Anime review: Wolf Children

Setting classic fantasy elements in a modern day, technologically advanced world can be a tricky feat to successfully pull off. There’s always the risk of the two failing to mesh well, and sometimes the true vision of a story gets lost between the emphasis of cool magical factors and a modern day setting for the sake of simply having a modern day setting. Wolf Children manages to avoid these pitfalls by defining its identity as a film within the first few minutes – yes, the story does follow two children who inherited the ability to switch between wolf and human bodies thanks to their late father being one of the last remaining wolf people in the world, but the core of the story revolves around the mother and the challenges she faces as a single mother raising two children, both of whom just so happen to be able to transform into furred beasts.

The film specifically denotes young Ame and Yuki as wolf children instead of werewolves, because they do not carry on the typical behaviors exhibited by werewolves in European literature (or any other vision of werewolves, truthfully). Whether Ame and Yuki held the ability to transform into wolves or not, they would still be as adorable as ever, with Yuki being the more rambunctious and mischievous older sibling, and Ame being the quiet and shy one. Their mother, Hana, must deal not only with typical challenges brought on by raising two young children, but also must keep secret the fact that her children are part wolf.

Early in the film, when Ame and Yuki are still toddlers, Hana finds the big city life presents too many risks for her children being exposed as part wolf. Ame and Yuki’s lack of understanding as to why they cannot howl at night or chew on the leg of the table leads neighbors and the apartment landlord to believe that Hana is going against the apartment’s code and secretly keeping pets there. A few outings to the park see Yuki bark at passing dogs and nearly expose herself and her brother. Because of these extra everyday hurdles Hana faces, she asks her children if they would like to relocate to the countryside until the day they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to live their lives as humans or wolves.

Though he dies before the Wolf Children really gets going, Hana’s husband is still present in spirit throughout the film. Hana shows a lot of personal strength and determination to rebuild an old run-down house, to plant vegetable in less-than-ideal soil so she can provide for her children, as well as in the way that she handles disciplining and expressing how much she cares for Ame and Yuki. That said, Hana is still human, and the brief dream sequences where she asks her late husband if she is doing the right thing for her family keep her grounded as a character. Similarly, Ame finds he does not enjoy interacting with people as much as he does visiting the local nature center, and attempts to understand an old wolf who lives there in captivity as a parallel to his father, whom Ame knows little about, as he was still a baby when his father died.

The film does jump ahead at certain junctures to show how Ame and Yuki adapt to this bold new world – both with their freedom to adventure through fields and forests as wolves and the social pressures to make friends in school. Environments as strikingly different as a school gymnasium, a stream cutting through snow-laden woods, and the farm hills near Hana’s new house are all beautifully realized, as is the gentle soundtrack which reprises the film’s main theme song a few times over with slightly different presentations. But despite how many weeks, months, or years the film might skip over to reach its next important life lesson or learning experience for Ame, Yuki, and Hana, the pacing feels spot-on throughout.

Wolf Children is truly a gorgeous film from start to finish, and a genuinely emotional adventure to top it off. Yuki’s obsession with snakes and frogs grosses out her classmates in a hilarious manner, while the scrapes and bruises that Ame gets when he is young and unprepared for the expanse of the wilderness lead him to feel sad and both Hana and the viewer to channel paternal instincts toward him. In terms of its quality as a standalone fantasy film, Wolf Children earns its place among the greats like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the works of Studio Ghibli, despite Wolf Children focusing more on the earthly challenges of single parenthood, and Ame and Yuki attempting to both understand the big open world and find their places in it.

My rating: 9.25 (out of 10)

Anime review: Azumanga Daioh

Assuming a comedic anime is done well enough to both keep my attention and evoke some genuine laughter from me, I'm all for it. With regards to slice-of-life anime, however, I've relatively minimal experience with this genre, and the few that I have seen were a hit-or-miss scenario. Azumanga Daioh, a twenty-six episode series based off the manga of the same name, is a hybrid of these two genres and is one anime that really took me by surprise as to how funny and well-written it is.

The events within Azumanga Daioh are nothing out of the ordinary, but the manner in which the characters dramatize normal occurrences is what drives the series. Viewers are introduced early on to Osaka, Chiyo, Yomi, Tomo, and Sakaki, and these five - along with Kagura, who is introduced later on - serve as the main cast of characters which the series is centered around. Osaka and Chiyo act as the oddballs of the group. Osaka is a transfer student who is as absent-minded as one can be, and Chiyo is the youngest of the group, having achieved outstanding academic marks to be placed in a higher class than her peers. Because of this, early episodes focus on introducing Osaka and Chiyo more so than introducing the other leads, and this works fairly well. The only character I feel is left out and suffers somewhat in terms of development is Yomi, as her story is left largely unexplored until the last quarter or so of the anime. Due to this postponing of Yomi's story, her role comes across as somewhat similar to that of a parent to the younger characters, as she is generally calm and respectful towards Chiyo but reprimands Tomo's time and time again. Tomo herself is, in many ways, Yomi's polar opposite. She sees everything as a competition is loud-mouthed and often annoys people with the hopes of simply coaxing a reaction out of them. Sakaki is quietest of the group and has a very mellow personality. Her intentions are always pure and she has a curious affinity for cats.

As important as the rest of the main characters, Kagura is introduced a bit later on after viewers have more or less gotten a feel for who the other five leads are and how they play off one another. She is initially introduced as a rival to Sakaki, but she is quickly melded into the main cast and seems to fit well overall. Admittedly, she is easily the most underdeveloped of the main characters, and a large part of that is due to the fact that she doesn't stand out as much as Osaka or Tomo.

As for the rest of the cast, viewers see very few members of the other classmates. They are there, but are rarely given names or even many lines. In some ways, this removes the realism from the scenario of six girls experiencing high school, but it does more good than harm as it allows each episode to remain focused. In fact, such a move may have been in the best interests of the series, as the only classmate that fits the role of a recurring secondary character is Kaorin, a secret admirer of Sakaki who tries to make herself a member of the group during the first half of the series. However, she only provides few chuckles here and there, and is ultimately phased out of the story when she is placed in another class during the girls' final year of schooling.

Three teachers fill the remaining secondary character roles, and are much more successful in this endeavor. The girls' English and homeroom teacher Yukari is a rather casual individual, though she does carry on a sort of friendly rivalry with physical education teacher Minamo. Yukari can sometimes take the rivalry a bit too seriously and act more childish than any given one of her students, but she is most entertaining when interacting with Minamo. And finally there is Kimura, the only male teacher seen throughout the series. He is awkward with pedophilactical tendencies, singing "Happy birthday" to himself terribly off-key and blatantly stating how he likes the bloomers that the girls wear during physical education class.

The story doesn't really tie together much until the last few episodes of the series, and to be honest watching the episodes out of order won't drastically change any given viewer's perception of it. This isn't a bad thing by any means, as it allows for both casual and hardcore anime fans to enjoy it equally. Each episode does a fine job of standing up on its own and nothing is detracted from this lack of direct connection between episodes. The soundtrack is fairly simplistic, using a number of quick and recurring pieces, which seem to fit the series' overall light and quirky mood. The art style is similar, opting for colorful simplicity over extravagant detail, and - for a series that follows a group of quirky girls through their high school education - it only seems fitting. Azumanga Daioh is as hilarious as it is relaxed as a series, and while each viewer will have his or her own preference among the colorful cast, there's someone to amuse just about everyone.

My rating: 8.75 (out of 10)