From Up on Poppy Hill: Characters, Voice Actors & Analysis

From Up on Poppy Hill(Official Studio Ghibli) is a 2011 animated feature film directed by Goro Miyazaki.

This time, I’d like to reflect on the characters and voice actors of “From Up on Poppy Hill,” considering their individual charms and stories. What kind of people were the characters in “From Up on Poppy Hill”?

Please be aware that the following text contains unexpected spoilers.

*This article is an English translation of the original Japanese article, “【コクリコ坂から】登場人物＆声優情報一覧とキャラクター考察そして人物相関図“

Main Characters & Voice Actors of ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’

Name	Age	Voice Actor
Umi Matsuzaki	17 years old[1]	Sarah Bolger
Shun Kazama	3rd-year high school student	Anton Yelchin
Shirō Mizunuma	3rd-year high school student	Charlie Saxton
Sora Matsuzaki	1st-year high school student	Isabelle Fuhrman
Chairman Tokumaru	?[2]	Bruce Dern

[1]

According to the narration in the making-of documentary.

[2]

No clear age setting has been released.

Character & Voice Actor Info and Analysis

Umi Matsuzaki | Voice Actor: Sarah Bolger

Umi Matsuzaki’s Basic Information

I like this character!

The story’s protagonist, a 17-year-old second-year student at Konan Academy High School. She lost her father, a sailor, during the Korean War.

Umi made it her daily routine to “raise the flags” as a prayer for her sailor father’s return. This routine continued even after her father’s death, and her grandmother, Hana, worried about her.

While her grandmother’s sentiment is touching, one of the delightful parts of this story is how her grandmother’s words, “I wish you’d find someone wonderful so you wouldn’t have to raise those flags anymore,” were negated in the happiest way possible.

Umi had been raising the flags in memory of her deceased father, but at the very end of the story, the flag she raised was not for her father, but for Shun.

I believe this brilliant shift in the “reason for raising the flags” is one of the reasons why the movie “From Up on Poppy Hill” is so interesting.

Shun Kazama | Voice Actor: Anton Yelchin

Shun Kazama’s Basic Information

I like this character!

A third-year student at Konan Academy High School. The story’s other protagonist.

He is not related by blood to the parents he currently lives with and was told that his real father was Yūichirō Sawamura (Umi’s biological father).

However, even though they are not blood-related, he has been raised with great affection, and Shun himself is aware of this.

The shock must have been immense when he found out he was related by blood to Umi, with whom things were going so well. But considering the short time it took to learn that his real father was not Yūichirō Sawamura but Hiroshi Tachibana, it might have been more of a slightly intense spice that enriched his life.

Though for him, it might have felt like an eternity.

Shirō Mizunuma | Voice Actor: Charlie Saxton

Shirō Mizunuma’s Basic Information

I like this character!

The student council president and a third-year student at Konan Academy High School. He is Shun’s friend. He appears at key points in the story and does a great job. For Shun, becoming friends with him must have made for a very enjoyable high school life.

Hana Matsuzaki | Voice Actor:Edie Mirman

Hana Matsuzaki’s Basic Information

I like this character!

Umi’s grandmother and the owner of Coquelicot Manor.

She said to Umi, who raised a flag every day in memory of her late father, “I wish you’d find someone wonderful so you wouldn’t have to raise those flags anymore.” The fact that this wish was subverted in the most beautiful way is what “From Up on Poppy Hill” was all about.

Sora Matsuzaki | Voice Actor: Isabelle Fuhrman

Sora Matsuzaki’s Basic Information

I like this character!

The protagonist Umi’s younger sister. She is the one who refused her sister’s request to go shopping because she wanted to watch Kazuo Funaki on TV.

Riku Matsuzaki | Voice Actor: Alex Wolff

Riku Matsuzaki’s Basic Information

I like this character!

The protagonist Umi’s younger brother. He is the one who was given an extra portion of breakfast by his grandmother simply because he is a boy. I have no other memory of him.

Ryoko Matsuzaki | Voice Actor: Jamie Lee Curtis

Ryoko Matsuzaki’s Basic Information

I like this character!

