Was Hotarubi no Mori e a really good love story ?, Hello everyone it’s the month of love and we at OWLS are having our February 2019 OWLS tour and this will be my third OWLS post.
What is OWLS all about you ask, it’s;
A group of otaku bloggers who promotes acceptance of all people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and disability through the use of anime and manga. We emphasise the importance of respect, kindness, and tolerance to every human being.
It’s a great group of talented bloggers that support and help each other even out of OWLS and am really grateful to have the chance to be a part of them.
So for this month the topic that was picked was “Adore”
In February, we will be exploring love and romance. The word selected is “adore” because it has two main connotations: to be loved and respected or to feel worshipped. We will analyze characters that give us a feeling of admiration and explain why we love those characters. We will also be exploring different forms of love (familial, friendship, and even self-love) and how those types of love influence our lives.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I had so many ideas for this, I wanted to do a Sundome thing but it wouldn’t have been age appropriate for all our readers. The Seven Deadly Sins was another idea that I explored that would talk about the love of all the couples, but I want to write about something I haven’t before. I had so many ideas for this article.
Am not a big romance anime fan, cause I feel most of it is generic. Like girl meets boy, obstacle stands in their way, they eventually overcome it but they end up fighting and going their separate ways over a trivial matter that really wouldn’t be an issue if they just sat down and talked it out but nooo, everyone has a tantrum and walks away or the most annoying obstacle they use, one of them or both of them get amnesia.
But I do try to keep an open mind sometimes and give the weird awkward, unusual, out of the norms love stories a try. why ? because I love love at the end of the day.
And I am wondering off with my thoughts, so I finally decided on what to write about and it was;
Hotarubi no Mori e
Hotarubi no Mori e premiered 17th september 2011, the source material was the manga and studio Brain’s Base brought it life.
It was 45 minutes long but it was definitely worth every minute. But wasn’t surprising since it was written by Yuki Midorikawa, the author of Natsume’s Book of Friends.
Synopsis
Hotarubi no Mori e is a tale of friendship and compromise of two people who should never have crossed paths, as their lives become hopelessly intertwined.
A young girl meets a boy, who is in fact a spirit dwelling in the forest, while visiting her uncle for the summer. The boy, however, mustn’t be touched by a human, for it would result in him disappearing for all eternity. They spend the summer days with each other, and when the girl must return to home from her vacation, she promises to visit him again next summer. And that’s eactly what she does , for the next few years. During that time she grows up, and her age is slowly getting closer to the age of the boy.
However, their relationship and resolve are put to the test, when romantic feelings conflict with their one and only rule.
My thoughts on why I picked this
There are a lot of cliché romance stories out there but Hotarubi no Mori e is not one of them it shows how hard love is.
How much feelings and emotions where kept in this 45 minute film can not be emphasised enough. It wasn’t an overly complex story, it was a simple well thought out one though.
And if I dare say a love story in the truest form, slow and patient, that leaves you with that warm fuzzy feeling.
Their Obstacle in their relationship between a spirit and human is not being able to touch, I mean it seems like not a big deal. But it’s actually hard and painful on any relationship, because touching someone is like confirming their existence, letting you know these emotions you feel are real.
They are like to parallel lines, they can be alone with each other, but yet they’re not together. or maybe the sun and the moon is a better comparison, or water and oil, just at the edge of each others existence.
I just wanted to push them together and be like “Now kiss or just hug her or hold her hand already”. They are not allowed these simplest of things and its sad. It’s like you being in a prison cell, allowed to look outside but never being allowed to go outside.
It showed love in it’s purest form with all the emotions and it reminds us how love is a beautiful thing.
Hotarubi no Morie e to some people might not be uniqe, or exceptional but it will leave you reflecting and remembering that very special person to us.
Especially when for a few seconds, the two of them are finally able to touch, sense and in a way confirm their love. And just like that the moment is gone forever, making you realise just how much you take for granted these little things or that special person.
And like Irina from drunkenanimeblog said about love;
Once in a while, it’s worth holding onto someone, even if it makes your arms hurt.
Especially when you find that one person that’s worth all that patients and arm pains for.
Even if it doesn’t work out, those feeling are priceless, and to me that’s love, that one person that’s worth all the arm pains and patients that turns you into a saint.
Also hope you have watched Dylan YouTube post over at DynamicDylan with his own take on the promote using Yuri!! on Ice and tomorrow you can read Karandi’s OWLS post over at 100wordanime on DanMachi.
Till next time, thanks for reading.
