- Characters 3
- Story 2
- Enjoyment 2
- Art .5
- Animation 1
Overall Score: 8.5/10
If I were to describe Wolf Children in 1 word it would be…deep.
The story is centered around Hana who meets and falls in love with a man who is also a wolf. She has his children, a girl named Yuki and later, a boy named Ame. After some events (that I won’t talk about for the sake of keeping this review as spoiler-free as possible) Hana decides to take Ame and Yuki far away from the city, into the mountains, where they can grow up having the freedom of whether they wish to follow their wolf half or human half.
The characters are all wonderful. All the way from Hana, the determined and hard-working mother, to her two children Ame and Yuki who are polar opposites.
I couldn’t get enough of this family. The sibling relationship between Ame and Yuki is portrayed realistically, which is more than I can say about 90% of the anime I see now. And the character development is off the charts. The way Ame and Yuki mature and the way Hana does her best to learn how to raise her wolf children properly is fantastic. There’s a perfect mix of drama, comedy, and scenes that just give you warm fuzzies. :3
The art gave me somewhat of a Hayao Miyazaki feeling. And the backgrounds often gave off the same tones as those in Kimi ni Todoke. The light, warm, artistic ones.
After watching Wolf Children, I felt like I couldn’t watch another movie for a while. Just because I wanted to sit down and think about the psychological themes within. It might sound kind of weird, but I just wanted to let the entire movie sink in before moving on.
The only cons I can see with Wolf Children is the art and the Wolfman (Ame and Yuki’s father). Occasionally, the character’s faces look somewhat stretched and a bit off and the concept of the Wolfman is only briefly touched upon. They don’t really go in-depth about his past or his character.
That being said, the distorted art is only occasional and there are plenty of animation scenes that are done beautifully to make up for it.
So to sum it up:
Pros: Deep and thought-provoking. Strong, interesting, realistic characters. Incredibly well written. The music is beautiful and so are many animation scenes. Pure and clean.
Cons: The art is occasionally a bit distorted. It would be nice to have known more about the Wolfman.
Worth watching? Definitely. Especially if you’re a fan of josei or slice of life. If people ask me for a good anime movie to watch that isn’t a Studio Ghibli film, Wolf Children is always what I suggest. I would even say that it’s one of my all-time favorite movies. So if you’re looking for a clean, wholesome, well written, deep movie; something different from the average, check out Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki.
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