This was a very well done romance movie and clearly shows that Goro Miyazaki is making strides as a director himself (Tales from Earthsea was just so convoluted). The characters are very nice (though nothing too deep) and the story goes at a nice (although at times slow) pace. The art and music are spectacular as one would expect from a Ghibli film. The only big thing that I'd like to add is to definitely watch this with the English dub. I actually found that it added a lot more to the experience with many extra added lines (there are seriously quite a few monologues/lines that are not in the Japanese version), a better translation and much more natural dialogue versus the Japanese subs (at least the retail Japanese ones that I think that I saw it with). This reminded me a lot of Whisper of Heart although not quite as developed as that classic. Anyway, this is a definite watch for any Ghibli or romance movie fan.