Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki ~ おおかみこどもの雨と雪

[spsn]

Glad that SG released this year's Ghibli anime and at a rather early timing too! I've been wanting to watch this one ever since I saw the trailer and off course the promotion over NTV when I was in Tokyo. Off course, the most prominent point in any Ghibli animes is it's beautifully made and packaged. But what's more to this one?

Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki or in English title 'Wolf Children' (I have no idea why they omit Ame to Yuki in the English title because it makes the title sounds... empty) is a 13 years span of life story of Hana, told by the 3rd party, Yuki, her daughter. The story starts with how Hana, who was a student at Tokyo University, met Ookami in a class. Ookami was not a student there, he just wanted to listen to the class. For some reason, Hana attracted to Ookami and through a series of meetings, they fell in love and in a snowy winter day, Yuki was born. Soon after, in a rainy spring day, Ame was born. But happiness didn't last long for Hana as Ookami dissapeared and later on was found dead. Hana, left with 2 toddlers worked hard to raised them without knowledge on how to raise wolf kids. And in deed, raising kids already difficult and to top it up these 2 were not regular toddlers. When Yuki was sick, she didn't know where to go, the vet or the peditrician. Social workers started pounding on her door because they're accusing Hana of neglect since none of the kids were brought for immunization. The neighbors were complaining on the noise. The landlord accused Hana of having a pet (well... she's not, but... you know... the grey area...). At the end, Hana decided to move the family to the countryside and rent a home in a secluded area, where the neighbors are far between each other. The house required lots of work and Hana would have to do all the housework and farming herself. What about the children? Yuki loved the nature and the change of environment, Ame hated it and whined to return home (oh so cute). Slowly, the Ookami family's life got better and better and they started to interact with the neighbors and got accepted too. The kids grew up as well, Yuki started to enjoy the school and loved it, Ame hated school and by he's on the 3rd grade, he stopped going to school and soon find his own 'teacher.' Here, where the differences started. Which path that these 2 children would be taking? Human? Wolf?

Besides of the so obvious beauty, this movie will definitely remind you what mothers will do for their children. My heart fell on the scene when Hana discovered Ookami's body in the wolf form picked up by the garbage collector and was dumped in the garbage truck. The gasp that Hana let out said it all. And it's more heartbreaking when all the problems that she faced alone and with the 2 children who kept on changing form back and forward from human to wolf since they still couldn't really control it. The next heart breaking part is when Ame decided that he'd choose to be with the nature. As the audience, I can feel Hana's emotion as a mother was trying hard to cling on her beloved child that she felt must be protected. There are more heart warming and angst scenes in this movie. I love how this movie portrayed the identity crisis that both children faced. Yuki and Ame have totally different personality. Yuki is outgoing and cheerful so she easily blend in with her classmates in school. Yuki realizes that she's different when she found out she has different hobbies and likeness compared to her fellow female classmates. And Hana helped her overcome that. On the other hand, Ame is the quiet type and a loner. He dislike school, and he feels closer to the nature after 1 particular incident. 

I'd think I feel moved with this movie because of the seiyuus. They put lots of emotions in all the characters. Not really fantastically a fan of Miyazaki Aoi (yes she's pretty and cute) but I love her in this anime. Hana's emotion is easily conveyed and understood. And... blessed wiki for the info, the Ookami's seiyuu is Takao Osawa from JIN (no wonder Ookami voice sounds familiar LOL). But I love that the production gives the kids lots of personalities and they are adorable!

Ookami will be one of the Ghibli anime that I'd recommend, especially if you'd like to see more story and complicated emotions and not just pure fantacy and graphics.

Comments

[mayu-rei.livejournal.com]

I know this movie is great.:D But you know...Its not a Ghibli film at all.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

really? oops lol, i keep thinking it's a ghibli so i didnt bother to check further , thanks for pointing it out :)