A Journey of Friendship: Arashi no Yoru ni

Synopsis

This is a tale that begins with a wolf and a goat, meeting one stormy night and befriending one another. From this friendships stems a story of hardships and the two of them overcoming their differences.

The Good

Being a film from the 2000’s, there are a lot of classic tropes and styles that can be found. The art has a distinct style to it and it’s nice in that it gives both the goat and wolf characters unique looks rather than changing one or two features from one template. What really stood out however was the way that the film worked out was the nature scenes. It was simple but gave a good charm to it.

The other plus point of the series is in how well-developed Gabu’s development was done. And while the needed conflict between characters wasn’t done so well in the beginning, there was some solid tension and conflict exploration done in the middle when it explored the character’s past. What really ties the whole film together is on how it handled Gabu and Mei’s friendship in the end, the last scene of them looking at the moon is a sweet end.

The Bad

The most noticeable thing that took away from the quality of the film is the whole cartoonish antics that goes on in certain scenes such as when the goats run away or the characters jumping around when frightened. It just seems off and out of place if not for it being of the comedy work. Another issue that could be noted in the film is on Mei’s character. For the most part, he isn’t a bad character, but he isn’t a well and truly developed character either.

Then there is the thing with the friendship between Gaby and Mei being paved too easily on Mei’s part. It would have been nice if the characters had a little bit more tension in the beginning between the two on both their parts. Instead the drama that should have happened in the beginning happened in the end and it seemed somewhat forced. Other than this, the only other issue with the film was on how predictable a lot of the film, but seeing it’s somewhat of an older work, it can be ignored.

Conclusion

This is a film from a time that not all tropes were overused and an art style like this still worked. It was predictable and at times a little on the wacky side, but it had charm and its own unique touch. While Mei didn’t have the best of developments and could have had his expression work done better, he and Gabu had a solid friendship developed between them and towards the end, there were quite a few sweet and heartfelt moments to enjoy. Personally it was a cute film but not something this writer would really watch again.

Rating: 7/10