Character of the Month: Hana

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!  Welcome to the last Sunday of August, which means it’s time to unveil this month’s Character of the Month.  And in all honesty, this month’s pick was pretty easy.  After watching the anime film she stared in, I knew it had to be her.   Well, I guess you’ve already figured out who this month’s winner is, so let’s just get right into it.  Let’s talk about this month’s Character of the Month of August, Hana from Wolf Children.

I’ll be as brief as I can with a synopsis here given it’s a movie.  Hana, once a well to-do college student, falls in love with a man who turns out to be a wolf.  The two have a blossoming romance and eventually welcome two children, Yuki and Ame.  However, when her lover dies unexpectedly, Hana is left to care for her two children on her own.  Much of Wolf Children from that point onward shows Hana’s struggles and triumphs as she raises her unique little kids.  And as short as that is, that’s all you really need to know about Hana in the film.

Hana is hands down one of the best characters I’ve seen in anime.  But the funny thing about her is that she doesn’t have to do that much to be a great character.  Heck, she doesn’t have to do that much to be a great mom.  All we really see her do through out the movie is just raise her kids.  As I’ve mentioned before, Hana often gets paralleled to moms with special needs children, but I honestly had a hard time making that comparison, even though I totally get the idea.  Granted, her children being half-wolf is a unique circumstance that hopefully most moms don’t have to deal with, but even so, all she’s really doing is trying to find the best way to support her family.  That’s it.  I think it’s because Hana is the center of the plot and the character we focus on the most that we really appreciate the lengths she goes to for her kids.  Like I said, compared to the handful of other anime moms out there, she’s probably no different.  But it’s because we primarily focus on her struggles that we’re able to sympathize with her.  Let’s say if there was an entire episode of Inuyasha based on the perspective of Kagome’s mom.  I’m pretty sure that we would get a glimpse of the fear and worry that I’d assume she goes through knowing her daughter was in Feudal Japan fighting off God knows what.  If there were such an episode, we’d probably feel for Kagome’s mom a lot more come Inuyasha: The Final Act’s finale.  It’s the idea of focusing on this perspective that allows us to sympathize and relate to Hana.  At the end of the day, while she may be one of the best moms in anime, she’s just a mom.  And I mean that in the best possible way!  So keep being the best mom ever, Hana, cause you’re Hanime on Anime’s Character of the Month of August!

Now…about next month.  As many of you know, because my birthday is in September, I get to host a special event for my blog.  One year, it was reviewing my favorite anime shows and movies.  Another year, it was an entire month dedicated to Akira.  And last year I talked about some of my favorite characters in anime.  I gave this year’s event some thought and and I up with an event that I had (not) been excited about doing.  If you didn’t catch the running gag just now, September will be an entire month dedicated to Neon Genesis Evangelion!   Next month I will be reviewing all of the films from the Evangelion Rebuild trilogy and be doing Talkative Thursdays in between on the best and worst moments from the trilogy as well as a VS. post that puts the film series and the original series head to head.  Hopefully I’ll be able to start the festivities early with a fun discussion post and hopeful intro to a new segment to the Hanime on Anime this Thursday.  But if not, do (not) stay tune for the start of next month’s event which I like to call This is (Not) an Evangelion Event!

-Hanime on Anime