Hotarubi no Mori

Finally finished watching Hotarubi no Mori. Reiko had raved about it  when the short video came out in 2011. When I went to Animate @ Ikebukuro in 2011, they also had a shelf to promote it. 

Learn more about the show here -->> http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotarubi_no_Mori_e

I'm a fan of Natsume Yuujinchou so it wasn't difficult for me to want to watch it. It was however difficult to find time to sit down and watch. I'm now on flight back from Sydney via Scoot Airline. Budget airline has no free inflight entertainment and I have to bring my own.  So I watched this video that I've transferred to my laptop eons ago to watch on other flight trips. 

It's freezing btw ><|||| And i can't wait to get home to my familiar bed. 

And I'm so thinking of changing to a Macbook air. The battery life of my Sony Vaio is atrociously bad :(

The story was very straight forward. There's no twist and no awkward characters. There is however awkward relationships and situations. And the ending leaves you with a deep sigh on your lips   . The video is only 45minutes long. 

Ok spoilers alert! I'm gonna start talking about scenes in the show now ! 

Is it just me or does the beginning feel a little awkward ? Lol the word pedophile kept popping up in my head xD Hotaru is such a lively little girl though. 

But it was nice to watch their interactions and growth in relationship. Gin feels like such a gentle guy. 

I especially feel both weird out and touched ( such contradicting emotions ) at the 2 different scenes when Kid Hotaru and Teenager Hotaru was joking that " this feels like a date" and Gin responded so differently each time. 

Ahhhhh I think the scene where gin responded cutesy-ly "ahh yes it is a date~" to Hotaru was very cute. Aiyoo fangirl tokidoki moment ! It helps that he looks like Natsume xD <3

I cannot make up my mind whether if the ending was abrupt or well timed. 

It seemed well timed because Gin had finally had the chance to invite Hotaru to the Spirit's Natsu Matsuri and the longing-ness and maybe even loneliness in him was taking over him. So the ending though unsatisfying , was timely. 

He said he couldn't wait for another summer ... I wonder what that meant. Is his spiritual body giving way ? 

The part with him passing his mask to Hotaru and then kissing her on it was so beautifully done too T. T so simple yet so touching. 

On the other end, the ending felt abrupt because well I don't know ... I guess I just think more can be told about them ? *shrug*

I was half expecting an evil yokai (demon spirit) to appear to harm either of them and then places Gin in some unexpected situation of touching Hotaru. But it had to be him helping a random child who was tripping -_-; I think if I was Hotaru I would be pretty pissed with the kids for randomly running around. 

I think Hotaru is amazing. She is so in love and had so much courage to go beyond all odds. Even thinking of moving there (which I assume is a rural area ) so as to be closer to Gin. That's a lot of sacrifice, courage and blindness all rolled into one. The logical part of me felt so twist up watching them because I know there can be no true happiness for them because of their fundamental difference. Sigh. 

But I guess like they say, love is blind. And this is fictional. 

That said though , some times Animes make me feel meh. 

Its like a slapping reminder that even a 2d character has a more interesting life than me lol.