Japanese: Momo e no Tegami
Type: Movie
Aired: Apr 21, 2012
Studio: Production I.G
Genre: Drama, Supernatural
Duration: 2 hr.
Rating: G – All Ages
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MY RATING: 8 out of 10
After the unexpected death of her father, 11-year-old Momo Miyaura leaves Tokyo with her mother and moves to an old remote island in Seto Inland Sea. The only memento she has from her father is an unfinished letter with only two words inside: “Dear Momo”—along with her heart’s unrest from it.
In the new and unfamiliar small town, Momo reluctantly tries to adjust to the outmoded wooden buildings, silent crop fields, and mysterious isolated shrines. One day, while exploring the attic of her new home, she finds a worn out picture book about youkai. Following this discovery, strange things begin to happen around town, and Momo is greeted by the arrival of three troublesome youkai.
Momo e no Tegami tells the story of a young girl as she struggles to adapt to her bizarre new life and ultimately come to terms with her father’s mysterious letter.
I always enjoy supernatural stories and I am especially interested in Japanese folktales or anything youkai, *wink. Although A Letter to Momo doesn’t center more on that aspect, just seeing those three troublesome youkai is enough to pique my attention, *wink.
A Letter to Momo
When this movie started, the first thing I noticed was the animation. I love that it instantly reminds me of my fun childhood memories in the countryside. You could say that the animation alone already gave that fun rural vibe which fits perfectly in this movie’s setting. Definitely a big plus for me!
As I mentioned above, A Letter to Momo isn’t more on the youkai aspect but they played a big role in this story. As per synopsis, Momo and her mother moved to the countryside (more accurately to be called an island) after her father’s death. In there we get to see her struggle to adapt in her new environment plus her heart’s unrest because of her father’s unfinished letter.
Her quiet and lonely life in that unfamiliar town took quite a turn by the arrival of three troublesome youkai. These three youkai have peculiar appearance and personalities. Although they can be annoying sometimes, I have to say that they are mostly fun to watch. Their shenanigans were usually hilarious with some of them leaving you face palming, lol. It was also interesting to know more about them, especially on their “secret mission”. I think it was pretty fascinating.
After giving me a laugh, this movie also left me in tears. A Letter to Momo delves more on the struggle of the remaining family members after the death of their loved one. Here we see how Momo and her mother deal with their own grief differently, which also resulted in conflict later on in the movie. During that time, there’s also an incident regarding her mother’s asthma that made the three youkai act. Watching that scene on the bridge with the youkai never gets old to me. You really have to look forward on that when you decided to watch this movie, *wink.
A Letter to Momo is definitely one of those few anime films that I believe could hold its own against some of the most loved Ghibli films. Highly recommended!
It sounds very good the way it handles the family grief and moving on and the fun supernatural element with the three youkai.
It was indeed! I love that they added supernatural element to it making it more entertaining to watch. Thanks for dropping by Sophia Rose 🙂