Maybe I really have to thank "Natsume", because Natsume is very popular, so Midorikawa's classic short story was animated after many years, which can be regarded as the wish of a large group of people, including me, of course.
Speaking of which, we should be ashamed. When our animations are constantly looking for some simple animals to be the protagonists, and when our serials are constantly passing through to retell the history in disguise, others are excavating things from their own traditional culture. come out and incorporate it into a modern story. Mountain gods, monsters, summer festivals. Legends and traditions are very well integrated into "Forest of Fireflies", and also in the now popular "Natsume Friends Book". Works that incorporate a lot of Japanese cultural elements, as well as "Summer Wars" and most of Miyazaki's animations that incorporate Japanese card art into the plot. Another thing I have to mention is that many people think that Go is a "chess soul" invented by the Japanese. Every time I see that others use some of our cultural elements, some people feel proud (our own culture is valued by others), and some people feel angry (our culture has been invaded), but I feel very ashamed and mourn for ourselves unsatisfactory. Even what the four sacred beasts in Chinese legends are, I learned them from "Unbelievable Game". (Animations with elements of the Four Holy Beasts also include Digimon, Beyblade, Four Holy Beasts, etc.) Maybe if it goes on like this, we don’t need to be robbed by others, and we don’t know what our own culture is. .
A bit off topic, let's go back to the animation itself. Akin, who maintains a human form with magic, is probably a soul-like existence, and if touched by a human, it will vanish into thin air. At the age of six, Takekawa Ying got lost in the forest of the mountain god, so the masked boy Ah Jin appeared, held her with a branch, and led her out of the forest. Then every day during the summer vacation, Hotaru came to this forest in this village, and every summer after that. Firefly grows up every year. When Yingying was six years old, Ajin was a teenager. When Yingying grew into a girl and went to junior high school in uniform, Ajin was still a teenager. They like each other, but they can't touch each other; they like each other, but the time of their lives is not equal. Until one summer night in Yingying High School, Ah Jin subconsciously helped a fallen boy after the summer festival of the monsters and was about to disappear from this world. He said, I can finally hug you. This was their first touch and their last hug.
The only thing the teenager left behind was this white mask, witnessing their many years of time and the kiss between them separated by this mask. In the summer night, cicadas were chirping and fireflies were flying. He said, "I can't wait for summer. Once I part with fireflies, even if I want to get rid of the crowd, I'll want to see you." Then the camera turned to them and moved slightly. He wanted to hold hands, but in the end he restrained it, and the struggle in his heart can be imagined. So he took off the mask, put it on her face, and kissed her gently. At this time, they were so close, but only close. In the end, the real embrace was the price of never seeing each other again.
He said that if I were touched by a human, I would disappear.
He said, you are here, I didn't expect you to come again.
He said, next year, will you come too?
Next year, Firefly will come. Yes, she will really come again.
Is she thinking, if I come, you must wait for me. Just like for so long, you were waiting for me at the intersection of the forest.
Has she ever thought, if I come again and you are not here, will my presence still make sense? The summer I look forward to is still so beautiful.
Finally one day she will no longer look forward to summer so eagerly, and she will not come to the forest to find him again. He disappeared, disappeared. Maybe this is the best ending. This story is doomed to have no happy ending from the start. Our world is different and our time is different. I can't touch you, and you can't wait for me.
In "Little Witch DOREMI", the human world and the witch world were once connected, and humans and witches could love and depend on each other until a certain generation of queens fell in love with humans and married human men. The witch has a long and long life, so she can only have her own youth, but she sees her husband and son die, and then she is regarded as an immortal monster by her descendants. From then on, she became disheartened and cursed: witches can never reveal their identity in front of humans. The unequal time and world are so terrifying.
Jin and Ying in "Forest of Firefly", instead of one young looking at the other old and never being in contact with each other, it is really better to live in each other's memory forever and repay a tender hug owed for many years.
The beautiful and warm memories of summer are always hidden in the softest place in our hearts. Anime is also such a memory, warm us. They moved me so that I could always face the world with a pure heart and resist the cruelty of the world. That's why I've always loved anime. The shoujo manga in our memory will tell us that we must be gentle when we meet gentle people, while the juvenile manga says, for the sake of dreams, let’s fly, young man. Then I remembered seeing this sentence a while ago: "Life is a hundred times crueler than comics. It has arranged around you countless fat tigers who like to bully you, countless strong men who like to laugh at you, and one you can never catch up with. Yijing, but never thought of giving you a real robot cat." Yes, because of this, we need to have beautiful fantasy to resist the cruel reality. If you even deprive this beauty in your heart, it will be too painful to live.
I hope that we will always have a summer in our hearts, with gentle teenagers and girls, cicadas chirping and fireflies flying.
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