Kamiarizuki no Kodomo

Sixth-grade student Kanna Hayama's love of running becomes a source of grief when she loses her mother Yayoi, whom she shared this passion with. However, her disposition changes after she accidentally discovers an astonishing truth about Yayoi.

One day, Kanna unexpectedly encounters a divine messenger in the form of her favorite rabbit Shiro and a demon boy named Yasha. They reveal to the girl that her mother was an "Idaten"—a descendant of the gods endowed with incredible speed and entrusted to bring offerings from all over Japan to the annual Kamiari Festival in Izumo. As Yayoi's daughter and the new possessor of the Idaten amulet, Kanna is expected to take over this responsibility; otherwise, there will be dire consequences for the country's fate in the year to come.

Enticed by the prospect of seeing her mother once more at the deities' event, Kanna accepts the challenge and enlists Shiro and Yasha to help her on her quest. Unbeknownst to her, there is more than meets the eye to this marathon-like journey that will test not only her physical condition but also her heart's resolve.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yasha Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Shiro Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Hayama, Kanna Main

Makita, Aju Japanese

Ryuujin Supporting

Takagi, Wataru Japanese

Ookuninushi Supporting

Kamiya, Akira Japanese

Miki Supporting

Nagase, Riko Japanese

Hayama, Yayoi Supporting

Shibasaki, Kou Japanese

Hayama, Norimasa Supporting

Iura, Arata Japanese

Ebisu Supporting

Chafurin Japanese

Yokota, Kousuke Producer

Iwanami, Yoshikazu Sound Director

Takamura, Yuuta Episode Director

Yamazaki, Shigeru Episode Director

Reviews

Feb 12, 2022

Firechick12012

Recommended

Tell me you've heard this premise before: A child mourns the loss of their parent, and mysterious events make them into a magical chosen one who is tasked to save the world or fulfill some magical mission. A pretty cliche premise, right? Stuff like that is pretty common in kids' shows and movies. However, I have the philosophy that every single plot has already been done before, but as long as you make good, believable characters that drive the story and put care and effort into what you create, you can create whatever the hell you want. Child of Kamiari Month, a new anime movie ... that just dropped on Netflix, is no different, as it does use some pretty stock cliches throughout its entire premise...but having seen it myself, I also found it to be pretty charming and sweet. I mean, yeah, Kamiari Month probably isn't going to make a blip on anyone's radar, but I would wholly recommend this to anyone who wants to get their kids into anime for the first time.

12-year-old Kanna Hayama is still reeling from her mother's death a year ago, and because of this, she's lost her passion for running, something she really connected with her mother over. One day, when putting on her mother's amulet, time stops all around her, and she finds herself seeing spirits, including a cute bunny spirit named Shiro. It turns out her mother was an Idaten, or the God of Footracing, and the Idaten are tasked with collecting offerings called chiso from various Gods inhabiting shrines all over the town of Izumo and taking them to one particular shrine as part of the Gods' divine banquet only held once a year. Now that Kanna's mother is gone, Kanna winds up inheriting the position, and it's up to her to gather the chiso and take it to the Izumo shrine by the end of the day. But it's not going to be easy, what with a demon named Yasha trying to steal the chiso, and Kanna's own mixed feelings about running getting in the way.

So yeah, not exactly an original premise, but the thing that makes Child of Kamiari Month's premise stand out from other movies with similar story beats is its very heavy focus on Shintoism. For the uninitiated, Shinto is a nature-based religion or belief indigenous to Japan, and it's the belief that spirits and gods inhabit every form of organic or inorganic life, from plants to the objects we use in every day life. Child of Kamiari Month is very much steeped in Shintoism, from its overall themes to its entire plot revolving around nature spirits and demons, a divine festival, and heavy usage of shrines and torii gates as plot points. In essence, it's a very Japanese movie, containing a lot of concepts and ideas that would probably go over people's heads if they don't already know about them. I only know about them through watching anime over a decade, and through studying a little bit of Shintoism in college for my Japanese studies. So in terms of standing out from all the other kids movies with this same premise, I think Kamiari Month manages to succeed on this front.

The animation was done by LIDEN FILMS, and their pedigree is...not exactly the best. While they've made some great things, a lot of the decisions they make in terms of animating stuff aren't always the best, and they've put out some...controversial stuff such as the modern Berserk anime, the very poorly animated Farewell My Dear Cramer, the short anime Aiura, which has great animation but everything else about it sucks, and the currently very divisive Tokyo Revengers adaptation. Thankfully, Child of Kamiari Month has proven to be one of their better endeavors, as the animation is smooth and colorful, the backgrounds are detailed, the character designs are on point, and I didn't notice any animation goofs or off-model characters, though Kanna's overall design can take some getting used to. I don't have much to say on the soundtrack, as it wasn't very memorable. It does its job, and the songs were well sung, but again, I barely paid much attention to them.

The characters here are...alright. They're not exactly the most original or the most three-dimensional, and if you've seen movies with a similar premise before, you're going to be familiar with the archetypes that they adhere to, like the main character grieving her dead parent, the angry adversary who wants to challenge the main character but becomes her friend later, and the cute animal advisor. I found Kanna's overall development to be alright, and she does grow over the course of the movie. Since the movie only focuses on Kanna, Yasha, and Shiro, none of the minor characters who appear get much in the way of development, so they wind up coming across as little more than one-note plot devices. To be honest, I kind of wish this movie had been longer so we could have seen more of the main trio and how they bonded over the course of the film, or even show more of the minor characters such as Kanna's father, or showing how Kanna's mother dealt with being the Idaten. But I think the movie did okay with its main trio, and I genuinely enjoyed following them throughout the movie.

