Classics - Why Only Yesterday Still Hits

A Tokyo office worker takes a summer trip to the countryside, and her ten-year-old self comes along.

Words by Jamie Harper 15 November 2026

Why Only Yesterday Still Hits: the main characters

A Tokyo office worker takes a summer trip to the countryside, and her ten-year-old self comes along.

Only Yesterday is the only Studio Ghibli film about a grown woman looking back. We think it is Isao Takahata's warmest work, and it still hits because it trusts small memories to carry a whole film.

The premise - A summer among the safflowers

Studio Ghibli: a summer among the safflowers

1982. Taeko Okajima is 27, single and working in an office in Tokyo. She spends her summer holiday on a farm in Yamagata, picking safflowers at dawn.

She says she wants the countryside. She is really running from a question.

Why it still works - The fifth grader who rides along

Studio Ghibli: the fifth grader who rides along

On the night train, 1966 comes back: Taeko at ten, the first pineapple her family ever bought, and the boy from the next class who asked if she liked cloudy days.

The past is drawn in soft, faded watercolour, the present in full colour.

The verdict - Takahata at his most human

Studio Ghibli: takahata at his most human

Takahata wrote and directed it in 1991 from the manga by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone, and drew grown-up Taeko with the lines of a real face, rare in anime then.

It reached US cinemas only in 2016, with Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel in the English dub. Watch it on a quiet Sunday.

Where to watch

Streaming catalogues for Studio Ghibli differ between the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia, and they change from month to month, so check the services you use.