I didn't like them either. I even preordered my tickets to watch Arrietty and Kaze Tachinu...
I didn't like Arrietty because
I was expecting the boy to die just in the end and leaving the classic moral "it's all okay I can leave with no remorse" or something like that
. And as for Kaze... well it just didn't grow on my, though it remind of Kiki, I don't know why XD