Character · Whisper of the Heart
Shizuku Tsukishima
A girl notices the same name written on the card in every library book she borrows, and a Ghibli film starts.
In Otakana the clue reads: Bookworm who keeps seeing one name on library cards
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Whisper of the Heart
- Letters
- 7 · Hard
Shizuku Tsukishima reads constantly and is fourteen, which is the age at which reading a great deal begins to feel like a substitute for doing something. The name on the borrower cards belongs to a boy she has not met. When she does meet him he is rude, he is learning to build violins, and he already knows exactly what he intends to spend his life on.
The film is about the gap that opens up next. Shizuku decides to write a novel to find out whether she has anything in her, gives herself a deadline, stops sleeping and produces something rough. An old shopkeeper reads it and tells her it is like a stone with the gem still buried inside, which is the kindest and least comfortable review available.
Whisper of the Heart came out in 1995, directed by Yoshifumi Kondo from a screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki, adapted from a manga by Aoi Hiiragi. It is the only feature Kondo directed; he died three years later. The film is also responsible for a Japanese cover of Country Roads, and for a cat statue who got a film of his own seven years afterwards.
Spelling SHIZUKU
SHIZUKU is seven letters and reads exactly as the kana do, shi-zu-ku, three beats. The word means a drop of water, an ordinary Japanese given name and a fair one for this character. The two U's are the letters to place. SH and ZU are each two English letters standing in for one kana, which is how seven letters carry only three syllables.