My only real gripes with the movie is that it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, all of them pertaining to Kanna's mother. How did she become an Idaten, and why? When did she stop being the Idaten, or did she even stop being an Idaten to begin with? If Kanna's mother is technically a god, how did she manage to shack up with a human and have a child? Yeah, the movie leaves a lot of questions about Kanna's mother unanswered. Plus, for people looking for something more original, you're not going to find anything here, as Kamiari Month is pretty predictable, rehashing a lot of the same story beats and character progression as many other stories tackling the same overall premise. Honestly, though? I personally like it for what it is, as it's a nice little kids movie about overcoming grief, spiritualism, and holding onto your passions. This would probably make for a pretty nice movie to show to your kids if you want to get them into anime for the first time, and it helps that it's widely available on Netflix, so anyone who has a subscription can watch it legally. The English dub is pretty stellar as well, and they actually cast a child as the main character, which makes Kanna sound much more authentic.

Not exactly the most original movie out there, but Child of Kamiari Month is a fairly charming, heartfelt film that respects its target audience, so give it a look if you want something wholesome and sweet.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 23, 2022

Enbybat

Mixed Feelings

This movie was okayish. There was lot of things they try to do but they could make it better. It is like ghibli movie on budget. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good.

Story first was very interesting. It was about children trying to live their live without one of their parents. And it has been done before but it was still interesting. I liked how the running was connected to childs mother and that is why they probably didn't want to run anymore. But then came the fantasy part. And it felt so out of place. It felt that there wasn't much connection ... between the two worlds. And the ending was bland. It was okay, but the whole story was so bland and unflavored that I thought it was written by old white guy.

The artstyle of this movie was okay. It reminded me of ghibli, like ponyo. But was more simple then that. I liked how some parts of story (flashbacks) were bright and wholesome and the other world of gods was this grey world. I liked the main character design but every other character I disliked.

The sound of the movie, I don't remember much. But I think it was most part good.

Characters of this story were good, but only some of them. I liked the main character. But the other characters were bland or just stereotypes. Like motherly best friend or first evil but then caring friend character...

I didn't enjoy this movie so much. It was just bland. Even though I thought it would have more to it. Because it looked and sounded so interesting.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend watching this. But if you want, go for it. But it will remind you of ghibli movies and feel very predictable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 15, 2022

Klabautermann

Not Recommended

Grief is, from my humble observations, by far one of the most impactful, relatable topics a piece of media can explore.
Whether it's a person, a pet, your favorite character, or even just a community you love, decaying over time, and falling victim to the ever-present 'dark side of the fandom', grief has touched each and every one of our lives in one way or another. Each of us deal with grief differently, and each of us take different things away from the process of grieving; lessons, insights, fears, traumas; each normal, expected in the face of death, and yet each unique and personal.

What Kamiarizuki ... does sorta right is that it has the process of grief played out sorta straightforward, yet sorta complex enough that you can sorta sympathize with the protagonist, Kanna. Sorta.

And that's about the main gripe with this movie: it's all sorts off 'sorta'.

There is a plot, sorta, because none of its resolution is satisfying in any manner other than 'it is over, you can stop watching.' There are characters, sorta, because someone is carrying the plot but Hell if I remember what was so important or charming about the main cast, let alone the many gods this movie so casually glossed over. And as I mentioned, there is a process of grief... sorta; at one point, close to giving up on her quest, Kanna simply realizes, with the help of the vision (the appearance of which remains a mystery) that she still has a reason to do what she does (and which she had been doing for the past hour and a half) and thus, continues to move the plot along, with truly little to no genuine, emotional push a person grieving would require either from someone else, or something coming from within. If you can ignore the logic jumps that make little to no sense in the emotional framework of this character, it sorta works... but not really.

Now apply this sort of issue to an entire movie, and you will realize everything just sorta makes sense. For example, the literal character of a literal plot bunny, who dives into an exposition spiel approximately every five minutes, doesn't bother to say anything of substance, instead providing us with history lessons that, quite literally, have no bearing on the plot, are of no relevance to Kanna who is, basically, taking on the role of a glorified delivery girl in an effort to see her mother again, and ultimately, bores a viewer to death rather than involving us with either the plot or the character.

But I don't think even all these issues bothers me as much as the animation... that is, the lack thereof. This is definitely a more subjective part of my criticism but still stands as a problem in the movie:

The little enjoyment I hoped to find in the possible eye-candy or fluid animation is not even sorta acceptable; the plot features a gadget that slows the progress of time. allowing our heroine to make a weeks long trip in a matter of hours - which is all fine and dandy... but in slowing the time to the point where it seems like it had stopped, the authors effectively got rid of any need to animate anything whatsoever: rain, fire, sea waves, birds, traffic, bugs - all of it, very unbecomingly still. Stylistically, the movie looked decent at best, so when it lost the one saving grace it could have, it truly left little to marvel at. Was this decision made because of budget cuts? Hell if I know but I do know one thing - it did this anime a massive disservice, much like it would to any other animated piece of media.

In the end, it is not the worst thing I've ever seen but it does comes off as lazy and uninspired, at moments even unfinished and, ultimately... sorta bad.

As an afterthought, and on a questionably brighter note: I may have lost two hours on this largely empty movie but it is still felt like a loss worth grieving more than anyone in this movie ever was. For what it's worth, the lesson I got out of this was to cherish my time, and it is with that same lesson in mind that I leave you a message:

Life is too fucking short. Watch something else.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	A cinematic tribute to Izumo region in Japan? Rob7 - Apr 23	1 replies	by Menyor »» Apr 23, 7:19 PM
	Poll: Kamiarizuki no Kodomo Episode 1 Discussion anime-prime - Feb 8, 2022	14 replies	by KoniginElle »» Apr 16, 2023 1:25 AM
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