- Story (8.8/10):
Takegawa Hotaru, a young adult in her way to visit her uncle in the countrysides recalls her most cherished memories while she makes it through an apparently lengthy voyage. It all started when she was 6 years old, a tiny little clumsy girl with all the cuteness you can imagine packed in a tiny body is lost in the forest of God, crying for help. A forest that's known to be home for spirits that are rumored to arrange annual summer festivals. While crying alone near some bushes, she spots an observing masked human-looking figure that she knew later was a spirit. At the end of the day, she found her way out of the forest thanks to the mysteriously masked spirit whom she becomes friends with. However, only if she could avoid making skin contact with him, because apparently if you would touch a spirit, they would cease to exist. Hotaru spent her summer with the masted spirit, and both made a sacred promise to meet up at the same spot every other summer. But time flies like a jet, and Hotaru got older and older as the age gap between her and the masked spirit became questionable (spirits age at a much slower pace), and without spoiling anything else, it was the case of Benjamin Button all over again. What really sets the mood was the perfect pacing, not rushed and not too fast either. They managed to cover up many stages of Hotaru's growth, you would complain about other shows from the sudden excessive flashbacks, but having this whole story wrapped up in one made it one of the best flashback tales ever.
- Art (8.9/10):
Without a bound, the budget for a movie far surpasses that of a normal show (for the most part). And Hotarubi no Mori e reminded us of that fact. All I can say about this is, it was a weird well-balanced alternation between your generic Anime art style and the other more enhanced counterpart, for instance, character designs, they are simple but do the job, however, what really sparkles here was the emphasis on nature, the vibrant color palette helped highlight the colorful vegetation that was complimented by the colorful flowers and bright open sky.
- Sound (9/10):
Yes, I'm very huge on soundtracks, a good one can make a bad show better, and a bad one can push a good show lower in the scale. Voice acting was a blast, having to voice the same person while they get older, and you could still feel that the person is still himself/herself as in the resonance of their tone of voice is just astonishing. I loved the main theme background soundtrack of the movie so much so that it brought up a lot of nostalgic summer childhood memories. There is something about it that feels as warm and as calm as every other summer day.
- Character (8.5/10):
What I liked about Hotarubi no Mori e is the minimalistic inclusion of key characters, you have Hotaru and the masked spirit and that's it, of course, other characters like family members and classmates are present, but that doesn't take attention away from our main cast, and yet remain a vital player for both parties. Character development was massive, especially for Hotaru seeing that she grows older and gets more mature, and even the ageless spirit is there at the list looking nothing like before aside from his appearance as he gets more attached to Hotaru.
- Enjoyment (9/10):
Some of my rules of thumb for deciding if I really enjoyed a show or not is whether I checked the time continuously in hope for the said show to finish, and also the vivid thoughts about the show after I finish it, like making up speculations and what-if scenarios. I dove in with no expectations and ended up enjoying every second of this, might as well be my favorite romance movie.
- Overall (8.8/10):
This will be the first thing I let out of my mouth if I was asked to recommend a movie of the genre, seriously, if you have three quarters of an hour to spare, this is differently one of the greatest pieces of animation you can experience, buckle up and get some popcorn, aaaaaand a spare of tissues just in case.
