is a one-shot shōjo manga written by Yuki Midorikawa. It was published in the issue of LaLa DX in Japan, and in it was reprinted in a short story collection of the same name, which included four romantic one-shot stories written by Midorikawa. Hotarubi no Mori e tells the story of a young girl named Hotaru and her friendship with Gin, a strange young man wearing a mask, who she meets at the age of six in a mountain forest near her grandfather's country home. Hotaru learns that her friend is supernatural and that touching Gin will cause him to disappear forever. Hotaru returns every summer to spend time with Gin, and their relationship matures as both struggle with its limitations. The inspiration to write the story came suddenly to Midorikawa, who immediately drew the manga—a process that went smoothly despite some initial conflicting elements. Hotarubi no Mori e is considered a starting point for Midorikawa's best-known work, Natsume's Book of Friends.
A 44-minute anime film with the same title was produced in 2011 at the anime studio Brain's Base and directed by Takahiro Omori. The film starred Japanese voice actors Ayane Sakura and Kōki Uchiyama, and its soundtrack included music by Makoto Yoshimori. The film maintained a strong following for months in Japan after its opening on . The European premiere of Hotarubi no Mori e was on , at the Scotland Loves Animation festival, where it won the Jury Prize. It was screened at the Leeds International Film Festival, Anime Contents Expo and Anime Expo convention, and also won the Animation Film Award at the 66th Annual Mainichi Film Awards.
The anime was released on Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD in Japan on . An additional story related to the original manga and anime film, titled , was released in a keepsake edition of the manga 12 days prior to the release of the anime. Both the keepsake edition manga and the limited edition BD ranked No. 13 on Japan's Oricon sales chart shortly after their release. Sakura reported experiencing a strong emotional reaction to the story while recording the voice of Hotaru, and Midorikawa acknowledged that the story had a positive impact on her career. Reviewers universally praised the anime film for its beauty, simplicity, and tenderness, likening it to the works of Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai. There were few criticisms, most commonly focusing on its short length.
Plot The original Hotarubi no Mori e shōjo manga and subsequent film tell the story of a six-year-old girl named Hotaru Takegawa, who gets lost in a forest inhabited by a mountain spirit, as well as yōkai (strange apparitions from Japanese folklore). She is found by a mask-wearing, human-like entity named Gin, who informs Hotaru that he will disappear forever if he is touched by a human. Gin then leads Hotaru out of the forest. Hotaru returns to visit Gin in the forest over the next few days and they become friends despite the limitations on their interactions. Although at summer's end she must leave Gin to return to the city and her studies, Hotaru promises to return to visit him every summer holiday.
As the years go by, Gin hardly ages while Hotaru physically matures and grows closer to his apparent age. Upon reaching adolescence, Hotaru begins to struggle with their budding romance and their uncertain future together, while Gin wishes he could touch and hold the young woman that Hotaru has become. When Hotaru reaches high school, Gin takes her on a date to a festival in the forest hosted by the spirits. The night ends in tragedy when Gin mistakenly touches a young boy who snuck into the spirit festival, though before he disappears, he and Hotaru embrace and confess their love for one another. The story ends with Hotaru accepting her pain and moving on with her life, though she will always treasure the memories of her time with Gin. The 2011 anime film adaptation of the story follows all of the events from the manga, adding only a few additional scenes.
, published in 2011, expands on the original story with a short episode told from Gin's perspective. When Hotaru is a teenager, she shares some pudding with Gin before she leaves at the end of the summer. After Hotaru leaves, the yōkai attempt to cheer Gin up by bringing him a couple of persimmons, one of the most prized treats on the mountain. Impressed with the taste, Gin thinks of sharing one of these persimmons with Hotaru next year. After discussing ways to preserve the persimmon with the yōkai and a spirit named Matsumino, Gin sets off to find ice on the highest mountain peak, but is disappointed to find none during the summer. When Gin returns scratched up from his fruitless search for ice, Matsumino feels sorry for him and offers to deliver the persimmon to Hotaru for him. However, not knowing where she lives, Matsumino gets lost and grows hungry. After he returns from his unsuccessful attempt to find Hotaru, Matsumino apologizes to Gin for eating the persimmon and Gin forgives him. The story concludes with Gin seeing Hotaru the following summer and wondering if he will be able to tell her about his feelings for her.
Production
Manga The author, Yuki Midorikawa, explained in the postscript of the Aizoban Hotarubi no Mori e reprint that the idea for the story came to her more easily than for any other work up until that point. Although she had been planning to write a story as challenging as Hotarubi no Mori e once she had gained more experience writing manga, she decided to undertake the project sooner when the idea for the story suddenly came to her. Afraid that she might lose the idea, she promptly began to draw it, and Midorikawa's writing progressed smoothly despite having numerous conflicting ideas for the development of the story.
