(an attempt of essay writing after almost 10 months)
Something that disappears when touched... It's just like snow isn't it?
First of all apologies for any incoherence in this word vomit of emotions. How to eloquent? On to the review. Hotarubi no Mori e has always been one of those mangas that I feel like I should think twice/thrice before rereading due to the immense emotions it is capable of giving. One of the things that I really like about this story is how simple and subtle it is. I like boring things and this is just perfect. There are no unnecessary additional characters, set and over-the-top plot twist; even the art (which am going to elaborate much much more later on) is kept simple. The mangaka made it very clear of conflicts of the story from the very first time we were introduced to the characters and it sort of stayed like that.
Am a spirit. You're a human. You touch, I die.
Well, basically. Not that am complaining with the simple prompt. Not at all. It actually gives more room for the readers/viewers to see the interaction and growing relationship between these characters. The emphasis on physical contact, or lack thereof, actually helped shed more light on the little details between Gin and Hotaru's romance. Like I said, the strength of this story is its subtlety. The progress between Hotaru and Gin's romance isn't on big gestures like surprise hugs and kisses as what you would expect from the usual shoujo mangas because they couldn't afford the consequences that come after. Hotaru couldn't afford to lose Gin and Gin couldn't bear the fact of Hotaru blaming herself should he disappear. Cue sad, distressed fangirl mode.
No matter what, don't ever touch me okay?
The writing of this story is also very clever. There is a lot of mirroring going on in the story to show the contrast and development of Gin and Hotaru's relationship.
I won't go in too deep about the whole dynamic between these two because I think Fairuz did a great job at expressing it. So I'll leave it at that.
This is the part where I get scared to write and quite possibly be seen an shallow, but hell.
The art of the manga and anime is amazing. I was initially quite skeptical to watch the anime version out of fear that the production company would ruin the subtlety of the original art as what usually happens to animes, sadly. This is a huge deal for me because the art is the storytelling and that is what made the manga so good in the first place since the plot is relatively very simple. The panning, panel order, use of negative spaces, simple pen strokes - these are the small things that create the whole atmosphere of the story. And am very thankful that the production team of the anime kept that close in mind when designing the set (most probably because the anime is just 45-minute long so they can afford to be so keen on the details).
The colour gradient used was very calm (compared to K which has a lot more deep contrast going on) and there are a lot of soft light and bird-eye view going on which I think adds to the whole concept of "distance" going on in Hotaru and Gin's relationship.
Considering that the entire anime and manga was set at the forest, am glad to see that the production company added A LOT of amazing scenery feast to create this whole soft, mythical image for the forest.
so pretty my god
So yes, that concluded my somewhat brief (and sadly not as deep) review of this amazing story. I shall attempt a better review at later time orz
Your gifs are pretty :3 Did you make it yourself?
ReplyDeleteI'm very, very horrible when it comes to art. It's so bad that I probably wouldn't even notice the most obvious of things in manga (MANGA! Where they all stand STILL!) until it's pointed out to me. So I hope you forgive me when I say that I have no idea what you're talking about when you mention negative space and panning lol. (Perhaps you can be kinder to me and explain more in future posts? orz)
But I like the idea of soft, calm art accompanying the storyline. As I said in my own post and the comment in Elie's, I love the fact that the relationship of these two are not made up of elaborate gestures and big moments. The art probably plays a big part in setting up the mood, because when you're watching the anime especially it does feel like you've entered some sort of ephemeral world that won't let go until the ending credits.
... That might have sounded a bit freaky and so otaku-ish, but alas I shall not deny myself.
And on a second note, why do I always ramble!?
ah sorry for the vague explanation. negative spaces (most frequently used in the manga version) is when the object is just on its own in a panel/page. no background whatsoever and the character/object that is aimed to be focused on is made very... obvious (?). kind of like the gif i used for the manga (and no none of them are mine OTL) panning is basically how a scene 'moves'. like did it zoom in, zoom out, move in circle etc. Hope it helps :)
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