Hotarubi no Mori e (Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: The Light of a Firefly Forest

Japanese: 蛍火の杜へ

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Sep 17, 2011

Producers: TV Tokyo, Aniplex, Nihon Ad Systems, Hakusensha, DAX Production

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Brain's Base

Source: Manga

Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Romance, Supernatural

Demographic: Shoujo

Duration: 45 min.

Rating: G - All Ages

Statistics

Score: 8.29¹ (scored by 442,463 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #251²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #213

Members: 790,194

Favorites: 10,037

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@hotarubinomorie

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Synopsis

During a summer vacation at her grandfather’s house, six-year-old Hotaru Takegawa gets lost in a forest rumored to be inhabited by spirits. While crying out in desperation, Hotaru is approached by Gin—a mysterious boy wearing a mask—who offers to help her.

Overjoyed at the sight of another person, Hotaru runs to Gin with open arms only to be rudely fended off. However, she quickly learns the grave reason behind his behavior: a dreadful curse has been cast upon Gin. Should he ever be touched by a human being, he will disappear forever.

Though Gin urges her to never return, Hotaru does the exact opposite, and before too long, the two become close friends despite his delicate situation. Nonetheless, as years pass and their mutual feelings grow stronger, Hotaru and Gin start struggling with the boundaries that destiny has set between them.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Hotarubi no Mori e premiered in Japanese cinemas on September 17, 2011. Though initially planned to be first presented in March 2011 at the Anime Contents Expo in Chiba, Japan, the event was canceled due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In Europe, the movie was shown at the 2011 Scotland Loves Animation festival, twice: in Glasgow and then in Edinburgh. The film was also screened at the 2011 Leeds International Film Festival in November and at the Anime Expo convention in Los Angeles on June 30, 2012.

Following its premiere in Scotland, Hotarubi no Mori e won the festival's Jury Award. It was also given the Animation Film Award at the 66th Annual Mainichi Film Awards in Japan. DVDs and limited edition Blu-ray disc sets were made available in Japan on February 22, 2012. The sets included bonus content such as illustrations, stickers, brochures, and one of Gin's masks. According to Japan's Oricon sales chart, Blu-ray disc sets sold well shortly after their release.

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Adaptation:

Hotarubi no Mori e

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Gin

Main

Uchiyama, Kouki
Japanese

Takegawa, Hotaru

Main

Sakura, Ayane
Japanese

Mother Takegawa

Supporting

Sawada, Izumi
Japanese

Ryouta

Supporting

Taya, Hayato
Japanese

Grandfather Takegawa

Supporting

Tsuji, Shinpachi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Miyake, Masanori

Producer

Katsumata, Hideo

Producer

Oomori, Takahiro

Director, Script, Screenplay

Ootaka, Shizuru

Theme Song Performance

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Opening Theme

No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.

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Ending Theme

"Natsu wo Miteita (夏を見ていた)" by Shizuru Ootaka

More reviews

Reviews

Jun 19, 2016

celerih

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Hotarubi no Mori e is a calm story of love, growing up and the passage of time. It will charm you with it's great visuals and a beautifully composed soundtrack, and that's pretty much it for me. If this sounds like something you'll like... good, go watch Natsume's Book of Friends or Garden of Words, both of them way more worth your time then this.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS AHEAD NOW!!!] Now for the detail of why I didn't like this movie:

In this kind of short, emotional movie, the characters have to be easy to get attached to, since the short time of the movies ... gives no times for the viewer to get accustomed to them and feel empathy towards them, and no snobbish quote about love can change the fact that the characters in the movie have no personality, and are very forgettable. Hotaru the main character has 2 traits to her, she got lost in the forest, and is in love with the other chraracter, Gin. She is as bland as it gets, she boils down to this person saved me thus I have to love them. Maybe she fell in love with Gin because of the time she passed during all her summers with him, but most of the movie is just the writer bashing your head in trying to make SURE your remember that if Gin touches a human he dies. Wow, thanks, after the 4th time you told me I forgot, so thanks for the new heads up random voices from the forest.

This is where my biggest problem comes from, instead of developing a sweet relationship between an almost immortal spirit and an aging young girl, and have the character that was supposed to live on forever die, thus creating a sad and tragic ending, the movie was basically 45 minutes of being reminded that Gin was going to die. Even worst is that that ending came out of nowhere. Not in a good way like I was surprised, like in the sense that I have no idea why he just died when he did. There was no buildup, no emotion, it just happened after a weird festival thing that was frankly pointless.

The more I think about it, this movie is quite pointless, nothing is developed, all you get is a 45 minute movie about a young girl who likes a spirit and how she gets told 10000 times that her lover is basically as good as dead. Thanks, but if you try to hard to make me sad, instead of writing characters I will feel sad about, I'm not going to cry at your super at of nowhere unemotional death scene.

