Wakaokami wa Shougakusei! Movie

Movies about girls who lost their parents and now work at an inn that's inhabited by mystical creatures. 

I find that the two movies share strong themes and feelings. In Okko’s Inn, Okko moves in with her grandmother after the death of her parents, and she soon starts to see the spirits of two children who inhabit the inn. This story’s themes are family, friendship, and loss. Modest Heroes features three short stories that focus on different characters and settings, but all stories share themes of family and/or loss. Both movies fall under the same genre of family friendly drama with some fantasy elements, which makes it nice to watch them by yourself or with your family! Although Okko’s Inn is longer and focuses on one protagonist, I see both movies as good quick watches because even though they might not be the most memorable after watching, the movies gave me a relaxing and childlike feeling. There were even some parts for both movies that made me feel a little emotional! read more 

Both are movies about a living child interacting with spirts/the afterlife and have themes of grief  

Both anime are about a young girl with traumatic past who starts to work in an Onsen hotel. Each new guest brings their story, and the kindness and hospitality of the team (and the young MC in particular) help the guest. Those stories are often fairly sad and dark. In the overarching plot, MC grows so they double as Bildungsroman. In both anime, the supernatural plays a role. In Konohana Kitan, the whole hotel is for Youkai and all employees are kemono, in Wakaokami the girl befriends with two ghosts and a demon living in the hotel. The major difference is target group. Konohana Kitan is Seinen and has a lot of Shoujo Ai romance in it. Wakaokami is G rated and specifically designed for children dealing with the trauma of losing loved ones. Nevertheless, the onsen hotel setting and light approach to fairly dark themes gives both anime a similar vibe. read more 

Okko's Inn and Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko have a similar structure. There's no overarching story: they're both slices of life where the viewer witnesses the main characters' everyday lives, personal issues, challenges, and triumphs. 

Similar setup with an energetic female protagonist starting a new chapter of life working at an inn. 

Both films utilize supernatural elements and beautiful visuals to examine themes of growing up, trauma, family, and home in family-friendly yet mature stories. 

Okko's Inn/Wakaokami wa Shougakusei and Figure 17 are stories about children learning to deal with loss, set in beautiful rural environments to superb soundtracks, and combining both slice-of-life and spec-fic elements. Figure 17 is the more action-oriented of the two, though it uses its long runtime to pace that out with very gentle rustic lifestyle content, while Okko's Inn has to squeeze its plot in quite swiftly by comparison. Nevertheless, both feel like a reminder of worthiness of life to be lived. 

Both films deal with a young girl dealing with the death of loved ones and adapting to life in a new place. Both protagonists interact with mischievous but helpful supernatural companions (ghosts in Okko's Inn and Yokai in A Letter to Momo). 

In these movies, the protogonist is a grade school girl asprining to take over (Okko) or practically having taken over (Chie) the family business in the field of gastronomy. Much of the screen time is taken by day to day events of the protagonists, which are only loosely connected, if at all. The action can also jump rather abruptly in time between events. The movies also feature a supernatural element, as Okko deals with ghosts, and Chie with talking intelligent cats. The protagonists have to deal with a difficult family situation one way or the other. But they are headstrong, and progress in life. Seeing both these movies made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. read more