Highend anime films tend to draw from Hayao Miyazakis template: fantastical family drama or adventure in an idyllic countryside setting. Keiichi Haras Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai instead hues closer to Isao Takahatas episodic sliceoflife films Only Yesterday and My Neighbor the Yamadas. Sarusuberi follows the daughter and successor of a famous artist as she comes of age searches for inspiration refines her craft grapples with sexuality and mends a broken family. Without a strong dramatic arc the film lives or dies on the strength of its setting characters and individual vignettes. The worlds of paint folklore dreams and history continually collide. An unfinished painting spawns demons. A storm dragon is transcribed in brush strokes. Hokusai himself even recites a ghost story that is as abstract as it is evocative. The film not only portrays Edo but also its folkloric mindset where painters are only a part of its economy of dreams. The characters range from wooden to animated. Miss Hokusai herself is the former holding powerful emotions deep within. We latch onto her every glance and turn of the head desperate for access into her thoughts. Fortunately the characterization delivers with great detail and finesse. Even the puppy dog that grows with the family is one of the most charismatic Ive seen in an animated film. Its hard to evaluate sliceoflife due to its nature but I would say Keiichi Haras Sarusuberi fares far better than Sunao Katabuchis Mai Mai Shinko 2009. The late Isao Takahata the father of sliceoflife anime may be retired but his art lives on.