Manga
The movie is based on Hiiragi Aoi's manga by the same title. Produced by Ribon Mascot, the only language available at the moment is in the original Japanese version.

After the release of the movie in 1995, Hiiragi released a sequel of the manga. Titled "Mimi wo Sumaseba: Shiawase na Jikan", it is a continuation of the original story years later. The manga actually consists of two stories, the second being "Kikyou no Sakukoro". Together with the help of my friend known online as dballred from Wingsee's forum, I set out to do a scanlating project of the manga. Both dballred and me are involved in the scanning of the pages (he does a much better job than me here) and he helps in parts of the translation. However, all the editing are done by me.

Now, I am no master in Japanese, unlike dballred who is rather good at it, so mistakes may occur now and then. The truth is, I often sought the help of my dictionary, and sometimes Babelfish for those harder translations. It's not exactly easy to do a literal translation, so I cope with whatever I can and change some of the dialogue if need be.

The scanlation for the sequel was delayed, simply because I was then doing my obligatory 2-year army stint, and that I know I could never produce quality scans with my own copy of the volume. This, however, ended after my stint, and E_Hakki, a friend from a mailing list, managed to get hold of raw scans, which concidentally were from another friend, Jiji, from Ghibli Tavern's forum, which I also frequent. Thus, the project was once again back on track, this time with quality scans, better editing and (hopefully) better translations.

Below are the links to the parts I have already translated. Not all of the pages are included, especially the filler pages. Big thanks to Wingsee who agreed to host the files for me, as well as dballred for the help in this project. These files can also be found at Wingsee's website as well, so you can pick it up there too.

Mimi wo Sumaseba		Mimi wo Sumaseba - Shiawase na Jikan
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17	Mirror 1 Mirror 2 Mirror 3 Mirror 4 Mirror 5 Mirror 6 Mirror 7 Mirror 8 Mirror 9 Mirror 10 Mirror 11 Mirror 12 Mirror 13 Mirror 14 Mirror 15 Mirror 16 Mirror 17	Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17	Mirror 1 Mirror 2 Mirror 3 Mirror 4 Mirror 5 Mirror 6 Mirror 7 Mirror 8 Mirror 9 Mirror 10 Mirror 11 Mirror 12 Mirror 13 Mirror 14 Mirror 15 Mirror 16 Mirror 17

Special thanks to Wingsee.com for hosting the files, and Zhi Xu for the mirrors.

The password for all the files is "roarkiller" without the quotations.

If you would like to host the files, please email me at roarkiller@yahoo.com to be my mirror. Also, please do NOT steal these and claim them as your own. Nor should you sell them, that is illegal. This project is only done so that those unable to purchase the manga or those who do not understand Japanese may enjoy the manga in English. No profit is made in the course of this project, except maybe self-satisfaction.

For those who are dissatisfied with my version (there should be many), I highly suggest you try ShoujoMagic's version. They are a group of highly professional scanlators, and are doing an extremely incredible job at scanlating the first volume.

In fact, I'd much rather you read their version than torture your eyes reading mine. Seriously.

Movie Nitpick
As professional or incredible Ghibli works may be, there will always be that small unnoticeable details that escape all but the observant, intentional or not. This section is thus set up to nitpick at details from the movie you never knew.

• The airship Shizuku saw that early summer morning had "HAVE A NICE DAY" written on it's side, which might explain Shizuku's exclamation.
• In the scene where Shizuku was looking through the books in her school library, one of them had the title Totoro written on the spine.
• In the scene where Shizuku was muttering "Jerk!" all the way home, she passed by a house with the name Yamamoto on it.
• Shizuku's apartment number is 408.
• The house where Moon was teasing the dog belonged to a Suzuki family. (In-joke for Suzuki Toshio?)
• In the magical town in the Baron's story, the inside of a shop where the Baron and his partner was created was shown. Hidden in the shelves of figurines lies a white Totoro similar to the one in the movie Tonari no Totoro and a black cat like Jiji from Majo no Takkyuubin.
• Remember the old clock in the shop? It had "Porco Rosso" written on its face.
• Before Shizuku first entered the shop, she was looking at a gold pig at the door. The pig was facing forward. A few scenes before, however, when Moon was entering the shop, the pig had been looking sideways.
• In the library scene when Seiji kept Shizuku company, the book he was reading is Kiri no Mukou no Fushigi na Machi. Incidentally, it is also one of the inspirations for Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi.
• After the parting, on her way home on the train, we see a red billboard with the title Mimi wo Sumaseba, although most of the billboard is hidden.
• Shizuku, and probably her family, uses Kleenex tissues.
• In the ending credits, we see Yuuko waiting by the road. Sugimura turned up later and the two walked down the road together. Yes, they got together in the end, and it's a fact stated by the director himself, not a rumor.
• The Baron's poses differ with every appearance, probably due to his being moved around.

