is a Japanese

slice of life Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater, slice of life refers to Naturalism (theatre), naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by

Daisuke Igarashi is a Japanese manga artist. Active since the 1990s, he is known for his detailed depictions of nature in combination with spiritual or surreal themes. Manga series like ''Witches'' and ''Children of the Sea'' have been critically acclaimed and ...

. It was adapted into a two-part Japanese

live action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...

film released on August 30, 2014, and on February 14, 2015. Part 1 film "Little Forest: Summer/Autumn" was screened in the Culinary Zinema (Film and gastronomy) section at the 2014

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

, part 2 film "Little Forest: Winter/Spring" was screened in the Kulinarisches Kino (Culinary Cinema) section at the

2015 Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the president of the jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

. It was also adapted into a Korean live action film which released on February 28, 2018, and into a South Korean TV series which premiered on August 12, 2019.

Plot

The manga is set in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

. It is about a young girl who returned to Tōhoku, her hometown, after a series of heartbreaking encounters that had happened to her life in the big city. She returned to her and her mother's old house, farming the land and living in accordance with the changing four seasons. Later, she received a letter from her mother and decided to try to "make it" in the city again before settling down and living as a farmer permanently in Tōhoku.

Characters

*Ichiko (

Ai Hashimoto is a Japanese actress. Early life and career Hashimoto was born in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, the second of three daughters.星原克也「女優魂橋本愛 14歳飛躍の幕開け」,『熊本日日新聞』(Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun) J ...

) *Yūta (

Takahiro Miura is a Japanese actor. He graduated from Juntendo University Sports Health Science Department. He is represented with Anoré. His father is Tomokazu Miura who is also an actor, his mother is an actress and a former singer Momoe Yamaguchi , kno ...

) *Kikko (

Mayu Matsuoka is a Japanese actress. She has been awarded the Tama best Emerging Actress Award and Fumiko Yamaji Freshman Actress Award in 2016. She gained international attention as an ambassador of the Tokyo International Film Festival for 2017 and her rol ...

) *Shigeyuki ( Yōichi Nukumizu) *Sachiko ( Karen Kirishima)

Japanese film production

Principal photography for the film lasted one year.

Ōshū, Iwate is a Cities of Japan, city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 114,620 and a population density of 120 persons per km2 in 45,728 households. The total area of the city is . Ōshū is famous for its Maes ...

was one of the places shot on location. The band Flower Flower, led by singer-songwriter Yui, wrote four theme songs for the films, one for each season.

Reception

The manga was one of the finalists at the 10th

Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Current ...

References

External links

* {{Afternoon Manga adapted into films Seinen manga Slice of life anime and manga 2010s Japanese films