Comments – Hotaru Kagayaku
#1A short animated fable, about the virtue of mental fortitude and universal compassion. It is part of a OAV series commissioned by Daisaku Ikeda, a well known pacifist figure, president of the Soka Gakkai International, the world's biggest lay Buddhist organization. While there is an undeniable potential, Hotaru Kagayaku is ultimately too short. Indeed, it is impossible to pave a way up to a powerful emotional climax in merely 26 minutes. Also, the somewhat unpalatable chara-design, with its potato headed children, is far to do this anime service. Unfortunately for it, this will forever stay eclipsed by Grave of the Fireflies, which was released two years prior.
