Really, taking this movie as it is with each separate component, it's not as bad as it could have been. The main fault was just how long and dragged out it was. The story itself is pretty simple and predictable, with nothing shocking happening... well, ever actually. If you wanted an interesting plot in terms of twists and turns then it's not going to happen here. The story could easily have been covered in half the time, though - a lot of this movie was just plain unnecessary.
To start off with, there's an opening narrative by Yuki, the main character (Hana)'s daughter. She introduces the story as being unbelievable. Really, the only unbelievable thing here is that her mum had sex with a wolf. Like, literally. They had sex whilst he was a wolf. That's the actual plot of this prologue. I'm pretty sure there's a line you're supposed to draw between fantasy and beastiality, but whatever. Her random spout of animal love produces two... well, not exactly charming children. Ame's sort of sweet, but Yuki's a brat. And then her useless bum of a wolf boyfriend dies. Antics ensue. So many antics. Dragged out tedious antics as far as the eye can see. Ugh.
Probably the best part of this movie was the animation. The background art was astoundingly beautiful, although I really wasn't a fan of the massively simpler character designs. They seemed so out of place in their environment, and all the characters' faces (Hana's in particular) just seemed a little... off. Her eyes were too wide apart and her face appeared as though it had been melted slightly like a candle. It bothered me, it really did. Yuki was pretty much the only character that seemed to suit the art style at all.
Although speaking of Yuki, I truly couldn't stand her voice. That irritating laughing she did constantly made me grimace outright. I was craving finding the English dub on the off chance that I could escape it all. The music was pretty nice though, so that definitely dragged the sound quality up a notch.
The characters, however. Oh, gosh, the characters. What a thoroughly dull group of people. Our protagonist is a very plain and mostly uninteresting woman. She doesn't really seem to have any desires or goals and just... goes with the flow. Literally. Everything else dictates her life, rather than her actually making a decision for herself. Her daughter, whilst being the exact opposite in the regard that she wants to make every decision ever, is also infuriating whilst doing so. Hana evidently has no idea how to discipline a child and just lets them run around doing whatever. Frankly, it's chaos.
Ame, however, I did like. He was, in many ways, the movie's only redeeming feature... at least for a while. He soon became a boring plot point. Boring plot point really does sum this movie up, though. It's just plain dull. It's so dull that it angers me. This movie COULD have been so much more, and it just feels so wasted.
I feel like I wasted my time.
I really do.
There were a lot of things in this movie that I had a problem with, though. I know this movie is about parenting, but really, the vast majority of the women in this movie seemed to do little but have love interests. Hana's actions? Due to a love interest. Yuki's actions? Wow, what a lot of love interest. Even secondary characters with a few scenes between them had love interest-dictated lives. It was stupid. Doesn't this movie know there's such a thing as being your own person and having a vagina?
I genuinely never want to hear another word about this stupid movie ever again, because it gets way too much praise for being such an uninteresting spectacle. Talk about overrated.
