio Ghibli film by director Goro Miyazaki. It is Goro Miyazaki's second film for Studio Ghibli. In contrast to his first work, Tales From Earthsea, his second effort was rather well received. It's based on the 1980s manga series Kokuriko-zaka kara by Tetsuo Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi.

The heroine, Umi Matsuzaki, is a high school girl in Yokohama of 1963. From her home overlooking the bay, she raises flag signals every morning meaning "I pray for safe voyages". One day, she receives an answer, as it turns out, from Shun Kazama, one class above her.

In preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and generally with the developing economic miracle, Japan is quickly modernizing, often razing the old to make way for the modern. At Umi's school, the old building of the Culture Club, nicknamed "Quartier Latin" by the students, is decided to be torn down. Can the students, including Umi and Shun, really do anything against this decision?

Tropes used in From Up on Poppy Hill include:

• Brother-Sister Incest: Averted. It seems that Umi and Shun shares the same father, but the truth is more complicated than that. Though, the film stays a little ambiguous about that matter...
• Gratuitous French: Especially "Quartier Latin" and "Kokuriko" (from "coquelicot" - corn poppy)
• Large Ham: the philosophy club guy. Quite literally too, he's at least a head taller than everyone else.
• Men Can't Keep House: The all-male-occupied Quartier Latin is filthy.
• Parental Abandonment: Neither Umi's nor Shun's birth parents are around, most are dead. Umi lives with her grandmother, Shun with his foster father.
• Slice of Life
• Stuff Blowing Up: the chemistry club causes an explosion as an Establishing Character Moment.