Takegawa Hotaru: A Girl of Contentment and Acceptance
If you can weigh sadness, would you measure it by the lack of physical contact? Would you measure it with losing something or someone important? Or would you measure it by the punishing challenge of acceptance? Today, we’ll try to place ourselves in the shoes of Takegawa Hotaru, a girl of contentment and acceptance.
A story of an odd and magical friendship, Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light (Hotarubi no Mori e) written by Yuki Midorikawa. WARNING: May contain spoilers.
Takegawa Hotaru: A Girl of Contentment and Acceptance
The number one rule about their weird friendship is to never touch Gin or else, the magic bestowed by the mountain god will break and he will disappear forever. Their friendship was literally life-threatening on one end, but it made them feel so alive.
A girl named Hotaru
One time during her visit to her Uncle’s place, the six-year-old Takegawa Hotaru was saved by a young man wearing a kitsune mask. His name is Gin, part of the spirits in the forest of the mountain god. In their first encounter, Gin saved her not only from being lost but from then on he saved her from experiencing any ordinary summer. At that moment, the two of them saved each other without even realizing it.
Contentment
Starting that summer, Hotaru had looked forward to the following year and years after, content with only seeing and being with her friend every time the sunny season came. But of course, humans always long for more, then act on it resulting in unimaginable changes and sometimes regrets as well.
From the beginning, Hotaru has shown that she accepted the rule of their friendship. But, sometimes in all those years, she still longed to be able to see and hold her friend out of the times they are allowed to. Greed is not a friend if not tamed. She overcame it and came to terms with things, being content without wording it out.
Acceptance
Like that one cool breeze on a hot summer day, a wave of realization, Hotaru has accepted that their story is different from others. But what she and Gin have was incomparable to anything else. Like the cicadas singing on the trees and leaves dancing in the gusting wind, it was warm and peaceful. The gushing waters in the hidden river of the forest became witness to their memories, true and solemn.
From the very beginning, even though sad, she had accepted the fact that this acceptance is a friend of hers in their story. And at the end, tears were shed but with a positive smile and cherished mask, she said “Let us go.”
Do you find it hard to be content with things? Or is acceptance a challenge for you? If you are sad about things, remember that Takegawa Hotaru is someone who embraced these two things and kept on moving forward, you can, too!
