Kamiari Month began life as a crowdfunding campaign in 2019. After multiple attempts, the film received its funding and garnered a fairly impressive crew. The film was animated by Liden Films, the studio behind Terra Formars and Tokyo Revengers. In the director’s chair is Takana Shirai, who worked on the Berserk: The Golden Age trilogy among many other projects.
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Child of Kamiari Month is the tale of a little girl named Kanna, who was a dedicated runner before the tragic loss of her mother one year ago. Kanna suddenly finds herself interacting with bizarre fantastical creatures after fleeing a race to be alone. A talking rabbit and a young demon boy inform Kanna that her mother was hiding a magical secret and that her destiny is now to take up the mantle of her birthright. Kanna is tasked with running a tremendous distance across Japan, meeting strange and wonderful figures on the way, and delivering sacred to an ancient festival. Kanna must undergo difficult challenges, face devious tricksters, and process her tremendous grief to reach her destiny and maintain her family’s legacy.
The obvious draw of Child of Kamiari Month is its pure visual beauty. The animation is solid, the effects are fun, the color keeps the scenery vibrant and charming. The film’s character design is charming, just about every character is adorable. As part of Kanna’s journey, she is able to drastically slow the flow of time, which creates a visual style that is striking and used well. There’s this near-omnipresent effect of raindrops frozen in midair that is later used as a brilliant tone change near the end of the film.
The journey takes the characters across Japan through cities and woodlands and every bit of drawn scenery looks distinct and interesting. The plot introduces many magical beasts, and while their designs aren’t exactly original, they are fun and visually pleasing. Mythology fans will find a few fun callbacks, but it’s not built around references, it’s more interested in establishing a kid-friendly take.
The music and sound design are also strong highlights for the film. Japanese pop star Miwa performs the film’s theme song which is a great classic anime theme. Jun Ichikawa arranged a solid soundtrack that propels the film and adds some lively energy to the narrative. Ichikawa previously worked on such series as Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl and his work keeps the film moving. The voice cast is made up of a few relative newcomers and a few old anime pros, but everyone performs admirably. The film naturally sounds excellent in its native Japanese. Fans of dubs will be perfectly happy enjoying this film in English, a glance at the subtitles reveals the work put into ensuring the dialogue flows better after the translation. The lead role is portrayed by sixteen-year-old theater actor Mia Sinclair Jenness, who recently portrayed young Powder in Netflix’s Arcane. Talking rabbit and guiding light Shiro is portrayed by Luci Christian, who is best known as the voice of Nami in the Funimation dub of One Piece.
This is a kids’ anime movie, though the all-ages label applies reasonably well here. Viewers concerned about films teaching lessons will find some fairly profound statements about grief wrapped into this fun adventure. It gets pretty sad from time to time, and it can even be a bit jarring in its tonal shifts. If the movie has a weak point, it’s in its exposition. The writing isn’t perfect, and where it starts to drag is in the extended need to explain itself.
Kanna being a complete outsider to the fantasy elements of the plot allows the more experienced characters to regularly break down the film’s concepts. It’s clearly slowing itself down to be clear, and it gets a bit repetitive in the dialogue. The pace never grinds to a halt, but the average viewer would be forgiven for spacing out some wordier scenes. In addition, the film’s focus on running borders on obsessive. It’s tied in with the mythology, but the protagonist’s love of running is not only the primary test throughout the narrative but one of the main emotional details. It’s a bit excessive, but it doesn’t detract too much.
Child of Kamiari Month isn’t the most original work in the world of anime cinema. It wouldn’t crack the catalog of Hayao Miyazaki or Mamoru Hosoda. But it is an adorable adventure, buoyed by excellent execution that is well worth the attention of any anime fan. Beneath all the stellar visual work, lies a heart that sells both joy and grief with impressive emotional depth. Child of Kamiari Month is available now streaming on Netflix.
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