In When Marnie Was There, what is the name of the protagonist?

In When Marnie Was There, the protagonist is Anna Sasaki.

Anna is a 12-year-old girl living in Sapporo with her foster parents. After suffering an asthma attack, she is sent to spend the summer with relatives in a rural seaside town in Hokkaido, where the cleaner air may help her health. There, she becomes fascinated by an abandoned mansion across a salt marsh.

Anna meets Marnie at the mansion and forms an intense friendship with her. Their encounters blend memory, dreams, and mystery, while Anna’s sketches and observations help her process her loneliness and low self-esteem. Marnie’s identity becomes central to Anna’s understanding of her own family history.

The film’s emotional resolution reveals that Marnie was Anna’s grandmother. Anna is therefore both the story’s viewpoint character and the person whose identity is transformed by the mystery. Marnie is the title character, but she is not the protagonist; Emily and Catherine are separate characters rather than alternate names for Anna.