Only Yesterday is one of Studio Ghibli's films aimed primarily at female viewers ... an intentional story that is emotionally honest.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 2, 2016

There is real artistry here: it is a must.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 2, 2016

A(nother) animated marvel from one of cinema's unsung maestros.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 1, 2016

Calm, reflective, gorgeously uneventful.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 31, 2016

Much of the emotional content is universal, especially the feelings of disappointment and shame that animation can portray with special force.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 4, 2016

Half coming-of-age story, half adult drama, the film demonstrates Takahata's belief that animation need not be limited to children's fantasy.

| Mar 11, 2016

The animation isn't showy, but it's beautiful, providing clear delineations between Taeko's past and present. The attention to detail is fantastic. But the story is what sets the film apart.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 10, 2016

For those who like their anime unhurried, elegiac, and episodic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 26, 2016

The animation is marked by a simple sort of elegance; the story lucidly and lyrically moves back and forth from 1982 to 1966 ...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 26, 2016

The story of a young woman who moves back and forth between childhood memories and the dilemmas of her current life, "Only Yesterday" is a realistic, personal story made universal in a delicate way.

| Feb 25, 2016

Only Yesterday is a meditation on coming of age, the ways our personalities are formed, and informed.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 25, 2016

Another sumptuous visual feast from the studio, full of endless images finely detailed and often lavish.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 25, 2016

Isao Takahata's film is an animation miracle so subtle that it doesn't fully hit you till you take it home and into your dreams.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 25, 2016

Only Yesterday may have been released in 1991 and take place in 1982 and 1966, but Taeko's reflection on girlhood is truly timeless.

| Original Score: A | Feb 25, 2016

The movie will probably go over the heads of little children, but it's certainly for thoughtful older kids and their parents.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 25, 2016

Handkerchiefs should be considered essential for viewing this lovely, overlooked-in-the-U.S. addition to Takahata and Ghibli's already perfect CV.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 25, 2016

It's not just the animation that stirs, it's also the sound design.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 25, 2016

Only Yesterday can sometimes seem a little too random in what it chooses to show, but it has a cumulative power as Taeko comes to understand that the past that shaped her needn't define her.

| Original Score: A- | Feb 25, 2016

This masterful film undeniably proves that Studio Ghibli was lightyears ahead of everyone else working in animation.

| Original Score: A- | Feb 22, 2016

Mr. Takahata's psychologically acute film, which was based on a manga, seems to grow in impact ... as the adult Takao comes to a richer understanding of what she wants and how she wants to live.

| Dec 31, 2015