Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2012

Writer/director Hiroyuki Okiura and anime studio Production I.G. have produced a winner with their touching Momo e no Tegami. Working on realistic and fantastical levels, this animation centers on 12-year-old Momo (voiced by Karen Miyama), forced to move with her mother to a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea after her father’s untimely death.

Moving from Tokyo to a village bores Momo and, worse, she’s left to fend for herself when Mom (voiced by Yuka), a teacher, goes off to work. But Momo’s days become too exciting. Three yokai—traditional Japanese goblin spirits—have followed the family to the island. When Momo cracks a 500-year-old book they become visible to her, but not to adults. There is the lizard-like leader Kawa (voiced by Koichi Yamadera), the oaf Iwa (voiced by Toshiyuki Nishida) and the miniature, cute-as-a-button Mame (voiced by Cho). After Momo gets a hold on her fear, they make friends. The spirits are constantly stealing food (Japanese ghosts are always hungry) and getting into mischief that she must cover up. These amusing fantasy sequences act as counterpoint for the main story, that Momo fought with her father before he disappeared at sea, and she found a letter to her he only started but never finished. The girl desperately wants to know what he intended to say.

Entertaining, charming and moving, this anime is rare in that it works as slapstick and drama, fantasy and realism.

English title: A Letter to Momo. (120 min)