After revisiting this film a decade later, I can’t help feeling like Gin is Natsume Takashi in an alternate timeline. Or even his reincarnation in the future, perhaps?
A decade ago, I watched Hotarubi no Mori e for the first time. In honor of our seventh season of Natsume Yuujinchou premiering in little under two weeks, I decided to rewatch the short anime film that’s stuck with me all of these years.
It didn’t disappoint, even in the slightest.
Reviewing the Film: Hotarubi no Mori e and the Melancholy of Spirits
Years ago, it was not lost on me how special the film I was watching was. To be quite honest, besides being (a non-canon?) precursor to Natsume’s Book of Friends, I always thought the author, Midorikawa Yuki, was recounting stories she heard growing up in the mountains of Kumamoto, on the Japanese island of Kyushu.
Now after re-watching the film a decade later and having six seasons of Natsume Yuujinchou under my belt, I have a theory deep within my heart that maybe Midorikawa herself, or somebody close to her was the little girl named Hotaru. Or better yet, maybe it’s just an alias for herself, as the name “Hotaru” means “Firefly” in Japanese.
(While Gin means “silver”, as in “silver-haired” boy.)
The Core Theory: Unpacking the Gin and Natsume Takashi Parallels
I feel like if anything, Natsume’s story is what would have happened if “Gin” never died…or rather, turned into a firefly within the deep, mountain forest.
Natsume Takashi looks a lot like “Gin” in early volumes of the manga series…
After all, don’t earlier versions of the cover art for the manga series depict Natsume with white hair, like his counterpart Gin, in the film?
Character Evidence: Gin’s Condition vs. Natsume’s Curse
I don’t think I caught this years ago, but it clicked and dawned on me while watching that the title of the film itself is about Hotaru and Gin’s relationship, and possibly countless others who were “cursed” with immortality (or “blessed”, with it) by the Mountain God.
When Gin touches the human child who snuck into the Yokai festival in the forest, we know that he begins to evaporate – and turn into nothingness. But…that isn’t exactly true. Gin turns into a firefly, who touches the mask Hotaru is learned forward over while mourning, before joining the other fireflies floating around Hotaru and the Yokai in the distance.
(Gin’s “weakness” or the fragility of his physical body reminds me a lot of how fragile Natsume Takashi is, as well for some reason. Even the voice actors sound very similar for both characters.)
Given the spirits initially warning Gin to stay away from Hotaru (for fear that she would touch him and make him disappear), and the two-tailed fox spirit trying to scare Hotaru (before learning from Gin that the kitsune wouldn’t hurt a fly) – I would wager that the spirits (maybe in human form or during a festival) started the rumor Hotaru’s uncle tells her (and that Gin repeats) that the forest is dangerous to humans and they will get lost if they go in it.
The rumor was most likely told (and later immortalized as a gossipy form of folktale) in order to protect human/spirit hybrids like Gin who had been abandoned in the forest and blessed/”cursed” by the Mountain God with immortality.
The sort of magic used by the Mountain God may have been used in order to restrict the human turned into a spirit to the mountains, elsewise the spell would come ‘undone’. Or likewise, those humans that wandered too deep could get “lost”, “die”, and in turn become new spirit-hybrids forbidden to leave the forest.
As this is considered an ‘unnatural’ process, the “no touching” rule in the spell was also most likely done to ensure the human-spirit hybrids could never leave the forest and rejoin the human world after becoming part of the forest spirit realm.
(A form of equivalent exchange, if you will. Giving up something in order to receive something else of equal value in return.)
Now where the number of fireflies we saw hovering with Gin around Hotaru and the Yokai would come in…would be a nod to all of the “folktales” and “legends” of Japanese people abandoning babies and old ladies in the mountains during particularly hard times or winter.
Even if it’s not true, I’d like to think that the ‘unwanted’ extra mouths to feed were “abandoned” in the woods in the hopes that they would find a new life – amongst the spirits or in the form of reincarnation, somehow. I mean, if you are abandoning a baby with the intention of letting it die due to exposure to the elements (like in the case of Gin) why would you leave it with a bottle in the middle of the forest?
Maybe Gin’s mother, or whoever left him there thought someone might come along and care for the child. And in the end – she was right…the Mountain God himself blessed Gin with a new life, and the Forest Lord (Yamagami, the fox) stops baby Gin’s crying by placing the mask on Gin.
Gin would wear that mask for the rest of his unnatural frozen, “stationary” life, until he took it off to give to Hotaru (“firefly”) as a memento, moments before taking a new life in the form of a firefly.
Shared Mythology: The Forest Festival, Fox Boy, and Tanuma’s Village
Unless something had been done to the forest spirits in the past (a betrayal, a perceived “lie”, or if a cruel joke had been played that the spirit didn’t understand) the spirits in both Natsume Yuujinchou and Hotarubi no Mori e both seem docile, and kind – albeit slightly hesitant toward humans.
