Anime: Happy Birthday Inochi Kagayaku Toki

When I stumbled on this show I was very surprised to see that the 'primary story' deals with abuse, that too a "Mother's"! And its an anime!!

A mother is normally seen a very loving person. Even the most horrible person is loved by his mother, so showing something drastically different is very difficult and not many people would even like seeing this. So I don't think this anime was made with making money as the primary objective. And shows can get made only when someone with money approves it. So I really laud the person who financed this. Kudos to you.

The abuse that is portrayed here is not physical but its a lot worse, mental. Children are normally easily deceived and because they are so positive, Asuka the kid does not even understand that she is being abused. When something bad happens the mother always turns it around to make it look as if Asuka is the culprit and Asuka too believes that. Its finally when she understands that the mother does not actually love her 'at all', and infact sees her as just an annoyance, that something really bad happens to her and she has to be taken to her grandparents. Even then, the mother is angry because when the neighbours find out that Asuka is not going to school it would raise questions and muddy her name.

People like this do exist in real life. Though they are normally men, not women. If its a mother who was a drug addict or if it was physical abuse, people can see and the child might get support from people. But when its a mother who is successful, behaves well with the neighbours and relatives, and even talks like a loving mother in front of them, its not even possible for a child to bring up that conversation with someone. Even if it did ever become an issue, the mother will just 'talk it out' with whoever confronts her. Child mental abuse is so subtle that it is not something that can be proven in court or the person punished. Its something like - ok, agreed, she is not very loving, but atleast you have a mother, think of the orphans who have nothing. Yet the reality is that the pain and the permanent damage that occurs is huge compared to physical abuse.

Even in physical abuse, the reality is - society is 'forced' to take action. People have their own children and their own millions of troubles, they don't have time.

Because its a movie and since they have to resolve matters for it to end, they show that the mother changes, but in reality that never happens (I think the movie lost an opportunity here. They could have really made this movie a classic). Some people are so deeply selfish and they just don't want someone's love! Neither are they interested in giving love. Giving love and accepting love are the 2 faces of a coin. They don't go separately. Such people who have no connection with their hearts find fun and fulfilment in how they appear to society. Things like being superior and making others jealous are what they live for. They are annoyed by people who are not useful to them or people who want them to give something that they don't have (love). So they can become really nasty to shut up the other person. You can see most of these things in this movie. I appreciate their courage for atleast doing this much.

There are a lot of cheesy moments too. Asuka is lucky to have a brother who understood and decided to send her to their incredibly mature and loving grand parents in the village. I think the movie tried to play it a little safe here. They could have made it tougher. What would have happened if the child had nobody near her to understood what was happening to her?

The greatest tragedy about this issue is not the abuse. A mother's love is not something that can be supplanted, ever.

This is not a regular anime, so I am not able to whole heartedly recommend it. Its very short though (a little more than an hour), so check it out. It might even help you in real life.

PS: Again, because this is not a regular anime, the review I have done is also not based on the normal rules. Sorry for that.

The art & animation is quite good considering it is from 1999!