Hotaru no Mori by Yuki Midorikawa

Synopsis: Hotaru Takegawa is just six years old and she got lost in the Mountain Of God, where monsters live. She was crying for help when Gin appeared, she was so excited that ran toward him to give him a hug, but he evaded her. With the excuse that he will disappear if he is touched by a human. After being walked to the exit of the Mountain, Hotaru promises that she will visit Gin, every summer and it is this way that a beautiful friendship began.

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Hotaru no Mori is short, sweet, pretty and a joy to read. There wasn’t a page I didn’t read without a smile in my face and with such beautiful ending there is nothing not to like. In just 50 pages, Yuki Midorikawa, gave enough information about Hotaru and Gin to be enchanted by their personality and their growing love for each other. Although Midorikawa gave enough information to make it barely work, she didn’t went any further than this.

But that aside, Hotaru no Mori shines in almost everything else, with its crisp, bright and simple art that extenuates the mood, atmosphere and facial expressions. Each page was filled with detail which are most noticeable in the costumes and clothing. The excellent use of inking and shadowing is also something to praise and this also helps with facial expressions which ultimately show off in each character and such beautiful ending just works like a charm.

There is only one thing I didn’t like about this manga, the length. It is so short that it doesn’t has enough pages to give, both, Hotaru and Gin more background. While the background given was enough to put everything in motion, it just wasn’t enough to satisfy my thirst for these lovely and sweet characters, yet the lack of more background is nothing to worry about with such story, characters and art.