I thought of you in the winter, and autumn, and spring. Hotaru being her determined self goes on to say “You remind me of snow, because it disappears once someone touches it. Gin tells her more about himself, about his past and why he can’t touch humans. As his body is weak (being sustained by magic) and will disappear upon human touch, he knows that they can’t continue on like this and he tells Hotaru to forget him. The now much older Hotaru starts thinking about the future, and she tells Gin that she wants to find a job in the area after she graduates, so that she can be with him. Hotaru knows that she probably can’t be with him in the future when she becomes older, but of course, she just keeps it to herself.Īfter she enters high school, Hotaru returns to the mountain god’s forest and shows off her school uniform (once again). As the years passed, Hotaru continues to mature while Gin still seems to be 18-20. It was an innocent friendship at the start, which slowly turned into deeper feelings each time they met in the summer. The movie starts off light-hearted with some comedic elements here and there. They can only meet in the summer when she’s there with her uncle, and Gin dies if he comes into contact with a human, so no paedophilia here (thank goodness). Hotaru is a normal (actually not so) girl that happens to wander into the forest when she was 6, meeting Gin the foxdude who seems about 18-20 in the movie.

Of course, this was already a huge heads-up to what lies ahead but I watched it anyway knowing that I’d probably end up crying. The movie starts off with Hotaru (our female protagonist) recounting the past about Gin and her.

This movie was released in 2011, so the art is still pretty decent. I can’t remember how I chanced upon this, but it decided to watch this on my last week of the December holidays. I should warn you guys that I am pretty emotional when it comes to touching or sad scenes, but this one is MORE than just a tear-jerker. Continues watching on in hope that there is more after the credits* *Credits end off with lyrics to their song* … I guess that’s how it ends.

It only takes up 45 minutes of your time (for a massive emotional build-up towards the end) 😉 If you haven’t watched this, go give it a go. So here’s the movie that got me started on this little blog.

Hotarubi no mori e movie online