Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli is responsible for some of the most gorgeous, imaginative animated fantasy films of all time, yet many of the best Ghibli features have been small, quiet, and grounded in reality. With From Up On Poppy Hill, Miyazaki’s son Goro makes a film more in the tradition of Ghibli’s Only Yesterday and Whisper Of The Heart than the high fantasy of his disappointing 2006 debut, Tales From Earthsea. Set mostly at a seaside high school in 1963, From Up On Poppy Hill follows an earnest teenage girl named Umi (voiced by Sarah Bolger in the English-language version) as she develops a crush on a headstrong classmate, Shun (Anton Yelchin), who’s fighting to save the clubhouse he loves, which has been a part of the school for decades. Umi’s mother is studying abroad, so she helps run her family’s boarding house, and hoists naval flags in the morning to honor her father, who died when she was little. Then Shun writes a poem about the flags in the school paper, and these two kids—both mature beyond their years—bond over their mutual respect for the past.