As a fan of the game Animal Crossing (both Gamecube and DS versions) I was pleasantly surprised to discover an anime adaptation had been made. If you haven’t played the game, Animal Crossing is basically just living your life in a new town, but while you’re a human, the other villagers are all other animals. It’s a nice RPG slice-of-life, and it’s very fun living your life in your town. This experience is different, obviously, considering you’re watching the character living her life in a new town instead of being the character himself/herself.
The main character’s name is Ai, a magnanimous yet somewhat undecided girl who comes to live in the village of animals, moving away from home. As she goes through her days in the new village, she meets new animals and opportunities arise from their influence on her, especially Sally, the fashion-designing elephant who shortly moves away to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer. But she inspires Ai to find her own dream, or, as the two playfully allegorized, her own cherry pie. She does find her ambition by the end of the movie, and also fits in a little more in the village by helping out with what occurred proving to be the mysterious “miracle” on the night of the Winter Festival. Because previously Ai had found bottles with notes explaining that if she planted a fir trees in certain spots, a wonderful miracle would happen on the Winter Festival night.
While you’re watching it, it’s very relaxing and calming, much like its game counterpart. The art is absolutely adorable, keeping the style similar to the game. The colors are bright and the animation flow is fluid and rich; I love especially the beautifully rendered backgrounds. Everything was so nice to look at! I loved the music too, because it’s all the same tunes as in the game, and if you play the game you’ll recognize that immediately.
One thing I didn’t understand that some of the names were different than in the game. I suppose they were the original names in the Japanese, but then again, why would the English translation bother to change them if they were just names like “Sally” (or I should say Sari) or “Bouquet”? That has nothing to do with the enjoyment you get out of the movie.
I really liked it overall; I guess the only thing that irked me was the whole bit concerning the notes and the UFOs. I would have rather if it was just a poignant but sweet story about finding your ambition and at the same time, maintaining a strong friendship. This is recommended if you like the game, or you just want something nearly saccharine to watch.
