Wolf Children Film Review

"I'll welcome you back home."

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Wolf Children is a 2012 anime film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda who has made other films such as Summer Wars (2009) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006). The film follows Hana and depicts 13 years of her life and the life of her kids as she has to navigate through an uneasy but beautiful time. The film starts with Hana in college who meets and falls in love with a mysterious, unnamed man who keeps to himself. Hana and the man get to know each other and the movie does a fantastic job showing their relationship through its animation and beautiful music. There will be scenes where no dialogue is said where it's just music and the two of them going somewhere like to a library quietly reading and it speaks volumes more. There are also scenes with great dialogue between the two of them walking around Tokyo such as Hana explaining the significance of her name. You buy into their relationship as the unnamed man is compassionate and kind. In the film, he works as a furniture mover. He has conversations with Hana about his experiences of seeing so many different people living in different apartments and how he wants a home of his own. He reveals to Hana that he is part wolf and transforms in front of Hana and Hana accepts for who he is instead of being afraid. The two get married and there's a beautiful sequence in the film of their married life together showing that even in this wonderful time there was still a bit of hardship. Hana becomes pregnant and in fear of the children becoming wolves at the hospital, Hana and her husband instead have to do the pregnancy all at their own home with no help. Soon enough Hana and her husband have two wolf children of their own Yuki and Ame.

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Hana's husband dies in an accident while hunting for food causing Hana to be alone in raising the wolf children on her own. She lives in an apartment in Tokyo and has to constantly deal with hardships in the city inadvertently from her children being part wolf. Her children bite the furniture in her apartment and have to be concealed whenever she goes outside so the public doesn't see them transform and the movie does such a great job showing Hana's hardships here. There is a great scene where Yuki gets sick and Hana is standing next to a hospital and a veterinarian's clinic as she can't decide which one to take Yuki to. Hana doesn't have the answer for everything. She is a character who cares deeply for her children but often has to improvise and make solutions to parenting problems that almost feel impossible to solve. Hana does so much for her children even in this part of the movie and never takes any stress out on her children. Hana asks Yuki and Ame both if they would rather be human or be wolves and as they can't figure that out she decides to give them the option to choose that on their own. Hana understands from her experiences that the city is not a good fit for her kids so she decides to move out into the countryside and farm for food.

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An amazing thing Wolf Children does all throughout the film is to have many events take place but every event has time to breathe. Hana has to not only learn how to farm but also has to completely renovate and fix up the broken home she buys in the countryside. Hana constantly messes up in planting produce like potatoes but gradually learns and gets better through an older strict farmer and the other farmers she makes friends with who live by her. Yuki meanwhile acts as a character who is rambunctious, wild, and curious. She embraces her wolf side as a kid where she constantly chases animals and acts very outgoing and playful to everyone. Ame meanwhile acts timid and scared in his early years as he reads children's books about how wolves are seen as bad and get hunted. As the film goes on and Yuki and Ame grow up their perspectives slowly but surely change and develop.

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Yuki starts out as more carefree and really embraces her wolf side in the beginning but as she goes to school and meets other girls her age she becomes much more self-conscious and wants to act more human. She realizes that she wants to fit in with her human side and act more feminine and not scare off the other girls with her fossil and bug collections. As you are younger you want more validation and need praise from others around you to feel like you are worth something. Yuki feels this way and becomes timid and constantly afraid that her wolf side will pop out at any unexpected moment. A great scene that showcases this is her interaction with the new boy at her school named Sōhei. When Sōhei questions Yuki when she wants to be left alone she accidentally hits his ear in her wolf form. Sōhei doesn't blame her for the incident but when Hana and Yuki go back into the car Yuki breaks down crying because the pressure and stress finally get to her as she thought her actions would cause her family to be at risk.

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Ame is Yuki's polar opposite starting out as afraid and fragile during the first half of the movie and slowly but surely becomes more confident and embraces the wolf side of him. He has more of an interest in the forest and becomes far more independent than he was at the start of the movie and this puts him in a conflict with his sister Yuki who wants him to go to school instead. Hana through thick and thin accepts and encourages what each of her children wants and the rest of the movie focuses on what they decide to do in their lives and the relationships they have with others. A last positive to give would be the score by Takagi Masakatsu. Every single song in this movie is used appropriately and conveys every single emotion the characters are feeling beautifully and flawlessly. Whether it be the beautiful and peaceful Lullaby In the Peaceful Light during a scene with Hana and her husband or the heartbreaking and reassuring Home After Rain every song lands and is memorable.

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There aren't many movies that leave such a personal impact quite like Wolf Children out there. It's a film that explores grief after loss but is also about finding the hope and confidence to keep going forward no matter how hard things get. It is a truly inspiring movie that is about love and being thankful for all that your loved ones will do for you and it's also a film about how to let go of something even if it's hard. There are themes like acceptance and how you can choose your own way in life and that no matter what people will ultimately care about you. It's a great film for kids and an even better film for adults as Wolf Children is a much watch for anyone trying to find their place in the world or trying to find their way back home.