Hotori - Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau

Information of Anime

Suzu, a Personality Plant robot, is being tested at a hospital containing Ogura Ryo's Personality Unit.  Personality Units are memory unit carrying the memory of the deceased person.  Not only does it contains the person's memory, but also his/her actions.  A nearly-perfect clone.

One day, Suzu meets a girl named Shimizu Hotori at a house near the hospital.  She suffers from a disease that causes rapid memory loss.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Suzu was made in replacement of Ogura Ryo by the Ogura family.  As we watch the story, we discover how close Suzu is very much like Ryo.  However, Suzu knows that he's a robot with Ryo's memories.  One day while playing catch, his ball goes inside a house nearby.  There he meets Hotori in a room when she mistakenly calls to him as "brother".  The two talk to one another & Suzu tells Hotori that he's a robot.  Knowing that he gains memories that isn't his, Hotori tells him about her disease where she loses her memory that she cherishes, such as her late mother.  The story progress as the two met everyday & talk.  Here, we learn more about Hotori's memories & how Suzu is being like Ryo.  Later on, we discover that Suzu is actually a robot without a Personality Unit installed.  This explains her rapid memory loss.

One day, the Ogura family consisting of only Ryo's parents, visit Suzu in person.  As they hug him & cry in happiness, Suzu feels nothing for them.  When he visits Hotori in her secret place, he tells her about how he understands how the Oguras feel about him.  However, he can't return the feeling back.  Then he starts questioning himself about why he was created & the memories he has from Ryo.  Later on, Hotori continues to tell Suzu about her memory loss & asks him a favour, which he agrees without knowing what it is.  It turns out that Suzu wants him to shoot her with a gun she found in the greenhouse when she starts to forget everything.

The story progresses as Suzu starts to stop responding to the name Ryo.  This creates some concern to the lab staff.  Thinking about his promise, Suzu learns from Hotori's brother that she went missing.  Ryo finds Suzu who looks like she is about to jump of a building.  Ryo stops her, but when Hotori looks at him, she asks him who he is.  When Suzu goes back to the lab to repair his knee that he broke while saving Suzu, the nurse notices him crying when he learns that Hotori is safe.  This concerns the professor as he believes that Suzu is developing his own personality & starting to lose Ryo's.

At night, everyone at the hospital is outside enjoying the fireworks going on.  Suzu, carrying the gun in hand, goes to Hotori's room & prepares to shoot her.  At the last second of firing, he aims the gun at the ceiling.  He tells Hotori that he can't do it & wants to be with her.  Sitting beside her, Hotori gives Suzu a Personality Unit.

Time passes & we see a funeral of Hotori who has passed away.  Suzu attends the funeral with her family.  Leaving the chruch, the Oguras call Suzu by his real name, not Ryo.  As he sits in the car, we heard Hotori's voice.  It turns out that Suzu has Hotori's Personality Unit installed inside him without her family knowing it. 

My Personal Review

Hotori - Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau is actually a TV special made by amateurs.  The anime won first prize of the third annual Animax contest.  Although it's not professionally done, it has a excellent storyline.  Regardless of what type of anime you watch, I highly recommend watching this.

Animation

The character designs are something that I didn't like.  It looks ugly to me.  The faces looked flat on the side & the eyes were pretty big & wide.  It's something you won't see in comparison to today's anime standards.

However, I would give credit about the backgrounds.  They aren't bad, but not breathtaking either.  However, it does set the environment to the scenes.

The colouring is dull, but well-balanced in terms of toning.  The skin tones, the shadows of the trees, the lighting in Hotori's room, it's pretty good.

The animation movements are quite impressing.  The movements are very natural & flowing.  The running, throwing, & water flowing in the pond are very good.  It's really comparable to today's professional anime animations.

Sound

The sound effect are ok.  They didn't sound bad & set the mood quite well.  The sounds are natural & realistic.

The voices are very good & acted out the characters well.  You can actually feel their pain through their voices.  It's quite impressive that the creators managed to get Kawasumi Ayako, a professional Seiyuu, to voice act Hotori. It's very rare for amateur creators to get a professional Seiyuu to voice act in your work.

The music was ok, but a bit soft.  In fact, I don't recall any of the music in the TV special except the beginning & ending.  The ending theme I didn't like much because of the singing & voice.  It's like something you would hear from an opera.

Story

One word: Fantastic!  It's very well written & tackles an issue that isn't commonly used in stories these days.  You have one robot gaining memories that doesn't belong to him & doesn't really need in the first place & another robot losing memories that she should have.  Even though they are just robots, it's still touching.  Even more interesting is how the creators showed the plot's climax at the beginning of the show to grab attention.  It was interesting how the story fitted so well in 40 minutes.  Some people think it's too short for the story, but I think it's just right.

There are some minor problems with the script though that leaves me questioning at times.  For example, I couldn't understand how Suzu can walk around with a gun in his hand & not get caught.  He also has it in his room, exposed.  If someone saw him with it, it should cause an uproar in the hospital which never happens.  For the eating part, I can neglect that since a lot of anime have robots or dolls eating food for some strange reason.

Overall Conclusion

Hotori - Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau is surprisingly a great anime series to come out for 2005.  Although the drawings aren't good as professional ones, the story really makes up for it.  When I saw the animation designs from pics on the web, I was turned off by it.  Don't be fooled by it & go watch the series.  Definitely an anime series to put on your "to watch" list.

On a scale of ten, Hotori - Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau deserves a nine.  The story is touching & well planned for a 40 minute special.  The only downside about it is the designs, but that's more of a personal preference to me.