THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Kantoku: Mamoru Hosoda
Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Art Director: Hiroshi Oono

For a movie that has, in my opinion, an extremely boring-sounding premise I was very surprised how fast I was able to get invested in this movie and its characters.

There was something very delicate about the direction and the character acting, showing the realism of a mother struggling with two unusual kids but also her love towards them, and the children growing up and finding their purpose in life. The wolf element fit in very neatly as well, not only creating interesting interaction with the environment because they have to hide that they are werewolves but also how it is used to deal with its themes like finding your path in life, whether to be a human or a wolf.

Along with Yuki and Ame just being incredibly cute as little goofballs the characters just grew incredibly fast on me. The strength and love Hana also showed for her kids during her movie were quite incredible to witness. There are also numerous side characters like Souhei who I liked even if they had little screen time. Thanks to the delicate realism this movie opted for, there were a lot of nuances to how the characters behave which made them tangible and likable, even with little screen time.

The only thing I could criticize about this movie is the pacing toward the end, it felt a bit too stretched. I think the pacing up to that point was fine, but when Ame ran away and Hana started chasing him it felt a bit too stretched, to the point that I got bored a little.

However, at the very end, I still got very emotional, in that regard the movie did still well. Well to be fair, emotional moments between a mother and her child is the most surefire way to get my eyes wet so there was not much needed to grab me here.

I think it’s also just worth mentioning how incredible this movie looks. I mentioned the character acting and the direction before, but I also loved the simplicity of the character designs - They looked pleasing to the eye and were cute when they needed to be (Ame and Yuki) but also did a good job conveying the subtle nuances in the emotions properly. The backgrounds are beautiful as well. Nature is a big aspect of this movie after all, and they did a good job capturing its charm.

To sum up: This movie deserves all the love it gets! A wonderful depiction of a mother raising two werewolf children who find their purpose in life. It took me a while to check this one out but I'm glad to have watched it.