Anime Review : Hotarubi no Mori e | A 45-minute OVA about a basic but intense love story

BrainBase's Hotarubi no Mori e is a 45-minute OVA about a basic but intense love story. The premise is simple, and the animation is simple, but it tells a story with such complexity that ova proves that a good story does not require hundreds of episodes. 45 minutes is an excellent length since it is neither too long nor too short, and it allows you to begin developing and concluding a plot.

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It's brief enough that you can sit and watch it without sacrificing your entire evening. It helps writers to tell a strong story without having to concentrate on anything else; they can only build a nice world and some nice characters and tell a good story without having to spend time and money on other things like they would in a longer series. Hotarubi no Mori e is a perfect example of her 45-minute OVA should be done.

The stories are told through the memories of our main character Hotaru Takegawa, who encountered and befriended a spirit named Gin while riding the train one summer when she was just six years old. Despite the fact that they were great friends, they didn't touch because Gin would vanish if he ever touched a person.

Every year, she would return to Gin and spend the entire summer with him because the Jin Manor spirit ages at a fraction of the rate that humans do, so Hotaru grew up to Gin's age and their childhood friendship blossomed into love.

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Since they couldn't meet each other, the love tale was a breath of fresh air from typical romance anime. There was no pressure to make the love story physical, which gave them a lot of room to concentrate on creating a romantic love story with a unique romance.

When you remove the physical relationship from a lot of romance anime, it becomes very superficial and dull, but despite being just 45 minutes long, this love story was only good writing and good character development. They make what is just four or five minutes sound like a whole story arc, as though you've spent an entire series with these characters.

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By the end, you'll be emotionally invested in both characters. Using each summer as a stepping stone, you'll see how the characters' relationship evolves from friendship to love and how they deal with it without giving something away. The story's climax was fantastic; it was strong, emotional, and perfectly captured the mood of the story.