Ignoring the terribly average designs of the female population, 10! 10! I rate this 10! This show leaves me very awed by its amazing story pacing and highly offended by its numerous plot holes, but they were the nice sort of holes - not glaringly unaddressed, but severely implied loose ends I like to gobble up and puke them all out in the form of stories.
Murdering Beauty
When he realized he was seven and not a man having a crisis about who he should give a plain but pretty glass wedding ring, he realized he just woke up. Kotarou let loose a yawn, and man, did stretching felt good.
"K-Kota?"
"Yo, Koto~" Kotarou greeted. Kotori was startled by his smile and the way she blinked indicated surprise. "Did something happen other than it's me who fell asleep in the forest this time?"
"Oh, n-no," Kotori stuttered. "Nothing."
"It's quiet."
The two children of twos-and-fives paused to take in their surroundings. The morning woods were utterly new. A strong yellow light pooled beneath the trees, and both of their shadows appeared and vanished on the path. The snakes were out, quietly watching them from the topmost tree branches and the butterflies were not vaulting and furling about.
"Koto? Don't the snakes usually hiss and the butterflies play around?" Kotarou asked, eyes locked with the snakes they regularly see relaxing around the vines. "I think it looks scared."
"Maybe it's because of the shooting star," Kotori blurted out.
Kotori blurted out a lie.
"W-Wha, there was a shooting star? And I missed? And you didn't wake me up? Kotoooooooo—" The girl yelped when Kotarou suddenly stopped and jumped at her, laughter bubbled from her throat as he tickled her.
"S-stop, or I take my wish back!"
"Better yet, give it to me! I'll wish you get sucked into a different dimension with lots of coins and stupid dolls and horrible home-made food—"
"Hey!"
"—and Pero would be there," Kotarou finished with a grin.
Tears prickled Kotori's eyes at the mention of her puppy. The puppy which had been abused. The puppy which she had decided to rescue. The puppy which had ran away in the cold before she could rescue him. The puppy which Kotarou found for her. The puppy who died quietly from his injuries.
"I'd miss you," she said.
"Yes, you had trampled the deepest snow to keep an appointment with me under the Yakusugi tree."
I already brought you back from death door, Kotori thought. She did think that in her head, right? She didn't say it aloud, right? And you came out so… different.
"I like you smiling," Kotori said and Kotarou looked confused. "You're usually… cold."
Kotarou blinked. "Am I suddenly different or something?"
"It must mean that my wish came true!"
You're alive. You're alive. Thank you, Kagari-chan.
. o . 0 . o .
"The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness."
. o . 0 . o .
They had climbed up the Yakusugi tree, the oldest and largest tree in Japan, and sat on the second nearest branch to the ground. They watched the first light of sunrise together as usual. Then they came down, said their goodbyes, and separated towards their respective towns which was separated by this forest wilderness.
Kotarou opened his house's front door quietly, and closed it equally as quietly. He tip toed towards his room, picked up his basketball, and got out of his room. The boy gave a cheerful greeting to his parents. "Morning, Mum! Dad!"
The two adults looked up from their phone and newspaper at the unusual inflection their son used. "Good morning, Kotarou."
"Play basketball with me, Dad?"
"Perhaps later, son."
Kotarou already knew that answer was coming, having already opened the door to his backyard when he asked the question.
The boy came to a stop when his feet touched the shadow of the rim high above his short stature. Months have passed and it's still as high as always. He asked his dad about when he would be tall enough to put the basketball in the rim as easily as his dad. His dad said he might never be tall enough if he's impatient, if he won't eat his vegetables, if he took his mum's short height on top of her eyes.
The basketball left the tips of his finger and missed the rim by a wide margin.
I wish I'm stronger.
When he broke the rim his parents sighed while Kotarou looked at his hands. When he accidentally broke a doorknob Kotarou faced his parents' grim faces with confusion.
"Kotarou," his mum called, "We're going to bring you to our workplace. There is someone we would like you to meet."
Kotarou knows he had been dragged into Martel sometimes, but he couldn't recall anything about the place at the moment other than a permanent feeling of disinterest. "But your workplace is boring."
"I'll play basketball with you later," his dad promised.
. o . 0 . o .
"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of winestains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."
. o . 0 . o .
They stood at the archway above the garden. It wasn't huge, it could fit maybe a large car but that's it, and the allspice was pretty but it was a bit creepy – the shadows, Kotarou found.
He was standing in front of his parents' boss, whose name was the same as Japan's most famous flora. She looked like a lady but somehow Kotarou could tell Sakura Kashima was a really really old lady.
"Do you like to make flowers, Kotarou-kun?" Sakura asked.
Kotarou swiveled his head to the side, and gingerly poked a cluster of white yarrow. "I never tried, Sakura-obaasama."
She let a comfortable silence fill in the atmosphere and broke it when a Luna Moth landed on her deathly still fingers. "Have any pets?"
"Pero died," Kotarou answered. His grim answer was paired with a happy face as he took the liberty to explore the solid mass of trees that looked like elaborate architecture.
Sakura watched him carelessly move about – observed how easily the dense branches break in his small hands. She later told his parents to move from Shinnenni Town to Kazamatsuri Town and work as full-time employers if they have no wish for Gaia to tie down the child.
Kotarou was happy about the move. His friends in Shinnenni were boring. Kotori was the only one that counted. Everything else is boring. Boring! Kotori was here. He innocently pointed out the houses at Kotori's address to his parents.
On his way back home, he didn't look at the city lights any longer. He looked into the sky and felt as if the moon was following him.
. o . 0 . o .
"A choir of seedlings arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death. I am the forest's conscience, but remember, the forest eats itself and lives forever."
. o . 0 . o .
Jōmon Sugi (縄文杉) is a large Cryptomeria tree (yakusugi) located on Yakushima, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Japan. It is the oldest and largest among the old-growth cryptomeria trees on the island, and is estimated to be between 2,170 and 7,200 years old.
Allspice. Christopher Columbus discovered allspice when he visited Jamaica on his second voyage to the New World. Allspice was brought to Europe in the 16th century. After many attempts to cultivate this plant outside its native range, allspice remains the only spice that thrives only in the New World. The tree got its name when the British couldn't decide which spice it was so named it all spice. Allspice can survive up to 100 years in the wild.
Yarrow. Plant is named after Greek's hero Achilles, who used yarrow to treat battle wounds of his soldiers. Yarrow is also known as carpenter's weed because carpenters often use it to stop the bleeding from the wounds and cuts that are inevitable part of their work.
Luna Moth. Native to North America, this butterfly is distinguished by its bright green wings whose diameter varies between 7 and 11 inches. They are attracted by light, a common characteristic of all moths. You will never see any in town because they hate pollution. The life cycle of this butterfly is about one year.