Gongitsune

[CW: character death (animal and human), mention of natural disasters and firearms, major spoilers (this is basically a synopsis until the end?)]

“To the little fox, the place where he could see the deep red camellias, was the same as being in his mother’s warm embrace.”

Firstly, I would like to say I wish we had this in higher quality because the character designs are picture-book simple, but the colours are absolutely beautiful, and there's some truly beautiful animation here, especially where natural phenomena and creatures like fish and dragonflies are concerned.
Secondly, I would also like to recommend this to anyone who loves touching, heartbreaking animal (or ... non-human) characters like Unico or Chirin (from Ringing Bell / Chirin no Suzu)... this is a child-friendly tale, but one in which sympathetic, lovable characters die at the hands of previously also sympathetic characters. This is not a clear-cut story of good VS evil. This is a story in which flawed characters make hasty decisions or play childish pranks and other innocent people suffer for them... it is a very sad, cautionary tale.

In the first few minutes, we see a red camella “behead” itself (they’re considered omens of short life, but noble death, because of the way they lose their heads all at once, rather than dropping petal by petal)–his mother sacrifices herself to a hunting dog and Gon’s view of her is obscured by the flowers and butterflies. But he hears the gunshot.

Before the last flower falls, lightning destroys Gon’s home and burns the camellia. His home is gone and Gon fully understands his mother will never return.

He tries, unsucessfully, to hunt, and nearly drowns (although it’s all animated very sweetly and brightly, with light music, so it doesn’t feel too distressing)–the river carries him to a human village, where he steals from a kind farmer (Hyoju) with a sickly old mother.

Gon is happier and well-fed in the village and farmer Hyoju names him Gon, thinking he has kind eyes (although Gon scratched his face in fright when he found him eating from his crops!), and pities him for losing his mother young.

Gon, on the other hand, feels bitter that someone as big as Hyoju keep saying “ma, ma, ma” because he lost his own mother and has to be strong all on his own so little.

Young Gon mimics the humans, he has no foxes to learn from. His mimicry is also his way of playing little pranks on people. He mimics a blacksmith, a pregnant woman, and others… while the mimicking a big belly story amused the other villagers when Yasuke (the pregnant woman’s husband) retells it, he’s quite angry because his wife nearly miscarried from fright… Yasuke wants to kill the fox!

Gentle Hyoju and the other villagers try to calm Yasuke down. It’s the annual festival, forgive him, he’s only a child! Yasuke relents, but insults Hyoju, blaming this for why he hasn’t married yet (in reality, Hyoju is putting off marriage to care for his sick mother…) saying Hyoju’s father would lament to see his son like this. Hyoju’s father is never shown and is presumably dead, as only he cares for his ailing mother.

(We never saw the hunter who shot Gon’s mother…)

Gon continues his days and it’s fun watching him mimic and steal bits of food.

One of my favourite parts is when he tries chilli peppers for the first time, eating too many at once, before the spice kicks in, and then, he rushes to water. He’s shocked humans can eat such things and the fox declares humans must be bakemono (monsters, literally: changed beings… much like the transforming kitsune in folklore!)

But one day, he sees a red spider lily (red amaryliss, higanbana, the red funeral flower and symbol of death and rebirth), pauses because it’s a red flower (like the tsubaki/camillias that surrounded his home, which he associated with his mother’s care)… a lightning storm happens and when lightning strikes and causes a fire, this triggers a flashback and Gon sees the shadow of butterflies and his dead mother… so he had seen her, but perhaps repressed the memory until now. ;_;

Gon’s screaming and then trying, desperately, to cheer himself up by singing and dancing as he saw the humans do at the festival, with his voice cracking, was so sad…

Later, Hyoju is fishing and captures an eel for his mother. This was her only wish and the eel is believed to grant vitality.

… Gon steals the eel and the normally gentle Hyoju becomes quite insistent and persistent in chasing Gon, but still calls him “Gon.”

Gon escapes, but as it kept twining around his neck, he didn’t want anything to do with the eel anymore and threw it on the ground, where it died.

… Hyoju’s mother also died.
It's very shocking that the person the story sets up as the bad example, Yasuke, the man who is faithless and cruel to Gon from the start, is not the one who shoots Gon in the end, but kind and gentle Hyoju, who gave Gon a name, who tried to talk Yasuke out of killing Gon, is the one who becomes blinded by anger and kills Gon, blaming him for stealing the eel he was going to try to cure his mother with, only realizing after that Gon was the one "blessing" his home with gifts of food...

So, while the colours were beautiful and the natural scenery and the village were all so beautiful (even in this faded transfer, but if we had it somehow restored to its original colours, I’m sure it would be even more beautiful!)… the middle is genuinely enchanting, funny, and sweet (it’d easily captivate small children, I think!), but with a sad beginning and a heartbreaking ending, and with its heavier themes, might be better suited for older kids. Either way, it was lovely.