The story came from Midorikawa's desire to draw several scenes. She was interested in drawing a scene where a boy dodges a girl who is falling towards him. She also wanted to draw a shadowy summertime forest, which would allow her to expand the range of tones and blacks used in the manga. A third inspiration was the desire to depict a more tranquil summer festival than those she had drawn before. She was also eager to create the mask worn by Gin at the festival, which resembled the face of a fox whose typical slit eyes were replaced by oval ones to give the mask a "creepy" hybrid fox-primate appearance.
The supernatural love story between Hotaru and Gin is considered a starting point for Midorikawa's best known work, Natsume's Book of Friends, which also depicts ill-fated interactions between humans and yōkai (sometimes referred to as ayakashi). In both stories, differences in lifespan and other insurmountable barriers mar their relationships and attempts to understand each other.
Prior to the anime film's theatrical release in 2011, Midorikawa published an additional chapter to the story, Hotarubi no Mori e Tokubetsuhen. Since the original story was already complete and she initially felt uncomfortable about adding to it, she opted instead to expand on the story from Gin's perspective.
Anime + Cast Voice actor RoleAyane SakuraHotaru TakegawaKōki UchiyamaGinShinpachi TsujiHotaru's grandfatherIzumi SawadaHotaru's motherHayato TayaKanehira YamamotoShadow yōkaiMasanori MachidaBeech Tree Hand yōkaiHiroki GotōLion yōkaiAsami ImaiMasked child (younger brother)Mami UchidaMasked child (older sister)Kumiko TashiroChild at the festival According to animation director Yumi Satou, the anime project originated with his personal wish to animate the original manga, which he enjoyed. The project was given approval in early 2011, and according to the film's producer, Shuko Yokoyama, the anime was originally planned as an original video animation, which would not have been released in theaters. However, the popularity of Natsume's Book of Friends, which was also written by Midorikawa and developed by the same production staff, gave them the support they needed to create an anime film. The film was produced by the studio Brain's Base and directed by Takahiro Omori, starring Japanese voice actors Ayane Sakura as Hotaru and Kōki Uchiyama as Gin. Satou had frequently worked together with Yokoyama on previous projects. Other staff included Akira Takata (character design), Yukihiro Shibuya (art), Hiromi Miyawaki (color design), Hitoshi Tamura (photography), and Kazuhiko Seki (editor). The anime film had a very small staff because it was a very short film and was produced domestically, unlike the TV series, Natsume's Book of Friends, which was primarily outsourced to other countries—a common trend in anime production.
In March 2011, midway through production, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. Despite the national tragedy, the production crew continued its work, and according to Omori, the team hoped that their work would help soothe the nation after it had time to recover. Omori speculated that this was part of the reason for the strong positive reception and the awards the anime later received.
The setting in the manga was based on a shrine in the Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan, known as Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine, which is dedicated to Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto from Japanese mythology. The animation crew spent two hours searching the location for settings on which they could base their art. Because the story was set in the forest of a mountain god, Omori intended the art to represent a "different world" where the background scenery was obscure and the blue sky was slightly brighter than normal. Omori and his crew devoted extra attention to lighting and coloring, making the forest dim with light coming through the canopy and landing on the characters with the appropriate intensity. The contrast between light and dark was also used during the festival scene to emphasize its bizarre nature, reminding the audience that Hotaru should not be there. Because of the significance of the summer season to the story, Omori deliberately loaded the film with summer scenes, such as rustling leaves and chirring of cicadas.
According to the Omori, the idea for the opening scene was suggested by Yokoyama; following traditional cinematography, the images of scenes indirectly related to the main story were played while the opening credits appeared. Originally intended to show Gin's life before meeting Hotaru, Omori allowed the viewer to decide its relationship in time with the main story. Omori also opted to start Hotaru's narration from a time after the story's main events; showing Hotaru as an 18-year-old who had just graduated high school and heading back to visit her relatives near the forest. By having Hotaru tell the story in retrospect, Omori thought it provided a more human feel and gave more meaning to the final scene, where Hotaru expresses her hopes for the future by saying, "Come on, let's go."
One of the difficulties in adapting the manga to anime, according to Omori, was that the developing relationship between Hotaru and Gin had to be shown visually, rather than through monologue. One way in which this was done used Hotaru's yearly change in height—by subtly showing the convergence of the length of their strides when walking, the audience is led to perceive a change in their relationship. Omori also wanted to portray more depth to Hotaru's character by expanding on her school life. Although the manga depicted a brief flash of her life in middle school, the anime depicted scenes from both aspects of her life.
Omori shared a draft of the film with composer Makoto Yoshimori so that he could write music to match the tempo. However, there was some disagreement over the ending theme, which Omori and Yoshimori discussed at length over email. Although neither would compromise on key points, the issue was eventually settled and the ending theme was finalized.