By the time I entered college, my family had moved house seven times. The process of adjusting to a new place grew harder as I became a teenager, though by the time of our last move I was more accepting — or indifferent, take your pick. The difference between 13 and 17, in other words, was huge.
The title heroine of Hiroyuki Okiura's new animated feature, "Momo e no Tegami (A Letter to Momo)," is closer to the former, tenderer age than the latter when her mother (voiced by one-name actress Yuka) decides to return to her home island in a remote corner of the Seto Inland Sea. Also, Momo (voiced by Karen Miyama) has just lost her father — and regrets the harsh words that proved to be the last he ever heard from her.
Okiura, an animator and character designer with a three-decade career, spent seven years developing "Momo" after the 1999 release of his first feature, the animated sci-fi epic "Jinro (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade)." He presents Momo more as an average girl than a tragic victim, or the usual spunky anime heroine: When she reluctantly joins the local kids for a swim, she incredulously watches as everyone leaps off a high bridge into the harbor water — and heads for home alone.
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