Hotarubi no Mori e

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This manga is irregular. It includes four one-shots, some better than others. The art is not my favorite style, but it is ok.

The second story (Hotaru no mori e) must be one of the best one-shots I've read. Hotaru gets lost in the forest and a boy called Gin, who is really a spirit, helps her find her way home. They become friends; they start meeting every summer holiday, and grow each year closer. But she cannot touch him, or he will disappear. A really beautiful sad story.
It was made an anime, with the same name, which is also very good, with nice ... art, and beautiful music. I seriously recommend watching it.
If it were for this story alone, I would rate it with a 10.

The fourth story (Deepening the Scar) is also very good. It is a love story between brother and sister, but unlike most brother-sister love stories, this one is realistic. It is not the typical "we are siblings, but love prevails, so who cares" type of story. Good development, good ending... very sad, too.
I would probably rate this one-shot with a 9.

The other two stories are not as good. The first one isn´t very clear... there are things I didn´t understand, or that were kept unexplained: I think it is a ghost story, though I'm not sure... but even if I'm right, who is that ghost? And does that ghost have anything to do with the character's injuries? I think that if it were a little bit longer, the plot could have been better developed. The third story is just average, nothing really special about it, although there are instants -certain panels- were you can perceive a deeper and more serious feeling that what's usual in the typical shoujo manga. I think there is a gap between the two stories I mentioned first and these other two. But I wouldn't say they are "bad", either.

In any case, I recommend reading this manga. "Hotaru no mori e" and "Deepening the Scar" alone make it worthy.

Warning: There’s some huge spoiler ahead so read at your own risk.

I first knew about this manga when I accidentally watched a fan made music video of its film adaptation. I did tell you on some of my previous reviews that I love heartbreaking stories, and when I found out that Hotarubi no Morie E is one of them, I instantly added it in my TBR.

I didn’t really read the sypnosis when I added this one to my TBR coz at that time, I didn’t see any reason why I should be. I love the graphics and the story was kind of heartbreaking and that’s ... enough. So imagine my surprise when I found out that this book is a collection of 4 one shot stories. I was surprised and was a little disappointed. This book comprises of 4 different stories representing the four seasons, summer, spring, fall and winter. So I guess it’ll be wise if I’ll divide my review based on each stories.

Summer – Hotarubi no Mori e (Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light)
The first story happens every Summer. It’s the story of Gin and Hotaru, they’re both familiar as they were the ones I saw in the trailer.

This story started when Hotaru, who was just 6 year old at that time got lost at the Yamagami Forest, where is known as inhabited by youkai (monsters). While crying, a teenage boy who’s wearing a fox mask appeared. She got so relieved that she immediately ran towards him for a hug but ended up being hurt as he dodge her hug. She then found out that he can’t be touched by a human or he’ll disappear forever. Right after that meeting, they became good friends and been seeing each other every summer since it’s only during those season that Hotaru stays at her grandfather’s house.

This is only a one shot story so I understand why there’s been a lot of time jump as Hotaru starts to grow up while Gin still looks the same. I believe it was because of the spell that’s been keeping him alive. (Curious? I’m not gonna tell, haha, or it’ll be a total bummer *wink) There’s been some innocent yet sweet scenes between them as well as some funny one too so it wasn’t a surprise that I’ve learn to love both the main characters, especially Gin. I really pitied his situation, good thing all the youkai (monsters) living in the forest really cares for him a lot. And then when he met Hotaru, he became a little livelier.

I know I already dropped some spoiler above but I want to refrain from giving another one (well, only for this one shot though hehe) because I want you to find it for yourself. The ending was really really heartbreaking. I’m not really sure what will Hotaru do after that. I guess it’s going to be pretty obvious what will happen, but I bet you’ll wonder how will that happen eh? It wasn’t really that special, it’s just a bit sad really.

Spring – Hanauta Nagaruru (Overhearing a Flower Song)
For this story, I was confused most of the time reading it. I guess I was still having a hangover after that tragic ending with the first one shot *wink.

This story is about a girl who accidentally heard a sweet melody outside an old abandoned building in their school. Then she came across a guy who’s known as violent and keeps on fighting with other students. She accidentally heard him humming the same melody she heard at that old building so she assumed he’s the one’s who’s been playing the guitar. She then became close to him and got to see the good side of him.

