Technically this film is leagues away from the quality of films later produced by Takahata and Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli. Still it's a great little film with more depth than is first apparent. It's a shame Takahata encountered such resistance and lack of backing from the studio when making this film. It could have been so much more. At one point still frames replace the animation becuase they ran over budget in production! A landmark in anime nontheless.