Anna Sasaki (佐々木杏奈 Sasaki Anna) is the core protagonist of When Marnie Was There film.
History[]
Early life[]
Anna was born and raised in the city of Sapporo (located in Japan's region of Hokkaido). Her biological parents died in a car accident when she was only around a year old -- after her parents' death, Anna was placed under the guardianship of her maternal grandmother, who was her closest living relative. Unfortunately, when Anna was around two years old, her grandmother ended up passing away -- and during the course of her funeral, it became apparent that there weren't any other friends or relatives that could (or were willing) to take her in. As a result, Anna was sent to an orphanage, where she'd often carry around a photograph of her maternal grandmother's childhood (a large western-style mansion located in a rural seaside town called Kissakibetsu).
Anna as a toddler with her adoptive parents
Anna ended up living at the orphanage for about three years -- sometime after she turned 5, she was adopted by a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki. Yoriko, Anna's adoptive mother, was so happy and wanted to make up for the five years that she and her husband had been unable to have with Anna. This led to her teaching Anna all sorts of things, such as cooking and how to use a knife -- Yoriko, due to being a bit of a worrywart, would also often call her older sister (making her Anna's aunt), Setsu, for advice. Overall, Anna had a happy childhood with her adopted family.
Adolescence[]
Anna finds out her adoptive parents get paid to take care of her.
Sometime when she was around 12, Anna discovered that Yoriko and her husband receive money from the government to help take care of her -- this leads to Anna secretly worrying that her adoptive parents only pretend to care for her in order to receive money. As a result, Anna becomes quieter and more introverted (generally preferring to be by herself) and also starts keeping the people around her at a distance (at least emotionally speaking) -- she even starts referring to Yoriko as "Aunty" instead of "mom"/"mother." Yoriko, of course, worries about her daughter's change in demeanor -- but not realizing that Anna had found out about the checks that she and her husband receive, seems to think that it has something to do with things like her husband not always being at home (Anna's adoptive father has to travel a lot for work and is often away on business trips) or how Anna isn't biologically related to either Yoriko or Mr. Sasaki.
During a day at school that took place sometime before summer vacation, Anna's sitting at a bench in a park drawing and when her art teacher asked to see her work; Anna was strongly hesitant. However, after her art teacher had to turn their attention to another student, who had hurt themselves, Anna appears to suffer an attack of sorts as she gasps for air and tightly hugs her art book and her pencil snaps against it. Afterwards, Anna is taken home and we learn that Anna suffers from asthma while Miyoko and other girls from Anna's class took the time to bring Anna's school supplies back to her mother, who asked them about Anna since the latter never talks to her about school or her friends. Miyoko tells her that Anna is nice but very quiet, leading to one of the girls trying to joke about it but is stopped by Miyoko who claims that they just talk a lot. However, this did not ease Yoriko's concerns about her daughter since she believes Anna to be a loner at school. While Anna is busy sharpening her pencils and looking at her drawings in her room, Yoriko voices her concerns about Anna to her family's physician, a man named Dr. Yamashita, who advises to send Anna to stay with Yoriko's sister, Setsu, and brother-in-law, Kiyomasa, in Kissakibetsu. Figuring that the clean air of the countryside will help with Anna's asthma, Yoriko sends her daughter to go stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer.
Off to Kissakibetsu[]
Since her parents cannot come with her, Anna is made to travel by herself to her relatives' hometown, with Yoriko telling her to eat well, be on her best behavior, along with buying her lots of snacks for the trip, although Anna simply brushes off her concerns. Upon arriving to the station, she is greeted by her mother's relatives, Setsu and Kiyomasa Ōiwa, who give her a warm welcome and take her to their house in the quietest part of town. Setsu briefly talks to Anna about her life and her own children and allows Anna to sleep in her daughter's old bedroom. After settling down, Anna writes a letter to Yoriko and takes it to the post office where she is spotted by the locals Nobuko Kadoya and her mother but Anna, who doesn't seem to like being around strangers, runs away when she notices them. As she runs, Anna sees an abandoned mansion across the salt marsh -- the mansion feels weirdly familiar to Anna (even though, as far as she can recall, she's never even set foot there) and she goes to investigate (it was low tide at the time, so she's able to walk across the salt marsh). Anna explores the outside of the mansion, and it becomes clear that nobody's living there (and probably hasn't been occupied for quite some time) -- Anna dozes off and ultimately gets trapped by the high tide coming in, but a local fisherman name Tōichi gives her a ride back to shore in his boat and also gives her directions back to her aunt and uncle's house. When telling Setsu and Kiyomasa about her little adventure, one of the things they seem most impressed by was Anna getting a ride in Toichi's boat, as the fisherman's apparently known for being a bit of a loner. When Anna notes to her aunt and uncle how it looked like nobody was living at the marsh house, Setsu confirms that the place has been empty for quite some time -- she also goes on to explain how it was originally built as a fancy vacation home for some wealthy foreigners that moved to town sometime after WW2 ended and that, prior to being abandoned, ownership had changed hands quite a few times. Kiyomasa advises his niece to stay away from the mansion for her own safety, claiming a lot of the townsfolk think that the place is haunted.