Movie vs Manga
A (hopefully)complete list of the major and not-too-small differences between the movie and the original manga.

Movie	Manga
Shizuku is in her 3rd year, class 3-5 (fourteen years old).	Shizuku is in her 1st year, class 1-5 (twelve years old).
Her father mentions about the change of the library's system.	No mention on any change.
Shizuku was the first to check out the book "Fairy Tale".	Kouji was the only person to check out the book before Shizuku.
Yuuko and Shizuku sat near the sports court after the library scene.	They went to their classroom, which was empty.
Shizuku had been translating the song "Country Road".	No such translating. Yuuko only called Shizuku out to talk about the love letter she received.
Before Shizuku had to run back to school, they also talked about their studies.	No talk about their studies.
Seiji told her to quit the "Concrete Road".	Seiji told her that Fairies don't exist anymore.
Shio had just returned home, and was also working part time.	Shio never went to anywhere far away, and no mention of her working part time.
Shizuku helped her sister cook dinner and clean the place up.	Shio had passed Shizuku a postcard sent by Sugimura, and they later talked about a photo Shio's friend had given her.
Shizuku met with the cat before going to the library. She was in a bad mood due to Seiji when she got there.	Shizuku met with the cat after going to the library. Hence she was still in a good mood.
Nishi-san showed Shizuku an old clock he had just finished repairing. He was on good terms with Shizuku.	Shizuku was too nervous during the meeting, and bought a pair of spectacles as a pretense.
Shizuku was ecstatic upon coming out of the shop, and met up with Seiji leter on (hence the bad mood at the library).	Shizuku ran out with nervousness. She met with Kouji and realised that he was her sister's friend after receiving a photo from him.
Seiji had no brother, otherwise was never mentioned nor appeared in the movie.	Kouji played a rather fairly important part in the manga.
At Kousaka-sensei's room, the identity of Shizuku's supposed boyfriend was unknown, and only Yuuko had any idea.	Everyone knew by then that it was Seiji. Yuuko was not present (recovering from the shock received from Sugimura).
Sugimura confessed to Shizuku, Shizuku found out who Seiji was, and finally met up with Seiji at the rooftop.	Shizuku found out who Seiji was, met up with Seiji at the rooftop, and finally Sugimura confessed to her.
The rooftop meeting was about Seiji going to Italy.	Seiji was simply concerned about Shizuku's weird behaviour the day before.
Shizuku decided to write a story during a talk with Yuuko.	The idea was sugested by Seiji.
Shizuku's performance in school affected badly while writing her story.	No mention of her grades.
Seiji showed her the Engel Zimmer.	Mr Nishi showed her the Engel Zimmer.
Mr Nishi was a student and had a girlfriend during his time in Germany.	He was a company employee and had no girlfriend.
The Baron's story was told after Seiji talked about his dream during the production of Shizuku's story.	The Baron's story was told before Seiji talked about his dream before he suggested the idea of writing a story.
Seiji's dream was to be a master violin crafter.	Seiji had a talent for painting.
Shizuku's story was finished before the confession.	Her story was probably finished only long after the confession.
Seiji asked her to marry him in the future.	Seiji simply confessed to her.

Movie Timeline
Typical of Studio Ghibli, even the smallest details are given full attention. A fellow forum member, Saddletank, was working on a fanfic and was checking the timeline of the movie. Along the way, apart from noticing other small details, also realized that the timeline in the movie were surprisingly accurate with real-time. And so, he embarked on a quest to fully document the dates and time of as many events that took place in the movie. I then took the liberty of counter-checking it myself, having owned both the manga and R2 DVD myself.

Not only did he give me permission to use his results, he even cleaned it up and forwarded it in report format. This final draft, together with some editing and inclusions of my own, together with pictures to support it, is the only one of it's kind anywhere on the internet. Due to it's size, this particular section has it's own page.

• Movie Timeline draft

If you spot any mistakes, or wish to comment, you can contact me at roarkiller@yahoo.com, or Saddletank at saddletank@dsl.pipex.com