Before seeing it, I wasn't all that interested in the film. I entered a giveaway for free tickets on social media just for the sake of it, so when I actually won, I decided to take my little sister with me to at least let her have a fun experience watching a kid's movie with me. I wasn't expecting anything special.
I was wrong.
12-year-old Oriko "Okko" Seki is visiting a festival in the countryside when she gets in an accident, and tragedy strikes. Now having recovered from her physical injuries, Okko must now go to live with her grandmother, who runs a traditional Japanese inn nearby. There she meets the spirit of a young boy, and together with others she meets along the way she works to learn all she can about caring for guests and resultantly bringing herself personal happiness in this beautiful depiction of healing, death, and rebirth.
I very much enjoyed the story, and couldn't find any flaws with it. The animation overall looked very good, with a few minor flaws such as too much of a sheen being added to Okko's hair at points, as well as one or two shots with a momentarily choppy framerate. The colors are nice and vibrant, and do a very good job immersing you along with the well placed soundtrack, which was well composed. All of the mostly non-secondary characters have a lot of personality to them, and(excuse the irony here) are three dimensional, every one of them feels like real people.
Despite being rated G, Okko's Inn deals with heavy topics such as PTSD and moving on after loss, and it does so extremely well, while keeping the tone mostly light. As someone who can be pretty empathetic when watching films, I cried when watching this. You may not cry(or even tear up, you monster), but I can guarantee that throughout most of the film, you'll have a big smile on your face. I know I did.
Story: 10
Art: 9
Sound: 8
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 9.4/10
I highly recommend this film(my sister enjoyed it a lot as well, in case you were wondering).