The next day, Setsu and Anna have to deliver lanterns for Mrs. Kadoya and the two women arrange for the girls to go to the Tanabata Festival together, with Setsu letting Anna borrow her daughter's yukata for her to wear. Meanwhile, Anna continues to sit by the river to draw but ends up running away when she once again sees Nobuko staring at her. That night, Anna dreams of seeing a blonde haired girl in the mansion. Anna wakes up and sees that the yukata is already hung up in her room and ready for the festival, much to Anna's chagrin since she hates festivals.
Meeting Marnie[]
Anna attends the Tanabata Festival against her will
On the night of the Tanabata Festival, Anna does her best to go through with it until she gets mad at Nobuko Kadoya when she reads out loud Anna's card where she wrote that she wished to "live a normal life everyday" and when she drawed attention to Anna's blue eyes she grew overwhelmed, she snapped and called Nobuko a "fat pig" and ran away despite Nobuko's offer to forget about the incident, when she got to the marsh she began to lose her breath and started crying. After calming down Anna decides to head home, but she sees a boat with a lit candle. She then got into a boat and tried to head to the mansion but the paddles get stuck and she meets a blonde haired girl identical to the one in her dream named Marnie who helps her out. While out on the water, the two agree to keep their meeting secret and agree to meet again on the next evening. Anna returns to the Oiwa residence to find her aunt being yelled at by Nobuko's mother, who complains about Anna insulting Nobuko and lying about Anna threatening her daughter with a blade, she even calls Anna a delinquent. Setsu and Kiyomasa don't believe Nobuko's mom's claims, even getting outraged on their niece's behalf for Nobuko's mom calling her a delinquent -- when Anna comes home, her aunt and uncle assure her that they don't believe Nobuko's mom's claims and aren't mad at her, but they do at least encourage her to apologize to Nobuko for insulting her (with Setsu noting that Anna calling Nobuko "fat pig" was admittedly a tad harsh). The next night, Marnie and Anna make proper introductions over a picnic and play together -- Marnie also invites Anna to a party at the mansion, which Anna tries politely declining (insisting that parties aren't really her thing). While there, Anna sees Marnie dancing with a boy named Kazuhiko. Later that night, a father and son find Anna asleep in some bushes by the post office and take her back to her relatives, with Setsu carrying Anna into the house. The next day, Anna returns to the mansion, but it appears abandoned and dilapidated again.
A week later, Anna meets Hisako, an older woman who paints pictures of the marsh and the mansion. Hisako comments that Anna's sketches look like a girl whom she knew when she was young. She also tells Anna that the mansion is being renovated for the new owners that recently bought the house. Anna runs to the mansion sees that what Hisako said was true -- this ultimately leads to her meeting/befriending Sayaka, the daughter of the family who bought the marsh house (and who found Marnie's old diary hidden in a drawer).
Marnie reappears the next day and while exploring the outdoors, the two girls discuss their home lives. Anna reveals to Marnie about how she's technically a foster child and that, prior to the movie's main events, she discovered that Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki (her foster/adoptive parents) receive monthly checks from the government to help take care of her -- while acknowledging that they're not bad people and that they do take good care of her as parental figures, she secretly worries that Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki only pretend to care about her for monetary gain. When Anna starts crying over this, Marnie (doing her best to comfort Anna) tries assuring her that Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki truly do care about her -- Marnie also admits that, when it comes to her and Anna's respective home lives, she feels that Anna's actually a lot luckier than she is. Marnie elaborates by explaining how, as she's gotten older, her parents travel around so much that they're really only ever home a few times per year -- as a result, Marnie's left under the guardianship of her nanny and a pair of live-in maids, all three of whom are very mean and abusive towards her when her parents aren't around. In fact, the maids at least have even threatened to lock Marnie up in an abandoned silo near the mansion. After hearing all of this, Anna tries helping Marnie overcome her fear of the silo by staying there with her for an entire night. But when Anna wakes up, she finds Marnie gone.