Just like I said, listen to the soundtrack, because it's probably the only thing I thoroughly enjoyed. From the same writer Nastume Yuujinchou which is miles better. And watch Garden of Words if you want a 45 minutes emotional movie about growing up and impossible love.
Or you could just go watch Train Wars, at least that has the bonus of being entertaining.

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Jul 12, 2012

Z-I-CO

Recommended

I am not great at writing reviews, but I am trying to get better so please bare with me on this one. Hope you like my review though ^^ ok so lets get on with it.

I started to watch this because it was written by Yuki Midorikawa. I loved her previous work "Natsume Yuuchinjou" and I was hoping this would be another good anime to pass my time on. I was not wrong.

I am sure that on this movie there are many reviewers who has retold the summary of this story in their own review which I am going to skip over because I ...

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Apr 20, 2015

orionator

Recommended

*SPOILER WARNING*

For something with a pretty basic romantic storyline, Hotarubi no Mori e pulled it off pretty well.

It's easy to follow; a young girl gets lost in an enchanted forest, she meets a spirit, they become friends, they grow up together every summer, they fall in love, and then their love ends. Pretty basic, huh? That's what I loved about it. It was a comfortable watch, you didn't have to think about it too much, but all the emotion is still there.

The script is well written, interspersed with the right amount of humour, with natural conversation flowing between the two main characters. ... It seems like a typical shoujo anime, heck it probably is your typical shoujo anime, but in the 45 minute runtime, you really see a relationship develop, with no unnecessary drama, following the two mains as they grow together and fall in love together.

Really, I think that's what makes it so damn sad at the end.

You watch it, accustomed with Hotaru and Gin being by each other's sides for most of the screentime. For the times when Hotaru is back at home for school, her longing for the summer and of Gin is heart-wrenching and a reminder of the feeling of falling in love slowly, with someone you've known your entire life. The development behind the characters themselves, Gin slowly becoming more open in the face of a human, when before he was guarded and distrusting of them, and Hotaru, maturing from a hyperactive young girl into a young woman who continues on without the being that she loved, is incredible, and again, one of the best parts of this film is watching the characters grow.

However, the film does not forget its subtle, but noticeable baseline that this good thing will end. From the beginning, you know that it will end in tragedy, with Gin's condition of being 'alive' as such dependent on a lack of physical human contact. This condition hangs like the sword of Damocles throughout the entire film, but when it finally falls, you don't expect it, and it's a real stab to the heart.

Again, the script remains triumphant through all of this. Romantic lines between Hotaru and Gin don't feel forced, nor do their actions and interactions. Hotaru's small monologue at the end was beautifully written, and the voice acting was brilliant; Ayane Sakura captures Hotaru's grief, but also her strength in knowing that she was loved, and she is forced to move on.

The animation is spot on, with the forest coming alive in vibrant greens and golds from the sunlight streaming through the leaves. When watching this, appreciate the background, because despite the beautiful character designs, the forest setting comes to life and draws you into the film and away from reality. The festival itself at the end is beautiful and vibrant, full of life and detail, whilst not overpowering what is the main focus of its scene; Hotaru and Gin's romance.

I loved it. I cried a lot. It was sort of bittersweet, and even though it was a simple story, a basic romance story, it was still hard-hitting at the end. The best thing about this film is its ability to connect you with the characters, and to experience what they are feeling as well.

Give this a watch, you won't regret it. But make sure you have a box of tissues at the ready, it's a real tearjerker.

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Hotarubi no Mori e Wins the 66th Mainichi Film Award

According to the official website, Hotarubi no Mori e has won the Best Animation Film Award in the 66th Mainichi Film Concours. The Blu-ray and the DVD of the anime ...read more

Jan 17, 2012 8:31 PM by dtshyk | Discuss (28 comments)

Anime Movie of Manga Hotarubi no Mori e Announced

According to LaLa magazine, Midorikawa Yuki's manga Hotarubi no Mori e was announced to get an anime movie adaptation. It will premier this year. The director i...read more

Feb 21, 2011 2:27 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (32 comments)

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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Hotarubi no Mori e Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Orulyon - Feb 22, 2012	421 replies	by Mudpie27 »» Jun 4, 4:41 PM
How did you feel at the end of the anime ? ( 1 2 3 ) Galaxy__ - Mar 3, 2016	119 replies	by NICKLAUDA »» May 28, 1:17 AM
Any Anime which ends in 1 eps and in 45 mins (like thus one) WVM - Nov 29, 2022	16 replies	by salarx »» May 23, 11:07 AM
Why does the girl doesn’t look that upset? Sincere_T_ - Jun 12, 2020	8 replies	by weeblet727 »» Aug 4, 2022 2:18 AM
Any rumored/known reason why it hasn't been licensed in North America? Lolicon - May 8, 2022	0 replies	by Lolicon »» May 8, 2022 10:18 AM

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