Misaki no Mayoiga

I am so happy I never saw the trailer and the MAL description for this movie before it was released was completely wrong (it seems like it was based on the book which I haven't read yet and the movie changed things) because I got to go in blind. I was expecting a moving drama about 3 females of varying ages trying to find refuge from their traumatic backstories together that would make me cry. I got magical realism about a kind witch (not actually a witch but close enough) who adopts an orphan who lost her voice and a teenager who ran away ... from her abusive father (rather than a woman running from her abusive husband as in the novel because married women are forbidden in anime I guess) and they live together in her magical, sentient house (Mayoiga) on a secluded peninsula along with youkai such as kappa, guardian dogs, and talking jizo statues. But in this world, not everything magical means humans good will...

Again, they probably changed a lot from the original novel, but what we've ended up with is a tight, well-produced, immersive story with strong characters and well-proportioned whimsy and drama. No loose ends or sequel hooks, it tells the story it wanted to tell.

So yeah, if you like found families and also magic and youkai, I recommend this movie. I already want to watch it again.

It's a slow burn, some moments are bit slower than they need to be so the pacing feels slow but it's heart warming, explores dealing with grief and reliving trauma. It introduces a bunch of Japanese spirits.

The character arcs tied together and how each character had their own battles to deal with. The art style looks amazing, the transition over from one style into another looked amazing for the story scenes.

Messaging on the nose but not preachy.

A lot of issues brought up or presented get dealt with swiftly that's not related to the main story beats but ignoring the cover up for the plot holes ... for the more grounded stuff that doesn't matter much to the story, still a good story regardless.

Not remember-able but great side characters.

This movie isn't recommended for those who want better pacing, a tighter story and more focused on it's themes and narrative. This would be getting a higher rating if the story did tie in those elements in better.

I vaguely remember hearing about this movie, Misaki no Mayoiga, on Anime News Network when it was first announced. Misaki no Mayoiga, with its English title being The House of the Lost on the Cape (Yeah, for the sake of brevity I'm gonna keep using its Japanese title), is based on a 2015 novel by Sachiko Kashiwaba, and got adapted into the anime movie, which came out in 2021. The movie was mainly made as part of a project to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrible 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Fittingly enough, the anime seems to use said earthquake as a plot point. ... The promo art for the movie alone enticed me, and the premise seemed nice, so I decided to watch it once it came out. It's a good thing too, because as of this writing, Eleven Arts licensed it and is going to put it out on home video at the end of September. But I got to watch it online because I wanted to decide whether I liked it or not before buying or not buying it. Now that I've seen it, I can wholeheartedly say...it's pretty cute. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely not a bad movie by any means.

The story focuses on two young girls, 17-year-old Yui and 8-year-old Hiyori. Yui ran away from home to escape an abusive family situation, and Hiyori lost her family in the earthquake, with the resulting trauma leaving her mute. The two of them become acquainted at a homeless shelter before getting picked up by a strange woman named Kiwa, who takes a liking to them to the point of pretending they're her grandchildren. She basically adopts them and takes them to her house in Kitsunezaki. Yui and Hiyori find out that the house is sentient, pretty much giving them whatever they need. With this, the three of them become a little family, and slowly but surely, Yui and Hiyori's damaged hearts begin to heal. But things start getting complicated when supernatural creatures such as kappa and komainu begin dropping in, and a malevolent force threatens the peace and safety Kiwa provided for Yui and Hiyori.

Now, you're probably thinking to yourself "Wait, a sentient house that gives its residents everything they need? Did this movie rip off Encanto?" My answer to that is no, because while Encanto also uses the idea of a sentient house, it's not really based on any folklore. The word "mayoiga" translates to lavish or well-kept, and there's quite a bit of old Japanese folklore using that term to reference an abandoned but well-kept house found in remote parts of mountains or the general wilderness, so it's not like Misaki no Mayoiga just plagiarized that part of Encanto and dressed it up for its own use. It's like how Toei constantly reuses various concepts, cliches, and formulas for their magical girl anime, such as Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure. I know this is a weird thing to talk about, especially since other than the themes of family and the idea of a sentient house, the two movies are nothing alike, but I've seen too many people be harassed and bullied over supposedly "stealing" ideas from other works that came long before it, even when said ideas are extremely vague, narrow, and arbitrary to the point where literally anyone can do their own take on them as long as it's not flat-out plagiarism. I mean, how many times has Mamoru Hosoda done movies involving virtual worlds in the internet?

Alright, now onto the movie itself. The film is nicely and lavishly animated by David Production, who you'll know as the company that animated shows such as Cells At Work, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Fire Force, and the upcoming Undead Unluck anime. The backgrounds and set pieces are all nicely detailed without being overbearing, with bright colors that are easy on the eyes, the character designs are down-to-earth and a fairly nice mix of being both cartoony and realistic, and the actual animation is fairly smooth. Well, about as smooth as a mainly slice-of-life movie can afford to be. There are segments where Kiwa tells Yui and Hiyori various folk tales, and they're animated in an erratic, sketchy, brushwork art style akin to The Tale of Princess Kaguya, which works really wellI. f I had one complaint about the animation, it's that the scenes that take place during the night time are way too dark. They're so dark that you can barely make out who's there or what's going on. I don't have as much to say on the soundtrack, other than that it's pretty nice and does its job, and I didn't find the ending song to be very memorable.

I'm kind of mixed on the characters. On one hand, the stand outs are Yui and Hiyori, who get the most development throughout the movie and are the most three-dimensional. Yui is at first a guarded teenager who is wary of her new living arrangement and unable to accept kindness at face value after having dealt with an abusive father. Hiyori is a little kid who is trying to cope with the loss of her family, and the movie takes great care to have her personality come through via her facial expressions and body language without leaning into the exaggerated kind. They're fun to follow and are the best characters in the movie. On the other hand, Kiwa, the youkai, and the other townsfolk are kind of given the short end of the stick. The middle of the movie shows Yui and Hiyori interacting with the townsfolk, and they're a colorful bunch, but the movie doesn't really do anything with them, and their role in the final act of the film seems maudlin when the film doesn't try to flesh them out beyond their more positive traits. Plus, I felt like Kiwa leaned too much into the nice magical old lady stereotype, and we never do get to learn just what her deal is in terms of the final conflict.

Personally, it felt to me like Misaki no Mayoiga was trying to be two different movies at once. The first half is mainly slice-of-life, and the second half introduces supernatural creatures and a pretty conventional final conflict which felt really out of place to me. I almost feel like the youkai were just shoved into the movie because the creators were afraid that a pure slice-of-life movie would bore their audience. Because of this, a lot of the ideas it presents in the last third don't get fleshed out as much as they need to, and as a result, Misaki no Mayoiga seems like it'd be better suited as a TV series than a movie. But that's not to say the movie is bad in any way. Misaki no Mayoiga is a pleasant watch all around, even if it doesn't leave a strong impression, and I like it enough that I'm absolutely going to buy it on home video when it comes out this month. This would probably be a cute movie to show to your kids if you want to get them into anime for the first time, beyond stuff like Pokemon and Ghibli. I have to admit though, it's really weird hearing Mana Ashida using a lower pitched voice, as I'm so used to her usual cutesy kid voice, considering she started out as a child actress. But hey, I have no problem with it. It's great to see her expand her range both in terms of her voice and character types.

So yeah, Misaki no Mayoiga isn't a movie that's going to bring the house down in any way. But it's a nice, wholesome, kick back and relax kind of movie that you can watch with your kids.