While all of this is happening, Anna's friend, Sayaka, finds the missing pages of Marnie's old diary, which includes various passages about Kazuhiko and the nearby silo -- when Sayaka remembers how Anna had been heading towards the silo just as a huge storm was brewing, she gets her older brother, Takeshi, to come with her to go look for Anna to make sure she's okay. The Doi-siblings manage to find an unconscious Anna (now suffering a fever) and get her back to the Oiwas in time before anything worse happens. While in bed during her feverish state, Anna dreams about confronting Marnie for seemingly abandoning her -- Marnie tearfully yells that she's sorry for leaving Anna but says that she won't be able to see her anymore.
After Anna finally recovers from her fever, Sayaka comes over to visit and reveals the missing pages of Marnie's diary that she found along with an old painting -- upon looking over the painting, the two girls discover that it was given to Marnie by Hisako, the painter that Anna had met earlier in the movie. The two girls eventually meet up with Hisako and explain the situation to her, and Hisako agrees to tell them Marnie's story (while also warning them that it's a very sad story).
Hisako (who had known Marnie since they were very young children) confirms that, despite coming from a wealthy family and often showing off the gifts/clothes/toys that her parents would give her and the lavish parties that they would throw, Marnie's parents were pretty neglectful and (like Marnie had told Anna) were often away for work/traveling, leaving Marnie under the guardianship of an abusive nanny and a pair of mean-spirited maids. Hisako goes on to explain how, as an adult, Marnie moved to Sapporo, got married to Kazuhiko (another childhood friend of theirs) and gave birth to a daughter (whom she and Kazuhiko had named Emily) about two years into their marriage. Hisako says that after Emily was born, she didn't see Marnie again for quite some time -- in fact, the next time the two women saw each other was a few years after Kazuhiko passed away unexpectedly sometime during Emily's early childhood. Marnie was so shocked by the death of her husband that she ended up having to be committed to a sanatorium (which, as Anna explains to Sayaka, is "a place where you go to get better") -- and since Marnie was an only child and both of her parents had already passed away by the time Kazuhiko died (and we also never hear anything about the relatives from Kazuhiko's side of the family), Marnie had Emily sent off to a boarding school so she could be properly cared for (since it's not like Marnie was in the proper mental state to be taking care of her daughter, let alone herself).
Emily moved back home sometime after she turned 13, and while Marnie was happy to finally be reunited with her daughter, Emily was (kind of understandably) furious with her mo, for basically abandoning her and the two were ultimately never able to reconcile. Once Emily reached adulthood, she ended up basically running away from home after having one last argument with her mother to marry a man who had gotten her pregnant, and the mother and daughter ultimately never saw each other again -- when Emily's child (a girl) was around a year old, Marnie got word that Emily and her husband had been killed in a car accident. Marnie was able to assume guardianship of their daughter (her and Kazuhiko's only grandchild), and Marnie vowed to give her granddaughter the kind of life that she herself had been unable to have and had been unable to give to Emily. Unfortunately, Marnie herself ended up passing away about a year later, and as there were no other friends or relatives that could (or were willing) to take the child in, Marnie's granddaughter (who would've around 2 at the time) was ultimately sent off to an orphanage (which Hisako claims would've been around ten years prior to the movie's main events).
While Anna and Sayaka are very saddened by what Hisako told them (to the point of where both of them are crying), they thank the artist for telling them the whole story.
Epilogue[]
Yoriko arrives in Kissakibetsu at the end of the summer to bring Anna back home to Sapporo -- after she arrives in town, she sees Anna with Sayaka in Toichi's boat and is happy that her daughter has made some good friends. Anna sees her adoptive mother from the boat and excitedly waves to her (almost capsizing the boat that she, Sayaka and Toichi are in). Anna and Yoriko head to the Oiwas house so Anna can pack up her things to go home -- during this, Yoriko gives Anna an old photograph that Anna had carried around with her during her time at the orphanage, from before Yoriko and her husband (Anna's adoptive father) took her in as their daughter, claiming that it had belonged to Anna's biological grandmother. When Anna sees the photograph, she notices that it's of the Marsh house, the mansion that Sayaka's family lives in and where Marnie used to live -- after seeing Marnie's name written on the back of it, Anna realizes that Emily (Marnie's daughter) was not only [Anna's] biological mother, but that Marnie was [Anna's] biological grandmother. This ultimately helps Anna bring closure about her identity and her past.
Yoriko also ends up revealing how she and her husband receive checks from the government to help take care of Anna, but makes it clear that she and Anna's father love her no matter what -- but Anna (having developed a greater respect and appreciation for her adoptive parents) reveals that she had actually known about the checks for quite some time, but that she doesn't care and makes it clear that she loves Yoriko and Mr. Sasaki.
