Hotarubi no Mori e

Synopsis:

The story of Hotarubi no Mori e centers around Hotaru, a little girl who gets lost in an enchanted forest where apparitions reside. A young boy, Gin, appears before Hotaru, but she cannot touch him for fear of making him disappear. - AniDB

My Take:

Words cannot describe what I feel for this anime. I can understand how the synopsis is just short because this anime is just a very short film. In fact, for just 46 minutes or so I'd consider this as an OVA rather than a movie. The plot isn't that deep. Like I said it's just a very short animation so what you see is what you get.  However, you'd get this warm, fuzzy feeling by the end of the film.

The pacing of the film is really good. There's really nothing to complain about since you get to see Hotaru and Gin's bonding every year at an even amount of allotted time. I even liked how they sped things up on how they spent their time together every year just to make you understand that they do meet every year to just get the idea that they explore the enchanted forest and enjoy each others' company. The pacing is enough to build up emotions and not once did I complain to skip some parts of the film.

The characters are also something that you can love. For a shoujo anime, Hotaru as the female lead is something that I don't find irritating, which is quite surprising actually since heaven knows how I hate the female characters in the shoujo genre in general. Then again, Yuki Midorikawa-sensei sure knows how to tell a story right.

Gin really has this mysterious air about him, one that doesn't put you off since he isn't the type to stand out. I found him really fascinating since apart from the fact that I can find some traces of Natsume Takeshi (Natsume Yuujinchou) in him, the air around him is just naturally mysterious without giving you the impression that he's a Sasuke-emo-type character; more like a pensive aura whenever he's shown onscreen.

If you like Natsume Yuujinchou (one of my faves!), then this anime is definitely for you since this is just like an icing on the cake from Natsume Yuujinchou. There are no fighting bad demons and stuff, but the same melancholic feel is there. I've contemplated whether I was going to put a short clip at the end of this article, but I decided not to. The feel of this anime will be lost if you won't see the anime in full, so please do watch it. After all, this short movie is only equivalent to two full anime episodes. ^_^