Somali and the forest spirit is above all gentle and enchanting, the story of a little girl’s journey through a wonderful world, under the protection of her tireless, non-human father. And yet there are pieces from the series Real difficult. Anime often plays happy hell with Western expectations of animation and children’s media. The medium contains titles that Look sweetly kid-friendly, but go to darker and bloodier places than Disney dared to dream.
At the same time, Somali has been heavily promoted to Westerners. It was co-produced by Crunchyroll and previewed at Western events including London’s MCM Comic Con. Did Somali’s creators know that his sweet appearance would confuse us? Yes, fans are smart. We know that a cute looking giant mushroom can sprout and bite your head off, which actually happens Somali. But the series begins So cute that you imagine fans would love to show it to their toddlers…and heaven knows if the adults or toddlers would whine the loudest later.
Somali begins in a lush green forest, more luminous from a picture book than that in Princess Mononoke. It is guarded not by a god, but by a Golem, a creature that is both magical and artificial, a fantasy android. The opening images of the Golem guarding the balance of the forest, among flowers and fluttering creatures, link it to the little gardener droid in the space movie Silent running. Then the nameless Golem finds something new: a little ragged girl with cat-yellow eyes and shackles on her body. She is a human being, in a world where humans supposedly no longer exist.
We might skip a year. The Golem has adopted the girl Somali, who sees him without any doubt as her father. She thrives under his care, she is playful, hyper-curious, incurably cheerful and fearless. Now the Golem has taken her out of the forest, looking for people like her. Father and daughter travel around the country, stopping in towns and villages to gather information (although in the Somali children’s view Real looking for delicious food). The Golem repeatedly states that he has no emotions, which doesn’t stop him from absolutely caring for Somalia’s well-being and safety, constantly running after the latest colorful sight or cuddly creature.
We are told that this world is dangerous, although it will be a while before we do to see Danger. Long ago, people waged war against the creatures that Somalis love. They look like upright animals (wolves, mice, rabbits) or mythical creatures (harpies, ogres) or like humans themselves (for example, witches are a separate race that can pass as humans). Together this horde defeated and devoured the people. “They provided good food, didn’t they?” says an affable troll nostalgically. Not that it is a problem for Somalis. Her Golem father puts a coat on her with pointy ears and tells her she is a little minotaur.
The series is far from a post-apocalypse, but is often reminiscent of works of art The Moomins or similar cuddly fare. Somali’s first childhood friend is a bunny boy complete cute (and who spends a lot of time escaping Somali hugs). But anime fans might remember that Made in the abyss also had a cute bunny creature, along with blood-curdling horrors. For the most part Somali protects the title girl from the dark scenes, which often occur in flashbacks with secondary characters. But if Somalia’s shield is the Golem, the series warns that he can’t protect her forever.
The show is part of a comforting tradition of sci-fi/fantasy stories. The Golem is a ‘robot’ without emotions, but it grows as close and protective to the little Somali as any human parent. equivalent of emotions in his rational thinking. It is the opposite of all those horror stories about evil computers, which efficiently reign in moral oblivion. In Western SF the reassuring tradition goes back to Star Trek, a series that celebrated the character of Spock for being more than the rational machine he tried to be. The second Terminator movie had the same dynamic between a boy and a robot; the march series Discovery even features a human girl raised in Spock’s family.
But Somali’s reassurance has a sting. There is a scene where Somali begs her father to promise that he will always be with her; he says yes, and we know he’s lying. Somali is very different from the original Madoka Magica, and yet there is a suggestion of a connection between them. Madoka drew its power from showing the betrayal of innocent characters, innocent perspectives, as depicted in images as soft and delightful as those from which Somali. Innocence always falls in the end. The funny mushroom hides its teeth.
The exhaustingly feisty Somali is delightfully voiced by Inori Minase, best known as the pure (and fan-favorite) ogre girl Rem in Re: Zero, that would fit in easily Somali’s world. Minase also sings Somali‘s closing song. The Golem is voiced by Daisuke Ono, Sebastian Black butler and Erwin inside Attack on Titan. Of the secondary characters, one of the most important is the harpy girl Uzoi, voiced by Saori Hayami, who was Yumeko in Kakegurui and Shoko in it A quiet voice.
The Golem is a creature from Jewish tradition. One of the few film appearances was in a 1920 German silent film, The Golem: How He Came into the World. The Golem (played by co-director Paul Wegener) is brought to life by an amulet to protect a Jewish ghetto, but later goes on the rampage. In the light of Somali, it is noteworthy that this Golem is subdued by a little girl, who calmly removes the amulet from the monster, rendering it lifeless.
Beyond Golems, Somali’His images may also have been inspired by another vintage film about a man-made creature, Hollywood’s 1931 Frankenstein, in which another man-monster encounters a little girl who is not afraid of him. They play by a lake; a terrible accident happens and the girl dies. But a later Spanish film, Spirit of the Beehive (1973) shows a little girl watching the movie Frankenstein film, after which she conjures up the monster as a friend from her own imagination. Mamoru Hosoda quoted Beehive as an influence on his own imagination Mirai.
