Hotarubi no Mori e is one of the most beautiful animes I have ever seen. It is absolutely breathtaking.
Regarding the Art:
This anime has some of the most amazing art I have seen in an anime. The colors are very intense, but not too overwhelming. I love the body styles of the characters. I am not personally fond of artwork such as in xxxHolic. I do not like thin, lanky characters. However, I realize this is just my opinion. But I find the characters beautiful in Hotarubi no Mori e. Although Gin's face is not often shown, he is a very attractive character (is that strange to say? lol).
Regarding the Sound:
I am not sure if there is a dubbed version of this anime or not, but I personally generally watched subbed versions of all the anime I watch. In Hotarubi no Mori, I think they chose wonderful voice actors. They have very soothing voices, which goes well with the mood of this movie.
Regarding the Characters:
The character development is brilliant, especially considering that this movie is only around forty five minutes long. I grew extremely attached to the characters. I personally even loved seeing the other spirits in the forest. Of course, my favorite thing about the characters was the interaction between Hotaru and Gin. It is very unique to watch a love story unfold where one starts out as a child and eventually catches up to the other in age. It was precious to see how Gin treated her, especially as a child. And watching them eventually fall in love was wonderful to see. I had a smile on my face for the majority of this anime.
Overall:
Overall, this anime was absolutely brilliantly created. The creators did a beautiful job. This is definitely an anime that I will re-watch (which I normally don't do). Although I personally wish it ended differently (that is all I will say), I still greatly appreciate the beauty of it. The plot, character development, artwork, and sound were all incredible. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that likes anime. I also feel that this anime would be a good idea to show to someone that has never seen anime before.
It has an average score of 8.8 for a reason. It greatly deserves a 9/10. If you haven't watched it yet, drop everything right now and go watch it immediately!
