Monday 12 March 2012

Completed: Hotarubi no Mori e (contains spoilers)

Originally Published November 27, 2011 on Tumblr


Should have done this yesterday since that’s when i finished it but oh well…
So this is a One shot Manga done by the same creator as Nastume Yuujinchou. It’s four chapters long, each one their own completely separate story…. none of them have any connection to each other…. so i’ll look at each one…

Chapter 1
This story is about a girl who is six years old, Hotaru getting lost in a wood that’s full of demons, gods and monsters. Sobbing and alone she is approached by a boy with silver hair and a mask, his name is Gin. He offers to lead her out of the forest on the condition that she doesn’t touch him since if he is ever touched by a human he will vanish.

after bumping into a few ‘Yokai’ who warn Hotaru no to touch Gin they get out of the forest and she promises to return the following day. She does this for the rest of summer, unfortunately she is just visiting her grandfather and wont return to the next summer. However she promises to come back.
Of course she does this, every year, quickly she realizes that she will continue to catch up to his age which is about 16 while he will remain unchanging. We see how much the creatures of this forest love Gin, we find out a bit of his back story and as the years pass Hotaru realizes she loves gin but is sad since she’ll never be able to touch him.

SPOILER WARNING
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So this has been going on for about 10 years. Hotaru, now 16 and nearly finished highschool, comes to see Gin again. She talks about getting a job near her grandfathers place so she can see him more then just every summer.
He smiles and asks her to come to the Yokai festival, he wanted to bring her before but figured she’d be scared by the demons and such…. but now that she was older and it was almost impossible to tell the difference between Yokai and human at these things it would be more fun.
She changes into her Yukata and they ties a piece of cloth around their wrist… it’s the only way they can hold hands after all, they go and have a good time, he even gives Horatu his mask. Untill….
A child trips nearby and Gin goes to help him up…. not realizing the child was a human who snuck into the festival…. his hand begins to vanish into light. He turns to Hotaru and smiled. “Now we can finally touch” and they embrace until he is completely gone.
And then the waterworks, other then the fact that this scene is really well drawn it’ just so sad….
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END SPOILER WARNIGN

okay… next…

Chapter 2 - Overhearing a Flower song.
It’s spring and an interesting tune can be heard from the old school building, Shima has always been curious about who makes it but has never been able to figure it out. That is until Fujiwara, a delinquent, is humming the same tune down the hall.

Seems his guitar was stolen and she happened to see it… she directs him to go under the cherry blossom tree and then follows him as he rushes. he is so happy to get it back and an unlikely friendship is born.

However it seems he isn’t the one playing the melody, it’s a third year girl whom he is teaching since he can’t play anymore thanks to an injury to his left hand.

so shima worries that he likes the third year more and decides to get lessons as well. so she learns, she’s not great but she’s having fun…. Fujiwara nearly gets into a fight and she jumps in and hurts her hand… he worries but it’s fine…. in the end they get together? i think….

next~

Chapter 3 - The falling of autumn leaves
This story is cute. a poor girl, Tsubaki, has vowed to protect her rich childhood friend, Kaede, who she saved from a potential kidnapping when he was small. SO now she follows him around and protects him from everything.

unfortunately lately he’s been acting cold toward her, telling her to go home without him and even threatening to not be her friend if she continues acting like that. she immediately distances herself from him but keeps watch.

she notices a few things, first he smiles a lot more when she’s not around and he seems to be much stronger then she ever let herself notice. This makes her feel incredibly lonely… she had always justified being his friend by being able to protect him.

Around this realization he notices she’s tailing him… and chases after her. unfortunately he can’t seem to catch up to her. this goes on for a while and they give up on each other for a while… until some bullies try and ask for some money and  Tsubaki comes to the rescue… seems old habits die hard.

expecting to be scolded she is near tears but instead he thanks her, he always tried to be stronger ever since the near kidnapping but Tsubaki was always so strong, but still he loves her.

Next~

Chapter 4 - Deepening the Scar
ugh… ok this will be fast…oh and this one takes place in winter
Ritsu and Sou are brother and sister who are always together… until their parents start fighting and the children are split up.

8 years later

the parents get back together and the children are reunited… now 16 an 17 things are… odd…. they start feeling things that she shouldn’t be… they try to return to their relationship that they had when they were small.

that doesn’t seem to work…. and after one hug on a walk home Sou states that after graduation he will leave her forever.

and he does.

END OF MANGA

so…. yeah…. that was description heavy but what do i think?

I loved chapter 1…. it made me cry it was so sweet… unfortunately everything after was a disappointment. it almost feels like the writer wanted to write the one story…. but needed to fill a four chapter book.

chapter 2 was ok, didn’t care about the story plus it was predictable so yeah…

chapter 3 was very cute and in the end it was just a story to give you the warm and fuzzy feeling…
which was promptly destroyed by chapter 4…. i HATED chapter 4… granted i don’t like incest plot lines and in the end nothing happens between them but still… didn’t like.

There seems to be an animated movie for the first chapter… looking forward to seeing that and sobbing like a baby. this is also the chapter that most similar to Natsume yuujinchou since it does with yokai and spirits so that could contribute to why i liked this one the most…. but honestly it’s just so cute and sad.

so yeah… cute little one shot, if you come across read it but be warned, not all the stories will be to your liking…. in fact just read the first chapter…. thats all you need.

i think this is my longest thing so far…. wow….

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