Arashi no Yoru ni

Title:Arashi no Yoru ni
On a Stormy Night
Stormy Night
あらしのよるに
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables:
A story about a goat and a wolf who become friends in a stormy night, and how they overcome differences and hardships.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


112-minute film that premiered on December 10, 2005.
Animated by Group TAC.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 9 9 8 8 Ggultra2764 [series:3620#1552]
I suppose if I were to compare Stormy Night to a movie, it would be Disney's The Fox and the Hound. Both films focus on two animals who become close friends with one another despite both supposed to be natural enemies to one another and the pathos to both involving the animals in question coming to grips with the roles that both their societies have aligned to them, Stormy Night's case being Mei the goat being prey for the predator, Gabu the wolf.

For a two-hour movie, Stormy Night has enough time to delve into both Mei and Gabu's characters, as well as explore their developments. In spite of both having different natural roles as animals, the two establish a bond with one another and relate to their differing circumstances with Gabu being an outcast among his pack and Mei feeling a void in his life after losing his mother to a wolf pack attack years earlier. The film does a great job striking a balance between light-hearted and serious moments as Gabu and Mei's bond develops and eventually have to deal with both their kind opposing the friendship between the two. While the interactions between the two can usually get a bit sappy, the movie still devotes enough focus and development to Gabu and Mei to make their bond feel legitimate to the audience and works to a more pleasant ending for their bond compared to Fox and the Hound's more bittersweet ending.

Visually, it looked like Stormy Night employed a mix of watercolor-style visuals and CG animation that give the film a beautiful look in regards to scenic shots and the designs of all its animal characters. The character designs, in particular, stick out as they looked more Western-style in the drawing of characters since the animals lacked some of the conventional design elements of many anime titles and help strike a contrast to the nature of the wolf and goat characters seen throughout the film. Animation is consistently fluid throughout the movie as all the animals moved about naturally and I didn't notice any major issues with animation beyond some occasions of CG-rendered animated sequences sticking out like a sore thumb from the regular animation.

Overall, I was quite entertained with watching Stormy Night throughout its run thanks to the moral it was pushing, the convincing bond developed between Mei and Gabu, and the rather beautiful animation. While having parallels to The Fox and the Hound, I wouldn't necessarily consider it a knock against Stormy Night as the film can still stand on its own merits for what it can offer to its audience being an underlooked gem. I would strongly recommend checking the film out at least once.

Last updated Tuesday, December 25 2018. Created Monday, December 24 2018.

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org