During the end credits, Setsu and Kiyomasa drive Yoriko and Anna to the train station, with Anna holding her sketchbook (which now has the picture of Marnie colored in) and a wooden owl that Kiyomasa gifted her, during which they make stops so Anna can say goodbye to the friends she made over the summer -- Anna also makes sure to apologize to Nobuko for the harsh words she had said to her at the Tanabata festival and also ends up introducing Yoriko to Hisako. When Anna introduces Yoriko to Hisako, Anna refers to Yoriko as her mother instead of "aunty" (probably for the first time in a long time).
Before finally leaving town, Anna sees Marnie waving goodbye to her from her mansion window.
Appearance[]
Anna has messy coffee brown hair styled into a pixie cut and sapphire blue eyes. She wears a few outfits through the movie, but she typically dresses in red shorts, light blue sneakers, and various blue shirts. At the Tanabata festival, she wears a pink yukata with pink and blue flowers that belonged to Setsu Oiwa's daughter. By the end of the movie, she starts wearing her grandmother's hairpin again.
Personality[]
Anna is a caring, curious, and introspective person. She is usually polite with her elders, especially her aunt and uncle but doesn't talk unless it's necessary. She is an artist, and is often carrying around her sketchbook although at first, she believed that she wasn't good at drawing when in fact she is great at it. The drawings shown in the movie are mostly of landscapes, such as the playground in the beginning, the marsh house, Marnie's house and Marnie herself.
Anna has a low self-esteem, deeming herself worthless, ugly, awkward, a nuisance and abnormal. Her social anxiety is also very prevalent, causing her to struggle in large crowds and interaction with people, cutting herself away from others, which is usually mistaken for shyness. She suppresses her emotions, usually donning on a neutral expression, and is also very prone to emotional outbursts, suddenly changing moods but with the help of Marnie and Sayaka, Anna starts to open up and becomes slightly more upbeat, smiling more, apologizing to Nobuko for hurting her feelings and even referring to Yoriko as her mother.
Relationships[]
- Unnamed biological great grandparents (deceased)
- Kazuhiko (biological maternal grandfather; deceased)
- Marnie (biological maternal grandmother; deceased)
- Emily (biological mother; deceased)
- Unnamed biological grandfather; deceased)
- Unnamed biological grandmother; deceased)
- Unnamed biological father (deceased)
- Yoriko Sasaki (adoptive mother)
- Mr. Sasaki (adoptive father)
- Setsu Oiwa (adoptive aunt)
- Kiyomasa Ōiwa (adoptive uncle)
- Oiwa children (adoptive cousins)
Etymology[]
- Anna's surname Sasaki means "help, aid" (佐) (sa) and "tree, wood" (木) (ki).
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Both of Anna's birth and adoptive fathers remain nameless and were only seen in either pictures or flashbacks.
- In the case of Mr. Sasaki (Yoriko's husband/Anna's adoptive father), he's apparently off on a business trip during the course of the movie's main events -- while it's never revealed what exactly he does for a living, it apparently requires him to travel a lot for work because Yoriko claims that he's often away on business trips.
- Anna bears a resemblance to Satsuki Kusakabe from My Neighbor Totoro; also with another similar and based on Princess Mei Li from The Swan Princess series.
- Anna likes to use a paper cutting blade to sharpen her pencils.
- In addition to asthma, Anna might suffer from some form of narcolepsy, given her tendency of falling asleep in odd places during the course of the movie.
- While she doesn't seem to have any memories of her biological parents (i.e., Emily and her husband), she does seem to have some vague memories of her biological grandmother (i.e., Marnie), including of her grandmother's funeral -- she also has some memories of her time at the orphanage she lived in before Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki adopted her as their daughter.
- During the flashbacks we see of Marnie's funeral, Anna's shown holding a doll that resembles Marnie in her youth, which initially implies that Marnie's just some kind of imaginary friend that Anna dreamt up before it turns out that she was in fact a real person.
- Given that Anna's supposed to be 12 and assuming that When Marnie Was There takes place during 2014 (the year it was released in) along with taking into consideration how the Japanese school year works, Anna must've been born early on in 2002.
- Depending on when Anna's birthday is, she's either in 6th-grade (which is the last year of elementary school in Japan) or 7th-grade (which is the first year of middle school in Japan). Seeing as how the classmates who bring Anna's schoolbag home are wearing sailor-style uniforms (which are a popular style for school uniforms in Japan, especially at middle schools), Anna's most likely in middle school. While school uniforms are extremely prevalent at Japanese schools, they're much more prevalent at middle and high schools than at elementary schools -- in fact, only about 20% of Japanese elementary schools require uniforms. By contrast, around 90% to 95% of middle and high schools in Japan require uniforms.