Anime: Hottarake no Shima: Haruka to Mahou no Kagami

Hottarake no Shima: Haruka to Mahou no Kagami is directed by Satou Shinsuke, which is his directorial debut. Character designs are from the wonderful mind of Hirata Ryou.

Hottarake is a wonderful story about once treasured items being forgotten over the course of time. Which is invariably inevitable given the nature of how fickle we as people, and society, are. However, every once in a while we get reminded of our once treasured items and go searching for them, only to find that they have come up missing. This is where Hottarake comes in with brilliant CG, beautiful artwork, a touching heartfelt story set in a fantastical fantasy world.

Art and Animation - Brilliant!
I am not one for CG animation. I have the general opinion that it is a nuisance. Every once in a while a title comes along that does the CG so wonderful, so fantastic, that I disregard my disliking of it and dive into the show with open arms. Such is the case here with Hottarake.

It opens with a mother reading a story to a child. The artwork is pastel colored and has the feel of sumi-e or ink painting. That doesn't last long and when the CG comes in, it blows your eyes away. The colors are rich and lively, they compliment each other wonderfully. No one color is over powering and thusly distracting from another. The backgrounds are wonderfully detailed, dare I say rivaling Shinkai Makoto?

Sound - Wonderful
Usually, I don't pay attention to background music. However with Hottarake, it plays such an important role in setting the mood of the scene that if it went unnoticed... you must have had the volume on mute. It is blatantly apparent in the scene when Haruka meets Cotton. The use of colors and music really play on the emotions that Haruka is feeling. It tugs especially hard on the heartstrings because everyone can relate! I am positive that everyone has had a treasured item that they've lost and was missing for years, to find it again. Despite the treasured item being inanimate, you can still relate to the scene on screen. If there were different music, I doubt it would be just as touching.

The reuniting of Haruka and Cotton isn't the only moment when the music plays such a huge part. There is another scene when Teo's stool is discovered to actually be phonograph. The music that plays when Haruka gets it going is wonderful and plays an important role later in the movie. I won't give it away, nor will I describe anymore scenes, that would just detract from your enjoyment of the show!

Voice acting was wonderful! Ayase Haruka makes her seiyuu debut as the lead character, Haruka. I think she did a wonderful job conveying the emotions that were presented and should be felt. I do hope she has some future roles in anime. Teo is voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki (Lag Seeing, Celty Sturluson, Bushujima Saeko, Drei/Cal Devens, CANAAN) and some of her other characters do come through at times, especially Lag and Celty. Not only do the two lead characters do a superb job but even the support characters are nicely voiced. It is so distracting when lead characters are wonderfully voiced, yet the supporting characters sound flat and monotone.

Story - How to talk about it without giving it away...
Well, I don't want to spoil anything. Although given the nature of the show, it is pretty predictable and within the first ten minutes or so, you'll have the ending figured out. There are a few minor twists but nothing that majorly changes the story.

The story revolves around this alternate world. The inhabitants of this alternate world are unable to create new items, they can only change preexisting items into various items that will be useful. They get these preexisting items by going into the human world and taking items that get forgotten about.

Haruka's mother was terminally ill and passed away. The only memento of her that Haruka has is a mirror, which over time gets forgotten about and is taken by... whatever these alternate world inhabitants are called. There is a legend that if you offer an egg to these inhabitants and pray, your newly remembered item will be returned. Haruka goes to the shrine and offers an egg to get her mothers mirror back. While at the shrine some young boys are playing with a toy airplane. They leave it on the ground and it is forgotten. Enter Teo, an inhabitant of this alternate world. He comes to take that item. Unbeknownst to him, he is spotted and followed.

This is where Haruka, and Teo's adventure begins. It is a great story, don't get me wrong. However it is predictable and has a few cliches. I'd compare it to a Ghibli or a Disney movie. Despite the predictability and cliched story, it is a good watch and enjoyable.

Characters - Easily relateable
The characters of Hottarake are very easy to relate to, at least the main two.

Haruka - 16 year old girl that wants to get her mothers mirror back. She spots and follows Teo into the alternate world. She undergoes some changes while she is in the alternate world. Mainly that she starts to realize the value of items and begins to appreciate them more.

Teo - A male of unknown age that inhabits the alternate world. He works to collect forgotten items. He is followed by Haruka and goes on an adventure to help her get her mirror back.

Cotton - Haruka's old stuffed sheep/lamb that was forgotten about and taken to the alternate world. Reunited with Haruka where Haruka conveys her feelings towards Cotton. Takes part in the adventure.

There is a brief summary of the two main characters and Cotton, the supporting character with a fair amount of screen time. The characters are lively and well animated. Not just technically speaking with regards to the animators. Their movements and reactions are very believeable and are quite dynamic. Their growth is well done.

Value and Enjoyment - I think it is fantastic!
I suppose there is some value to Hottarake as it has the underlying moral to appreciate everything. It is conveyed nicely and it isn't blatantly shoved in your face how fickle and relatively shallow society and humans are. It is a great family show and I do recommend sitting down with some younger children or even a significant other and watch this. It is just over an hour and a half and I loved nearly every second of it. There are a few things which I might have done differently, which I will refrain from getting into because this is a family show and it is suppose to be joyous and happy. Although it did tug on the heartstrings on more than one occasion. I highly recommend it and I am very glad I watched it.

After watching this i would say that it was createad as a Friday night movie for famalies xD if you like this kind of movies, then get this ;)

Animation 8.5
Nothing realy to say here... if u dislike 3D animation then this is not for you, if you like it then you will like this to, and if your someone like me who dont care than i suppose you will like:) as for me the animation was Wonderful. I would say that only 1/3 of the movie has average animation and the other 2/3 is great.

Sound 8
Character voice actors are good,especialy liked Haruka and Toe voices.
music wasnt something special, but there wasnt any need for something special.
Sound does its job where is needed.

Story 7
average - nothing new story... Haruka was little when her mom died, Now shes in junior high school. One day she notice that her memorial of mom is gone for a long time now. So she decides to find it. Remembering her mom telling her a story about fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood.These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten "treasures" into their world. Your favourite teddy bear.The picture book you used to read over and over again. The shining stone you found that day in the park.
Excidently she happens to see one of those creatures and follows it to forest where a secret passage leads to a city , a fairy tale-like place called... Oblivion Island. After some things happening she make friends with that creature she followd. And then adventure begins!! trying to find her moms memorial in a magic city where ofcourse humans are not allowd to be :D and the city is pretty much ruled by an Evil Baron

Character 6
Nothing to be surprised or something. We have only few main characters and none of them develop our go into philosophy and discuss instead of kicking the shit out of monsters, runing from monsters, sending monster on someone, talking abou nonesens of life... well as i said in the begining its a family anime, I dont thing that 12year old would want to hear something philosophical xD

Entertaiment 7
Good for : Family watching, Quick watch, Happy story, To see whats new wtih 3D animation, wanted a fresh air.
Bad if : you hate 3D, Wanted something outstanding that would change your life for ever

Value 7
Beautiful animation, nice sound, same old story...
Dont think that it will influance any other anime, except the 3D part of animation.
Well all in all for me it was just 1anime seen more or 1anime seen less :D