From Studio Ghibli, perhaps the most respected of all Japanese animation studios, and director Isao Takahata (GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES) comes the aesthetically inventive MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS (HOUHOKEKYO TONARI NO YAMADA-KUN). The Yamadas are a family living in the suburbs of Tokyo, and who are representative of the Japanese middle class, with largely realistic, if exaggerated, adventures. Based on a popular daily comic strip, the film utilizes a deceptively simple and stylized animation that recalls the basic nature of its source. Rather than having a plot that stretches across the entire film, instead there is a series of vignettes, some humorous and others serious, which also recall the compact narrative experience of a comic strip. MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS continues the tradition of unique, refined anime from Studio Ghibli.