This is an original B2 Japanese poster, printed in 1999, for the release of “My Neighbors the Yamadas” (となりの山田くん).

Based on Hisaichi Ishii’s newspaper comic strip of the same name, “My Neighbors the Yamadas” is about the daily lives of the Yamada family: Takashi and Matsuko (the father and mother), Shige (Matsuko’s mother), Noboru (the son), Nonoko (the daughter), and Pochi (the family dog).

Takahata wanted Yamada-kun to have the art style of watercolor pictures rather than cel pictures. To achieve that, the traditional paint-on-cel techniques were replaced with digital technology, making Yamada-kun the first Ghibli movie to be painted and animated entirely on computers.

It has a significantly different “feel” to it than other Studio Ghibli films, not only because of its different style of animation, but also because it is not a contiguous plot, but rather a series of vignettes, each preceded by a title such as “Father as Role Model”, “A Family Torn Apart” or “Patriarchal Supremacy Restored”.

The poster features a bush warbler and plum blossoms more prominently than the Yamadas themselves. The design is modeled on a hanafuda playing card, and plays thematically on the warbler’s cry of “ho-ho-he-kyo”, which was part of the Japanese title for the film.

The design is bold and colorful, but also a bit abstract and messy. It appropriately reflects the style of animation used in the film.