Somari to Mori no Kamisama

Recommend beautiful anime for children and grown-ups. Kindness, racism and other aspects in an entertaining form.

Somali and the forest spirits is about an adolescent child named Somali who wanders the world with her parent figure, a forest Druid. They goal is to return Somali to the remaining human population that is on the brink of extermination by the monsters in this demon infested realm.

First off the premise of this anime is quite misleading, because despite humans being cannibalised by these monsters. Somali and her parent figure travel from place to place relatively easy meeting multiple amiable creatures. Leaving us wondering how and why were they so violent with humans in the first place. A darker tone and a more unnerving style would have made this anime a masterpiece, but I guess that sort of vision is lacking. Everything about the plot is painted in a colourful, picturesque manner even when the case need not be....

This visuals of this anime are absolutely wonderful and stunning and the world building is spectacular.

In terms of character building and development their personalities are very one dimensional and most of the episodes repeat the very same themes. This makes the plot very boring and predictable.

But due to the class of the production involved in making this feel good anime. It's worth a watch, just not the unsettling, nail biting, griping anime I expected from reading its premise.

Not mind blowing, but still a nicely done anime, too naive in my opinion and not enough action.

This is the first anime to manage to make me cry so much in only one season while still making me feel warm inside. A good 7/12 episodes made me tear up, or more (generally more). I absolutely need another season of this lovingly heartwarming story. Anyone that rates this below an 8 is probably heartless or missed the major point of discovering one's heart (harsh, but I'm sure many would agree). This is one of very few shows that honestly deserves an 11 rating, along with a recommendation of it to family and friends.

This anime series opens with a Golem, whose duty is to protect the forest, discovers a human girl, named Somali. He then sets about getting her to other humans. This won't be easy as humanity is almost extinct in this world and other creatures see them as a delicious treat! As the series progresses they travel though countryside and cities; meeting various characters. Some of these are friendly and travel with them for a while and others present a threat; not always an obvious one.

I really enjoyed this series. The central characters were really good and nicely juxtaposed... a caring but emotionless golem and the innocent and lively young Somali. The more we learn about the characters the more interesting they become. The other characters are good too. The settings are beautifully designed making the world believable even when it is at its most fantastical. There is a sense of danger but it is never too extreme so younger viewers can probably enjoy it too. Overall I'd definitely recommend this charming little series.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.