The concept of love is incredibly popular and you can probably find more pieces of literature or entertainment that center around love than any other genre. Plato once said, 'at the touch of love, everyone is a poet'. Nobody really knows what love is but everyone has their own interpretation of the word. With all of these takes on love, can we really be sure of what love is? Simply put, love is a universal.

And it does all of this in a mere 45 minutes.įorbidden love, playful love, intense love, a love that is not love. The anime pulls us viewers in with dramatic music and writing while keeping everything light and down-to-earth.

Much of the brilliance in this anime can be accredited to the captivating character and background designs as well as the honesty that shines through in the writing. Hotarubi no Mori e is a beautiful movie that takes the idea of forbidden love, a topic that has been overly done and worn out by bad soap-opera themed dramas, and remakes the idea in an elegant, refreshing manner. Their time together is short, meaningful and ultimately bittersweet. And so, the two spend time together when they can, and as she grows up with him she realizes there will come a day when time will yet again become their enemy. HeĬannot leave the forest for fear of being touched by a human and she cannot see him until three seasons have passed and summer comes again. Much like a fleeting summer's day, the main characters in Hotarubi no Mori e are bound by the chains of time. You come to love the smell of rain in the spring or the cool breeze of a summer night and then poof. Time is responsible for the summers that come and go, for the leaves in autumn that shrivel and fall to the ground at the mercy of the next toddler looking to create satisfying crunching sounds, for the long and cold winters. But, even still, until then, let's stay together.' -Hotaru Takegawa

Hotarubi no mori e full move