In the case of this film, I think the hesitation simply comes from trying to protect hybrid spirits like Gin who are living amongst them in the forest. While in Natsume Yuujinchou, we know a lot of hostility from spirits that eagerly befriended Reiko came to Natsume because they thought the former abandoned them, not realizing Reiko had simply died and that’s why she stopped visiting.
Because why else would the yokai spirits of the forest gather around a baby and immediately try to care for it if they were all cruel, evil twisted beings who only wanted to harm humans?
Is Tanuma’s House in Hotarubi no Mori e? The human world is so incredibly mundane and boring, as the end credit song of this short film illustrates.
Hotaru doesn’t want to be going to school in Yokohama, she would rather be at Gin’s side in the forest. Hotaru even tells Gin this in not so many words, detailing her plan to move closer to him so that she can stay by his side.
I guess Gin believed it might be too painful to be around somebody he (now) loved without being able to touch, and that is why he gave Hotaru the memento of his spirit mask before saying goodbye that final summer they spent together.
Hotaru’s intuition aside, there is a scene at her uncle’s home where Hotaru is laying on the tatami mats with a fan in her hand. Above her, is the reflection of a pond just outside the sliding doors.
The reflection of the pond is very similar to the one in Tanuma’s home
Was I the only one who was reminded of Tanuma’s home? And how Natsume said there was a pond there, while Tanuma could only see the reflection on the wood above him? And perhaps on the shoji door when the light hit it just right?
Just think…maybe years into the future the pond was covered, and the area was later restored as a shrine.
After all, when Gin and Hotaru go finishing that last summer there are small torii gates in the shallow area of the water.
And…the shrine is somewhat overgrown and dilapidated due to the rumors of being “spirited-away” by the Mountain God…
I know some elements of Japanese shrines and temples are similar, but doesn’t this look like it’s in the same vicinity in the mountains?
Who’s to say the Kaname family (who recently just moved to the area) simply didn’t have knowledge of the former pond, or the fact that Hotaru’s uncle used to live on the same site as their home near the restored shrine?
The Little Fox Boy at the Festival and Natsume’s Other Friends make an appearance at the festival Hotaru and Gin attend!
Aside from Natsume Yuujinchou having the same sort of clothes and painted masks as the spirit festival in Hotarubi no Mori e, whenever Natsume has to sneak into the forest or attend yokai events with Nyanko Sensei, the “Shippo” character reminded me of the fox child that Natsume meets and befriends early on in the series.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched the show, but didn’t Natsume come across the fox child in the forest one day, and the fox child followed Natsume to his home – even taking the train by himself and being mistaken for a human child before Natsume made the trip to bring him back home?
Along with the fox spirit, the Ox spirit that watched over Gin reminds me of one of the members of Natsume’s Dog squad – Chukyuu A and B.
Not to mention, the tiny forest god who was losing power was holding on due to falling in love with a human woman, right? And there was another story, I think, about a spirit falling in love with a human and disappearing after they touched, or were reunited.
The tree yokai scaring Natsume as a child, the same way Hotaru tried to scare Gin in the film…
This is literally the same situation, just in different time periods
Even the forest shrine steps lined with the lanterns and old torii gate remind me of a scene from Natsume Yuujinchou (or maybe official art? I cannot recall) of the Chukyuu wandering around the ruins of what appears to be that area.
(I’m thinking about doing a rewatch of the early seasons before I begin the new one.)
Is the Final Piece of this theory in the 7th Season of Natsume Yuujinchou?
We still don’t know much about Natsume’s (deceased) parents, or who Reiko married to have a child with, or if Natsume’s grandmother even married at all. The weird relationship between Madara (Nyanko-sensei) only knowing how to transform into Reiko as a human form because she is the only human he ever got “a good look at” still hasn’t been fully explained, or given any further context beyond what was plainly stated.
Maybe there is no other hidden meaning within the story, but Natsume had to inherit his tsukimono, his intense spiritual power from something other than Reiko. Or rather, what was the source of Reiko’s spiritual power? Since Natsume’s strength is on par, or even greater than the local exorcist clan or his actor friend Natori.
Gin had clear eyes due to the spiritual energy running through his body to animate it and keep it alive, and Nyanko Sensei has those same strange eyes when he is pretending to be Reiko in the anime series. There has to be a connection, I’m just not sure where.
Unless…Is Gin Natsume Takashi’s past life? And that would explain why he stayed in the same region of Japan, and frequently visited the forest. Or better yet – “Hotaru” is a young Reiko before she received her powers from the Mountain God, a random spirit, or manifested it organically due to her interactions with the spirits in her youth. Who knows, haha.
But, tell me your thoughts.
Is there a deeper connection between the characters of Gin and Natsume Takashi in Yuki Midorikawa’s work?
Who do you think “Hotaru” and “Gin” are really based on?
And…have you seen anything strange in your local forest, lately?
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☆ In Asian Spaces ☆ Ephesians 6:12 ☆
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