By the time I entered college, my family had moved house seven times. The process of adjusting to a new place grew harder as I became a teenager, though by the time of our last move I was more accepting ¡ª or indifferent, take your pick. The difference between 13 and 17, in other words, was huge.
The title heroine of Hiroyuki Okiura¡¯s new animated feature, ¡°Momo e no Tegami (A Letter to Momo),¡± is closer to the former, tenderer age than the latter when her mother (voiced by one-name actress Yuka) decides to return to her home island in a remote corner of the Seto Inland Sea. Also, Momo (voiced by Karen Miyama) has just lost her father ¡ª and regrets the harsh words that proved to be the last he ever heard from her.
Okiura, an animator and character designer with a three-decade career, spent seven years developing ¡°Momo¡± after the 1999 release of his first feature, the animated sci-fi epic ¡°Jinro (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade).¡± He presents Momo more as an average girl than a tragic victim, or the usual spunky anime heroine: When she reluctantly joins the local kids for a swim, she incredulously watches as everyone leaps off a high bridge into the harbor water ¡ª and heads for home alone.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.