This one’s pretty cliché. It’s like a girl dating a gangster but the guy in this story wasn’t that bad and was not part of any gang. After the unfortunate accident he went through, he became more violent and been fighting with the guys in the school. He got close to the girl and then slowly started caring for her. The ending for this one wasn’t that clear for me really. The drawing/sketch wasn’t clear enough. Absolutely my least favorite of all one shots in this book.

Autumn – Kurukuru Ochiba (The Fallling of Autumn Leaves)
For this story, it’s a story of a guy who comes from a very rich family and a girl who is poor. Yep, pretty cliché right? After saving the guy from almost being abducted, the girl then started to act like his protector since then. It’s been so long that she hadn’t realized that the true reason why she wants to be by his side all the time is because she’s starting to fall in love with him. I guess the feeling was mutual because of the ending. The conflict was that the girl always protecting the guy thus making him feel useless but at the same time he allows that because he’s afraid that if she realizes that he can now take care of himself, she’ll leave him.

Quite corny if you ask me, but I guess it was better than the second story.

Winter – Hibi, Fukaku (Deepening the Scar)
Unlike the other three stories, this one wasn’t about romance but about sister and brother relationship. Growing up, they’ve been pretty close until their parents got separated and then her brother came with their father because he can’t leave him alone. The only communication they have was through writing letters. After 8 years, their parents get back together and so her brother and father came back to their house. They’re both grown up now so their relationship were kind of awkward. Her brother is graduating in high school soon and he told her that he’ll leave again after that.

The ending really had me thinking so hard. I keep on reading this one over and over again but I always come up with the same understanding. And what is that? I believe that both of them love each other but romantically. Absurd right? I hope I’m wrong though. The drawing wasn’t really clear at all or maybe it’s the translation?

***

Overall, I guess it was a decent read minus the cliché. Of all four stories, the Summer one shot is my favorite, next I guess was the Winter story.

This book ended with a little follow-up story of Hotaru and Gin before the disappearing act happened and it was really cute. I also love the compilation of pictures too which I guess was taken from the movie. And speaking of movie, I’ll definitely watch it soon *wink.

Hi and welcome to another part of the „Is this actually good or is it highly rated just thanks to a more popular related work?“ series.

Hotarubi no Mori e is a collection of four stories. The famous and titular one that got adapted into movie, and other tree that you probably never heard about this. That is not surprising, as I have pretty much nothing to say about those first three. Uninteresting, of questionable point and way too little happen in them even for their short duration for me to comment on them more in this review. Getting the insignificant ones out of the way, ... the further review will be for the titular chapter alone – the chapter number two.

My intro might have you thinking that this chapter is actually better than the rest of them. It’s not. It’s just bad in more memorable way. Fair warning, beyond this point are spoilers, as one can’t exactly describe the faults without describing the story. Hotarubi no Mori is often lauded as great and touching romance. Yet the characters and relationship are underdeveloped even by shoujo manga standards. Honestly, I wouldn’t even call the manga version a romance, that’s how non-existent the supposed romantic relationship is.

I thought that the movie was short, but they actually had to really push it to get the few pages of the manga into what could be technically called a feature film. Kid gets lost in a forest, kid gets picked up by a stranger and gets told not to touch him, they meet up again, kid almost touches him, stranger keeps dodging the kid. Fast-forward in time because that’s easier than to actually build up the relationship naturally, kid (now a bit grown up) and the strange (now no longer a stranger) go to a festival, have fun for few pages, the guy touches a different kid, disappears, the end. It’s not touching, it’s laughable.

I’m sure a lot of people have already pointed it out about the plot, but yeah, it’s stupid. I understand that you can’t have detailed setting for a one-shot, but maybe you shouldn’t build your whole plot around an even that could have been prevented if anyone involved was actually thinking, based on the info provided. It’s been shown that touching articles of clothing is okay, when Hotaru took of Gin’s mask. Then tell me, is there any downside to wearing a god damn gloves and long trousers if that means you’re no longer constantly in danger of vanishing out of existence? Wouldn’t Gin develop the habit of touching people by clothes and not by their skin? Why would he pull the little kid by the kid’s arm instead of catching him by his t-shirt? Or just ignoring him because unlike the accidental touch for Gin, a small fall like that on completely flat ground doesn’t pose any danger beyond a scrapped knee. Was Gin supposed to be acting suicidal or does this make as much sense as someone with a milk allergy rolling through a chocolate factory?

To answer the initial question, as much as I would like to claim this manga has high rating only thanks to the movie’s popularity, a research through waybackmachine shows that it had high rating even before the movie was screened. You win this time, manga. You’re still bad, but at least you’re not piggybacking on success of a different work.