Wolf Children
Khoi Vinh

Review by Khoi Vinh Patron

Wolf Children 2012

★★★★

Rewatched 29 Mar 2024

Showed this to my twin eleven year-olds who are teetering on that knife's edge before teendom and tweendom, and there was so much in there, especially in Ame’s story, that seemed to echo their anxious states of mind. This is essentially a story of biracialism, of the tension between assimilation and remaining true to your innate cultural otherness, and it’s told with such care and gentleness that it’s a true wonder.

Also, I hesitate to compare this to Ghibli’s work but I have to point to this movie as my defense against the accusation that I have no sympathy for anime. Actually, I have little sympathy for the broad swath of high profile anime that seems to have little interest in or patience for substantive character development, opting instead for opulent, arguably empty visual spectacle. Give me a “Wolf Children,” though, which is basically the inverse of that balance—twenty percent visual spectacle and eighty percent character development—and I’m a kid again.

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