The protagonist Umi’s mother. A researcher who continued her studies diligently even while pregnant with Umi, and teaches at a university in the main story.

She is a passionate person who went against her family’s wishes to be with Yūichirō Sawamura. After returning from America, she instantly understood Umi’s situation from her pained expression and embraced her.

Moreover, at the end of the story, she plays a part—no, two parts—in revealing the truth that Shun’s real father is not Yūichirō Sawamura but Hiroshi Tachibana. What a capable person she is.

She must be an excellent researcher as well.

Miki Hokuto | Voice Actor: Gillian Anderson

Miki Hokuto’s Basic Information

I like this character!

A female doctor who lodges at Coquelicot Manor. Although inviting Shun to her farewell party created “youthful angst” for Umi and Shun, considering that it ultimately led to the revelation of the truth about Shun’s birth, Miki Hokuto, the guest of honor at the party, did a fundamentally crucial job.

Sachiko Hirokouji | Voice Actor: Aubrey Plaza

Sachiko Hirokouji’s Basic Information

I like this character!

An art student lodging at Coquelicot Manor. Thanks to a painting she made, Umi was able to learn that the tugboat Shun rides passes by Coquelicot Manor every morning.

At the end of the story, Umi is shown raising the flags, and the fact that Umi saw the picture Sachiko painted guarantees that the signal flags are directed not only to her father but also to Shun.

Chairman Tokumaru | Voice Actor: Bruce Dern

Chairman Tokumaru’s Basic Information

I like this character!

The chairman of the board at Konan Academy High School, which Umi and Shun attend. At the end of the story, he promised the students to build a new building to replace the Latin Quarter.

Although his screen time is short, Chairman Tokumaru is a character you can’t help but like, adding color to “From Up on Poppy Hill.” He has a real-life model: Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the founder of Tokuma Shoten and, in fact, the first president of Studio Ghibli.

Director Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki have spoken about Yasuyoshi Tokuma in interviews and their books, always with sincere respect. It’s palpable how much they felt indebted to him.

I think the portrayal of Chairman Tokumaru in “From Up on Poppy Hill” reflects these feelings (the director is Goro Miyazaki, but the screenplay was written by Hayao Miyazaki).

Yūichirō Sawamura | Voice Actor: Robert Clotworthy

Yūichirō Sawamura’s Basic Information

I like this character!

Umi’s father. A former navy sailor, he was mobilized during the Korean War and lost his life.

He brought home the child of his best friend, Hiroshi Tachibana, without any consultation with his own wife (though there were circumstances, as both Hiroshi and his wife, as well as their relatives, had passed away), and entrusted the child to the Kazama couple, who were grieving the loss of their own child. Without revealing his birth origins.

He could be described as a “passionate man,” but one could also call him a “troublemaker.” If only he had said, “He is my child on paper, but he is actually Hiroshi Tachibana’s child,” the “youthful angst” of Shun and Umi would never have occurred.

However, this slightly troublesome aspect of his personality might have been one of the reasons Umi’s mother fell in love with Yūichirō Sawamura.

Akio Kazama | Voice Actor: Chris Noth

Akio Kazama’s Basic Information

I like this character!

Shun’s adoptive father and a sailor. A man of few words with an “old-fashioned” air about him. However, he is also the man who raised Shun, who is not his biological son, with deep affection.

The line he says to Shun, “You are my son,” is my favorite line in “From Up on Poppy Hill.” I want to be a man like that.

Yoshio Onodera | Voice Actor: Beau Bridges

Yoshio Onodera’s Basic Information

I like this character!

A best friend of Yūichirō Sawamura and Hiroshi Tachibana from their navy days. He is the one who tells Shun and Umi that Shun is Tachibana’s son.

Like Tachibana, he only appears briefly at the end of the main story, but in terms of conveying the most crucial truth to Shun and Umi, he might be the greatest contributor to “From Up on Poppy Hill.”

His line, “I’m so happy to meet the son and daughter of Tachibana and Sawamura. Thank you. There’s nothing that could make me happier,” also really got to me.

The images used in this article are from ‘Studio Ghibli Still Images‘.