Somali to Mori no Kamisama

"Somali and the Forest Spirit" is based on the manga of the same name in which the world is ruled by spirits, goblins, and all manner of strange creatures. Human beings are persecuted, to the very point of extinction. One day, a golem and a lone human girl meet. This is a record of the pair, one a member of a ruined race, the other a watchman of the forest. It tells of their travels together and of the bond between father and daughter.

At first, the Forest Spirit sees Somali merely as a small creature under his protection. However, as they travel together seeking a ... safe haven for her, he comes to view her as something more - his daughter. Somali, an orphan, blossoms under the Forest Spirit's gentle guidance. Though unable to express emotion in a typical way due to his nature as a magical being, his actions show his deep caring for Somali.

The anime is a heartwarming exploration of what it means to be a family. Somali and the Forest Spirit face many dangers on their journey from hostile spirits and goblins, but their bond gives them strength. Somali's joyful spirit also helps the Forest Spirit appreciate the beauty in small things. As a father figure learning to nurture new life, the Forest Spirit experiences touching moments of growth.

Visually stunning backgrounds of the forest come to life with a sense of magic and wonder. But it is the touching relationship between Somali and the Forest Spirit at the center of this story that will linger with viewers long after. Their journey is a moving tale of love overcoming adversity and reminds us of the power families have to heal one another. Fans of studio Ghibli films will find much to love in this beautifully animated adventure.

This anime was alright, I guess.

The artwork was really nice. The scenery was especially beautiful, and the places the characters went to were interesting and memorable. There were lots of different creatures and plants, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. The music wasn't too bad either. It suited the show well, and it was relatively catchy.

The story left me unsatisfied. It was fine, but..it could have been much better. The characters were fine too, but a lot was left unexplained. A lot of characters were introduced, but then dropped, so it made me feel detached from them.

Overall, it was just "meh". Unless you ... really like the art style, your time is probably better spent watching something else.

First of all, I tend to retitle this as Loli and the Creepy Dad—the only problem is, I'm not sure if the little girl is to remain the forest spirit's fake daughter, or if she is eventually to become his waifu, similar to the disgusting turn of events in the initially wholesome Usagi Drop.

What is it with anime and weird magical creatures with minimal or non-existent emotions looking after teenage or prepubescent girls? Other shows include The Ancient Magus' Bride, featuring a rather stupid-looking skull with clothing that buys a teenage girl from an auction and has a romantic/dad/husband relationship with her (it's kind ... of hard to tell without seeing the whole series). There's another manga with a similar premise to the Somali anime, but I can't find the name.

There's really no funny business in Somali—this is a fairly wholesome show (for the time being), and the target audience seems to be mostly children. But, wait, what's with that name? Somali is a country in Africa, so why is a character in a fantasy anime named Somali? Perhaps this seemed an exotic name to the Japanese creator, who might have never looked at a map or had much of an interest in geography? The name actually comes from the cat who found Somali, but it's still a very strange choice.

Little Somali appears to be an abused and abandoned slave when the forest spirit finds her. Seeing as his role as a forest spirit will soon end, he goes on a journey to find her a group of humans she can remain with.

The human race was wiped out, replaced by cities resembling the cantina bar from Star Wars. It seems the creator attempted to make nearly every individual creature unique. It's common for fantasies to be multicultural, but this is taking it to extremes--in a crowd I could almost never spot two characters that looked remotely the same in multiple cities, except for examples such as Kikila's family and the witches. Only the mixture of goats and dogs at the end seemed to have a distinct culture (I guess the witches, too). I suppose the main reason was that it was more fun to draw such a diverse range of characters, and it does provide a lot of visual variety. Many of them look like anthropomorphized animals, but there are also harpies, oni, talking cats (with extra eyes), and witches that look like humans but have an enhanced lifespan and magical abilities. It really appears that there isn't an intention to create distinct cities and cultures, but more so a tendency to have a lot of interesting locations and creatures to look at. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, but the choices here sometimes made the world building feel very random.

Unfortunately, the forest spirit plays the emotionless drone-looking character with maximum blandness, where he seems emotionless, but either his true emotions are buried away, or he comes to understand human emotions by traveling with Somali. Somali, as a child, is a simple character, and though they meet many other characters along the way, they soon part after 1-3 episodes. Nothing is very memorable other than Haitora and Uzoi's relationship, which has a few parallels to that of Somali and the forest spirit, while also exploring human and grotesque conflict (grotesque is what humans call non-humans). The only characters to reappear later are Shizuno and Yabashira, and while they work okay as support, they seem primarily there because they are familiar yokai to the Japanese.

Similar to shows like Plastic Memories, the basic setup and the writing are meant to evoke maximum tears and sadness, with Somali afraid "dad" will leave her, and the forest spirit realizing his emotions and feeling like the father she never had. If you don't mind a slow-paced and sappy "non-biological father/daughter" relationship and take the concept of "found family" seriously, then you could do worse, but there's not much of interest here other than the fantastical art, which sometimes brings to mind Ghibli, especially with the strange foliage and glowing mushroom caps, and the forest spirit's similarity to the golem in Castle in the Sky, though Somali and the Forest Spirit is not nearly as well animated or produced.