A depressed story? You'd be crying twice.
Interesting characters? Without any doubt.
A good father figure? Better than mine (kidding).
Thoughtful moments? It's deeper than you think.
This anime is everything you could wish for. From the character gimmicks to the grandiose story. You wouldn't immediately think about any of this at first as it has a slow start but when it starts for real it goes at 360 in 6 seconds and you can not go back. Oh no you can't, and that's a good thing. Why go back when you can experience such a thing in the first place? Its something that happens twice in 400 years and the time has finally come for this masterpiece to be seen.
Yes, "Somali to Mori no Kamisama" is a masterpiece of an anime and not simply one of them, it's THE masterpiece I was looking for. An anime it could make me laugh, think, cry and more importantly care about characters, each of them and all in a span of 12 episodes. "Somali" is extraordinarily in every field but the best thing about this are clearly the two main characters, Somali and Golem that share a great daughter-father relationship. They're not releated by blood but that's the great thing since it shows that it is not necessary to be related by blood to show the effect to someone. They are so fantastic together and what makes it better is the fact that Golem has no emotions, so you at no point of its runtime you'll hearing him scream because Somali did something she shouldn't have. He comprehend many emotions, but since it cannot manifest them, it is difficult to fully understand them. Which is completely natural and makes the relationship between the two even realistic.
The story is incredibly beautiful. While sometimes predictable, It got me invested that I never thought it would have. This has mainly to do with the characters that make it interesting. Throughout the journey (yes, this is not an anime, its a journey and I'll be observing until it ends) we meet a lot of charaters that in the surface may seem not that great but if you go deep into them you'd find so much regarding them that i'm sure you'd be pleased. They, when doing something have always a reason. Now, the reason may be "good" or "bad" in the way you view it. I viewed as good and will always be because I can feel them and their hatred or love for anything seems reasonable. I really can, which it makes me love the anime even more. It proceeds with the right narrative rhythm, without slowing down too much, taking the time necessary to create characters with a certain thickness and it does quite well.
As for animation, I think it's fantastic, even in action scenes. It is not a series that you would see too many fights, but for what we got the animation was really competent. It's not the best, I admit it but then again this is not an action anime when fights have the priority so therefore it doesn't matter. As for the the sound deparment, it's great too. I expected The opening and ending be more catchy but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Not saying they're bad, it's just I wasn't too much interested in them as much I wanted to be. They're good on their own way, though. OSTs instead are literary masterpiece. Especially the ones that are used for sad moments.
"Somali to Mori no Kamisama" is both underrated and underwatched. It's not getting the attention as much I'd like to. If you're reading this review and you're in search of an anime that has a genuine good story, awesomely characters and more importantly, daughter-father interaction - this is the one you've been looking for. There may be stuff that potentially could turn you off but overrall I think it deserves a try.
Golem is such a good father.
