Trivia / Whisper of the Heart

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• Actor-Shared Background: Like Shizuku Tsukishima and Yuko Harada, their respective English voice actresses Brittany Snow and Ashley Tisdale are best friends in real-life.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • Seiji Amasawa is voiced by actor Issei Takahashi, better known for playing Kai in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger.
  • The Baron is voiced by veteran actor Shigeru Tsuyuguchi.
  • Seiya Tsukishima's voice is provided by the late social activist and journalist Takashi Tachibana.
  • Asako Tsukishima is voiced by actress and essayist Shigeru Muroi, who would later go on to provide the Japanese voice of Dory in the Finding Nemo franchise.
  • Nishi is voiced by the late drama actor Keiju Kobayashi.
• Defictionalization:
  • Numerous real life replicas of The Baron and Louise statues seen in the film have been made over the years.
  • A real life (albeit smaller) version of the clock in the antique store was made in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary.
• Creator-Preferred Adaptation: The manga author Aoi Hiiragi reportedly preferred the film over her original manga, originally being Cut Short at the fourth issue. The film provided an actual resolution to the film while expanding further on the themes of what Hiiragi wanted to put in the manga.
• Dueling Dubs: The film was dubbed in Italian twice. The first was produced by Buena Vista in 1997 and featured Veronica Puccio as Shizuku Tsukishima and Stefano De Filippis as Seiji Amasawa. The second, and most well-known one, was produced by Lucky Red for their home media release in 2011, and featured a new cast led by Emanuela Ionica as Shizuku and Manuel Meli as Seiji. Both dubs were directed and written by Gualtiero Cannarsi.
• Late Export for You:
  • Whisper of the Heart was originally released in 1995, but it didn't get a North American release until 2006.
  • The film didn't reach Latin America until 2010, when Zima Entertainment released it on DVD.
  • The European French version was released in 2014, 19 years after the film's original release.
• Real Song Theme Tune: John Denver's 1971 song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" serves as the film's main theme song.
• Referenced by...: Chilledcow's indefinitely-running livestream "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to" originally featured looped footage from this film depicting Shizuku at her desk before replacing it with a similar original animation.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Due to the film's heavy usage of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", it took at least three years for Disney to clear the music rights and release the film in North America.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Disney dubbed the film into English in 2003, but it was delayed to partially sort out the music rights to "Take Me Home, Country Roads", since the song is heavily featured throughout the film. The dub would eventually be released three years later.

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