One Stormy Night

A cute and lovely story conveyed by gorgeous art. One can't ask for a better thing to watch on a Sunday afternoon. This is a children's movie, surrounded by an aura of good feelings and easy humour. But everyone needs good feelings and easy humour once in a while! The story is simple, as well as the objective: a wolf and a sheep are friends and, no matter the differences, they will fight for their friendship till the end. This story is pampered by beautiful art. One of the better I have ever seen. In a digital-traditional mix sometimes you're not sure what is watercolour and whatis tridimensional animation, which results in a very pleasant experience to the eyes. The beauty of the art helps to characterise the personalities of our characters. The sweet, round and fluffy lambs (which actually look quite tasty, from a certain perspective...) opposed to the ugly and flea ridden wolves (fact that makes them hilarious characters, even though they are ferocious and scary) This way the simplicity of the characters and the story turns into something very interesting and heart-warming. A must-see if you have children running through your house and you want them to sit quiet for almost 2 hours. I tried it and it works!

Arashi no Yoru ni is a tale of friendship between a goat and a wolf. The anime won Japan Academy Award in 2005. Although it appears like a kids’ stuff, it touches mature themes and faces the fundamental flaw in the main heroes’ friendship, namely, the fact that one is predator and the other prey. The plot is simple and straightforward. In a stormy night Gobu (wolf) and Mei (goat) find shelter in a barn. They cannot see or smell each other. They pass time in talking and become friends. They decide to meet another time, and soon find out the unfortunate truth. Yet they decideto continue their friendship. They develop such a strong bond that when facing starvation, Gobu refuses to eat his friend. At first glance the anime looks like for kids: the plot is like a fairy tale. There is nothing special about it. Initially you may think it resembles Western cartoons catered to children. But Arashi no Yoru ni begs to differ. In a Disney or Pixar animation predator and prey are best buddies. Those studios intentionally avoid touching the ugly reality of the relationship between the hunted and the hunter. We ignore that being a predator is the nature of many animals. The beauty of Arashi lies in its facing reality, addressing the problem of human/wolf/lamb nature, and by doing so it successfully introduces a philosophical question to an ordinary story about a lamb and a wolf. Arashi is dealing with an existential question. Gobu can eat Mei. It's in his nature, he is a wolf. But instead he chooses friendship, but without a change in his nature. He continues to kill and eat other preys. At nights he goes for hunt and Mei knows it. Here Arashi radically differs from Disney movies. In Disney, wolves, sharks, lions may become innocuous vegetarians. Nature is Disney’s plaything to make money. But in Arashi no Yoru ni, nature does not change that easily. It keeps its cruelty. I think the most dramatic scene of the movie is when Gobu questions his own existence: he asks why he was born a wolf. The unlikely friends know their nature and they run away from what they are. Gobu and Mei leave their relatives - wolves and sheep. Despite their strong bond, nature is always there. When Gobu loses his memory and undergoes a temporary amnesia, he reverts back to his wolf nature. He does not recognize Mei and tries to eat him. The story ends when they arrive at a new land, where there's no hunter or prey. It is as if they die and nature cackles.

Arashi no Yoru ni was originally a children's story written by Kimura Yuichi. It won several rewards and was turned into a series of books, an anime film and a TV series. Let's take a look at the film from Group TAC. You might wonder why I'm looking at a kid's movie. Well, I don't review this type of anime often since most of my requests are geared towards adults or older teenagers and I just feel like doing it for a change of pace. Besides, I needed something short to review before Monster. The story is pretty basic. What, you wanted more from a kid'smovie? On a stormy night a goat named Mei takes shelter in an abandoned... house... shed... barn... porno theatre? It's not really clear since the screen is really dark. The important thing is that, while he's there a wolf, Gabu, walks in. Naturally, Gabu smells Mei and gobbles him up and so our story ends within ten minutes. Okay, that's not what happens. They both have the sniffles so they can't smell each other. They each assume that they're the same species and talk. They become fast friends and agree to meet the next day when the skies are clear. So, they meet at the barn, did you really think it was a porno theatre?, and Gabu instantly gobbles Mei up. Okay, that doesn't happen. They realise that they're different species, but decide to be secret friends anyway because friendship is important to both of them. Unfortunately for them, the other goats/wolves find out and that's when things get interesting. I won't go further into the plot, as to not spoil anything but things really do get interesting. It's a pretty simple story about friendship and adversity, but it's surprisingly well told. The conflicts are actually nuanced Yeah, it's cutesy but it has a good amount of depth for what it is and it is a pretty fun film. Okay, so I like cutesy stuff, sue me. Honestly, the only real issue with the film's plot is the side story about Mei's mom being killed by wolves. They show it at the very start and mention it once. After that it doesn't go anywhere. There's no payoff and no conflict resulting from it. It's odd to see a scene that should have a lot of weight end up being completely irrelevant. A lot of what makes the film work is the interaction between Mei and Gabu. They're both interesting characters and they have great interactions. Even the side characters have verisimilitude and they do bring up legitimate concerns. They aren't vilified even though they end up in antagonistic roles, except maybe for Giro. Still, there's a lot of character subtlety especially for a kid's movie. Seriously, these characters get more developed in an hour and forty minutes than the entire cast of Gantz gets in twenty six episodes and that was made for adults. Extremely immature adults who just want to see violence and nudity, but still adults. The art in this is beautifully done. The nature scenes are really detailed with vibrant landscapes. The animals are stylized, but they're really nicely drawn too. It's not quite as good as Studio Ghibli's usual work, but it comes pretty close. The voice acting is good. Both Narimiya Hiroki and Nakamura Shidou do well in their roles. As do Takeuchi Riki and everyone else really. The music is kind of bland, actually. It's not bad, but it's pretty typical. The yuri factor is a 1/10. There are some female characters, but their interaction is minimal. Besides, it's a film about a wolf making friends with a goat. You shouldn't expect romance. It would just be silly. What's the final word? Well, Arashi no Yoru ni does have a lot of positives. The artwork is beautiful, the characters are well done, the story, though simple, is well told and the voice acting is really good. There are a few negatives. There are some pointless scenes and the music is kind of dull, but it's a surprisingly good movie. It doesn't really matter whether you're an adult or a child, it's a fun film. My final rating is an 8/10. If you've got a couple hours, check it out. Next week, the Monster review will finally go up. You can hold your breath if you'd like, but I refuse to take responsibility for any adverse effects you suffer as a result.