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: 8.28¹ (scored by 459,654 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #282²

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

Popularity: #221

Members: 822,433

Favorites: 10,338

Available At

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@hotarubinomorie

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ANN

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

Kyoutani, Tomomi

Producer

Oomori, Takahiro

Director, Script, Screenplay

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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

Reviews

Jan 7, 2024

lobotomylover

Recommended

I like to start off my reviews with a stupid joke and a bad summary, but I don’t think that will do this short 40-minute heartwarming story any justice. Hotarubi no Mori e or Into the Forest of the Fireflies’ Light tells us the story of a Young Girl and her mysterious friend Gin and how their relationship grows over a span of around 10 years. If by the time the film ends you feel like crying – I don’t blame you, even in the one shot, you can get attached to these characters very quickly.

Plot – 9/10
It’s short, concise and well executed – everything ... you need in a film. Hotaru Takegawa is a young 6-year-old child who has found herself lost in the “Forest of the Mountain God”. A strange, masked man approaches the crying child and asks her if she requires any help, following this Hotaru declares she is saved and runs to hug her unknown saviour. However, this is when the main plot point is revealed, the man – Gin – is a spirit of sorts and cannot be touched by a human otherwise he will disappear. Throughout the rest of the film, we see the time they spend together during each summer and the time they spend longing for each other at school or in the forest respectfully. As each summer passes their relationship grows, and by the time Hotaru enters High School she’s invited to the “Spirit Summer Festival” by Gin and the movie ends with a controversial but fitting ending that manages to be a tearjerker and a happy ending at the same time. The plot has nothing wrong with it - I enjoyed this sweet little story a lot, but I don’t think it’s a perfect masterpiece by any means.

Characters – 8/10
There are 2, maybe 3, characters that have any sort of significance throughout the story – resulting in it a little hard to mess 2 main characters up. Hotaru Takegawa is a character we see age from 6 to 15, she has a developing personality and appearance at each stage so it’s a little hard to summarise but she’s an interesting character who couldn’t really have many improvements given the situation. The masked Gin is a very interesting character; he first describes himself a spirit, later he opens up about his background. His character leaves plenty of room for mystery and intrigue and in general would struggle to leave any complaints. I definitely enjoyed the growing dynamic between the 2 as the film progressed. The other few characters in the background say about 20 lines collectively but aren’t boring characters for the little screentime they get.

Art & Animation – 8/10
The characters are in the good old style of “we don’t have much budget - early 2010s” but the backgrounds could probably have been ripped straight out of an art museum. They look amazing and the style used fits the show perfectly and really gets the film off the ground visually.

Sound & Music - 9/10
100% on the better side of anime music. The background music is great. I can’t really describe music well, but I can say you will notice it’s impact when watching.

Closing Thoughts
Unfortunately no stupid jokes this review, but this film is a very strong one no matter the length. If you enjoy any side or genre of anime, I’d probably recommend this to you as a good start to see the length to which the stories in anime can express and show emotions in any duration of time.

Score – 9/10

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Mar 29, 2023

RyanSpring

Mixed Feelings

The Light of a Firefly Forest is a very simple anime, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in all circumstances, but in my opinion it does this anime a disservice. It's very bare bones from top to bottom. There are very few characters, very little development of said characters, very few plot points and very little to take away from it after your viewing is over. Perhaps comparing against Shinkai- a man genuinely in the conversation of the best to ever do it- is not the fairest of comparisons, but when I look at movies of a similar length, such as The Garden of Words, ...

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Jan 13, 2024

CxttonCandyyy

Not Recommended

Funny

Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light was incredibly disappointing. Based on the trailer, rating, synopsis, and cover, I really expected this to be a cute, sweet, heartwarming movie. Unfortunately it's just a tale of pedophilia and grooming. I didn't realize this was meant to be a romance going into it, so that's my fault I suppose. Regardless, this anime is just 40 minutes of an adult flirting with a child and watching her grow older. The whole thing is gross, but this would've been a decent story if not for the egregious age gap. I only gave this 2 stars instead of 1 because the ...

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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	431 replies	by SauravKr_25-12 »» Apr 20, 1:41 AM
Your thoughts? WannabeWeeb_ - Aug 10, 2021	9 replies	by Dawizz »» Jan 4, 3:01 AM
Why does the girl doesn’t look that upset? Sincere_T_ - Jun 12, 2020	9 replies	by Dawizz »» Jan 4, 3:00 AM
How did you feel at the end of the anime ? ( 1 2 3 ) Galaxy__ - Mar 3, 2016	122 replies	by Dawizz »» Jan 4, 2:58 AM
Any Anime which ends in 1 eps and in 45 mins (like thus one) WVM - Nov 29, 2022	19 replies	by yvonness »» Nov 18, 2023 3:07 AM

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