From Up On Poppy Hill is a charming Studio Ghibli film set in early ‘60s Japan, and here’s whether it can be streamed with Netflix, Hulu or Prime.
Here’s how to watch From Up On Poppy Hill online, plus whether the Studio Ghibli film is available to stream with Netflix, Hulu or Prime. Many of Studio Ghibli’s best-loved movies are based on books and manga. Heartbreaking Ghibli classic Grave Of The Fireflies, for example, is based on the semi-autobiographical short story of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka while The Secret World Of Arriety is based on Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers. Whisper Of The Heart, Only Yesterday and Porco Rosso are all based on manga – the latter being a story penned by Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki himself.
In 2011 Tetsurō Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi’s shoujo series Coquelicot-zaka kara became the latest manga to get the Ghibli treatment when the studio released From Up On Poppy Hill. The film features a screenplay co-written by Hayao Miyazaki himself and is directed by his son Gorō Miyazaki, with animation from Ghibli veterans including Akihiko Yamashita and Kitarō Kōsaka. It’s set in early 1960s Japan and focuses on protagonist Umi Matsuzaki – a 16-year-old high schooler who runs a Yokohama boarding house and looks after her siblings while her mother studies in the USA.
From Up On Poppy Hill follows Umi as her routine life is thrown into disarray after she meets fellow student Shun and bands together with him to save their school’s rundown clubhouse from demolition. Romance soon blossoms, but their burgeoning relationship is threatened by a revelation from their intertwined pasts. The coming-of-age drama was praised for its stunning animation and sense of nostalgia and took home the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in 2012. It’s a must-watch for any Studio Ghibli fan but where can From Up On Poppy Hill be watched online?
Unfortunately, From Up On Poppy Hill is absent from Hulu’s catalog at the moment while Prime subscribers are looking at shelling out an additional $10.99 to watch it via Amazon. The Studio Ghibli animation is available in select Netflix regions (including Australia, Canada and the UK) but isn’t currently available to stream in the US with Netflix. The best place for US anime fans to watch From Up On Poppy Hill without additional cost is with HBO Max which also has several other Ghibli titles in its library including Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away.
The iconic Studio Ghibli has made several other features since From Up On Poppy Hill was released in 2011 including The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There and its first computer-animated film Earwig And The Witch. Anime devotees are in luck too as Studio Ghibli currently has another movie in the works titled How Do You Live? which is set for release in 2023.