Only Yesterday (1991)

Netflix confused me by stating the year of release as 2016. Turns out it was never dubbed in English or distributed in the West until the 25th anniversary. I find this strange, because the story isn't half as foreign to us as in many animes that reached the U.S. faster.

The setting alternates between the mid-'60s and early '80s as 27-year-old Taeko (Daisy Ridley) reminisces about her fifth-grade self (Allison Fernandez). She presently takes a "vacation" doing farmwork with a sister's in-laws, hard-pressed to say what about it reminds her of that particular year of her life. It wasn't especially good or bad, but the various episodes get her dwelling on what could have been -- and what may yet be. Farmhand Toshio (Dev Patel) starts to look promising....

The Red Turtle (2016)

I hadn't planned on seeing two Japanese animations in a row; I just noticed that this one was playing at the theater and wouldn't be available on Netflix until May. Fortunately, it's only slightly Japanese: While the Studio Ghibli label turns up first, it's one of seven production companies. The director is Dutch-British, and most of the people involved are from France or Belgium. (That would explain the Tintin-like character designs.)

An adult male castaway on a bamboo-forested island shoves off on a raft, but the titular turtle bumps it to pieces from beneath. He finds the turtle on the beach and overturns her but then guiltily tries to keep her alive. Then, without explanation, she turns into a human in a half-shell. And eventually wakes up and gets out of it (off screen). No longer hasty to leave, the half-dazed man falls for the woman. They go on to have a son, who grows increasingly curious about the outside world....

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)

Yeah, it's one of those foreign films that had to wait a year for the Academy to notice. I made a point to see it before the Oscars for the sake of knowing as many Best Animated Feature nominees as possible, tho I knew from the outset it wouldn't win. The last non-CG winner came out in 2005, and TTotPK sports a watercolor look with a dash of charcoal.

I had thought that director/writer Isao Takahata, being older than Hayao Miyazaki, had retired. He has made few movies in the last 15 years, none of them well known in my circles. His works tend to be more quintessentially Japanese than Miyazaki's, as evidenced by Disney's embarrassing attempt to redub Pom Poko for an American audience. But I'll give him credit for variety: The tragedy Grave of the Fireflies and comic-in-motion My Neighbors the Yamadas could hardly have differed more. TTotPK, based on a Japanese folktale, makes a worthy addition to his legacy.