Wolf Children Ame and Yuki

	Release date	2012
	Length	117 min
	Watched	English subbed
	Director	Mamoru Hosoda
	Studio	Studio Chizu Madhouse
	Based on	(anime original)
	Review date	March 6, 2013

I saw this movie mentioned in a Studio Ghibli forum thread, and since everyone was praising it I had to check it out too. And it was definitely worth it, I really hope we can get the DVD here in Finland so I can buy it.

The story starts with the college student Hana falling in love with a wolf-man. They have two kids, older sister Yuki and little brother Ame. Then suddenly the wolf daddy dies, and Hana has to move to the countryside in the middle of nowhere, since her human-wolf hybrid kids cause all kinds of problems. There she struggles to raise her kids, and the kids try to find their own path in life.

This is exactly my kind of movie. I like slice-of-life stories, so no villain or stuff like that was great. And I'm always excited for a movie with a female main character that is not a love story or has a girly subject by default (princesses, fairies, ponies, whatever).

I really love how the kids feel like real kids; turning into a wolf is completely normal to them, and they have trouble understanding why Hana wants to keep it a secret. Hana's plight as a single parent to "weird" kids was really well depicted too.

The movie looks absolutely amazing, and especially the parts where the wolves run in the nature are excellent. And the art style really pleases me, it reminds me of the sixth One piece film and the digimon movie I've seen, both which I love because of the art. The similarities aren't that surprising since they're made by the same guy. Hey, it's the same guy who made the Digimon episode where Taichi and Koromon hang out in the real world! I remember noticing how unique that episode looked even back when I was a kid!

If there's something I didn't quite like it was the human-wolf hybrids. Ears and tail are the extent I can allow on a person before it turns into a furry, which causes an automatic "eeeewww" reaction. Wolves with human hair are somewhat in the same category. And the internet has caused me a slight aversion on wolves; every time I see one in a story I think of a wolfaboo who loudly declares how they are actually a wolf at heart or something like that. But this time it was actually quite reasonable since the wolf hybrid thing was, like, the most important thing in the story (as opposed to "let's make the characters humans with animal features/animals with human features just because") so it was easier for me to stomach. I would also have wanted to see more Nirasaki, he just disappeared halfway through the movie.

Also, now I hate Clannad even more since now I have a story that deals with the "life after your partner's death and raising your child(ren) as a signle parent" issue in a non-trainwreck way.

Final judgement 3/3 HNNNGGGH