Mary And The Witch's Flower is a fantasy anime, based on the book of the same name, about Mary's (Kate Winslet) discovery of a magical world, and subsequently a morally corrupted school for wizards and witches. The movie was directed by Hiromasa "Maro" Yonebayashi who had previously directed films such as 'When Marnie Was There' and 'The Secret World Arrietty' for the phenomenally popular Studio Ghibli however this film was the first from his new independent Studio Ponoc and met some critical controversy for having an incredibly similar style to Studio Ghibli's 'Kiki's Delivery Service'.
The overall copy creates a minimalist feel and is mainly done through the use of bold and thin fonts as well as the sematic code that is created from both the use of positioning and the colour of the text and therefore at instant glance the thinner piece of text could be mistaken for clouds in the sky. Furthermore, the choice of font for the title of the film along with the castle in the background could create a sematic code inferring to the audience that in this world wizardry is a regal and refined art. Additionally the use of the castle in the background could act as an enigma code making the audience question what it is due to its almost plant like shape but also why it is so high up in the clouds possibly inferring to the audience that the art of magic is something that is sophisticated and keeps secret from ordinary people. Furthermore, the "witch's flower" in the title acts as the first in a multi part enigma code as this first makes the audience question what the witches flower is and how it is going to be important to the plot, we then in the background see the flower shaped castle which then progresses the enigma code and possibly makes the audience question whether the art of witch craft in this world revolves around botany. Then as the final part of the code we see in the foreground in the bottom left hand corner light blue flowers which due to the colours connotes ideas of being mystical and can make the audience question if that it is somehow the supposed witch's flower referred to in the title.
With the main character Mary we see her represented in a non typical way for Japanese film protagonists. This is first done through the use of facial expressions implying fear instead of the typical happy or brave hero as demonstrated in film posters like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Patema Inverted and so on. This could first imply to the audience that the director's dramatic intention for the film is to break away from stereotypical representations of heroines additionally the director wants to distance himself away from Studio Ghibli. Also this could be represented to create a binary opposition of individuality vs conformity and therefore represent Mary as a more individual and three dimensional character. Furthermore, the use of the black cat calls to the iconography of traditionally witch fables, as well as the Japanese stereotype of the lead character having a cute companion. However, the facial expression of the cat breaks this stereotype, and replaces the usual cute and happy facial expression with a tired/angry one. This could therefore serve to reinforce the aforementioned binary opposition of individuality vs conformity as well as, acting as an enigma code and making the audience question whether the cat has some form of consciousness.
In conclusion, Mary And The Witch's Flower marketing is successful, it is very enigmatic and very effective in drawing the audience in and making the audience want to see more from the film. However, it could be argued that much of Mary And The Witch's Flower's marketing is unoriginal. Having a post modern feel copying parts of marketing form highly successful films like "Howl's Moving Castle" "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Castle in the Sky". Therefore this has resulted in the intended effect of Barthes codes or Binary oppositions to be lost, in what Baudrillard would call hyper-reality.
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