I won't say that watching “Whisper of the Heart” cracked my egg exactly, because I already knew what I wanted at least since I was 8 in 1965. I had set up all sorts of internal barricades over the years, and they were already leaking badly by 1995 (thanks, Ranma ½). I identified so strongly with Shizuku—I saw myself in her in so many ways, and vice versa, in a way I never had before in a fictional character. And I couldn't unsee that. The genie was out of the bottle. https://mastodon.online/@tottoro/112470220109339199
