janice.homenick - 2014-10-25 10:01:02

Nijiiro Hotaru: Eien no Natsuyasumi, or "Rainbow Fireflies: An Eternal Summer Vacation", is a light-fantasy, ghibli-esque movie. For being so unknown, it's surprising to see that this film was only released in 2012. The remoteness of this film isn't really justified either, as many might consider "Rainbow Fireflies" a hidden gem. There's a good amount of heart put into this movie, and there's a light-heartening charm to it. At the same time, the movie isn't too unique and can be a bit slow and unimaginative at times. However, that shouldn't deter an attempted viewing.

Rainbow Fireflies has a very charming, sketchy art style and is also one of the only anime I have ever seen to be fully-animated. Rarely will there ever be moments of mouth-flapping or motionless body parts. A negative does come with this aspect however, as the quality of the actual drawings ceases at times, even when taking its art style into account. That style looking very similar to a quickly done marker sketch on a celebrity artist's signature, bringing another refreshing art design to motion.

The music is wonderfully orchestrated and has many memorable soundtracks. Some tracks may sound familiar to things we've heard in the past, as there was some similarities music-wise with Hollywood child-friendly flicks, with even a single track that sounded extraordinarily similar to the ending theme of "Gunbuster". The sound effects never felt lacking and, overall, the entirety of the sound was marvelous.

The story for Rainbow Fireflies follows a boy who runs into a supernatural individual who sends the boy a few generations back in time in order to protect the boy and return a favor. The supernatural aspects aren't very delved into and how they create the situation at hand is handled more with assumptions. The story then follows the boy who interacts with the people of this period in the near past. The interactions are interesting, but the entire setup isn't very imaginative making me coin it as a "light-fantasy".

While the characters are enjoyable to watch along with their intriguing animation, there are some dull moments in the movie where not enough development is being made. Taking time to build an atmosphere isn't essentially a negative thing as many would consider that a major positive, but this movie in particular felt as if it wasn't feeding the audience enough along the way to keep interest in the actual plot. Things do pick up a bit further in though, and the story does come more to the forefront. However, the elements involving the interactions with the characters end up taking the movie's focus, leaving the supernatural behind it. That would be expected from this type of film, however, when they leave the supernatural behind they really do in this movie, almost leaving an unsatisfying taste by the end of how it all plays out. Even so, the ending wasn't bad and was certainly enjoyable, just not what it could have been with a bit more of a tuned focus and with a bit more background information.

"Rainbow Fireflies: An Eternal Summer Vacation" is a light-heartening film that includes some light-fantasy and some romance. The art style is very unique with a marker-sketch look, accompanied with fully-animated characters. The music is well done, equaling many Hollywood film soundtracks, and the overall audio experience is wonderful. The story isn't too imaginative and has some dull pacing with some odd focus, but it's still very enjoyable, still holding some surprises and lending out much emotion. The characters are also likable and well-realized. This movie has gone under the radar and, while it isn't one of the best ever made, Rainbow Fireflies surely deserves a viewing as it has about just as much going for it as some more known movies like "My Neighbor Totoro" do.

Random Interesting Fact: The director for Rainbow Fireflies also happens to be the director of "One Piece", and it should be noted that he did a very good job with this movie.