Wolf Children is a beautiful and heart-warming movie following single mother Hana struggling to raise two half-human, half-wolf children after the death of their father. Wolf Children explores themes of single motherhood, discrimination, and identity as Ame and Yuki grow up.

After their father dies, Hana takes Yuki and Ame into a rural community away from the city, as she believes it would be better to raise them there. Surviving on only savings, she attempts to grow vegetables in order to feed herself and her children; the vegetables wither, but Hana does not give up.

She continues to read up on gardening and how to grow the best crops, hoping to have a successful harvest the second time, only for the crops to wither. Hana is willing to put in immense effort to learn how to support herself and her children, no matter the cost. 

This is also seen when she goes out in the middle of the storm to search for Ame. She wants nothing more than to protect him, and she is willing to risk her life to ensure that he is safe.

Hana would put her children’s livelihood and comfort over her own. When Ame would cry all night, she would stay up rubbing his back. She would often dose off during the day, and spent her free time studying how to best raise wolves and children.

Hana is also accepting of what her children decide to do. When Yuki approaches her and tells her she wants to be more girly so people at school would accept her, Hana tells her that Yuki should be able to do whatever she wants. However, she is still willing to sew Yuki a new dress to make her happy. At the end of the movie, even if she is heartbroken with Ame’s decision to run off into the wild, she still tells him to take care and to live his life.

Wolf Children also comments on discrimination and self-identity. Near the start of the film, Ame cries to his mother and asks her why wolves are always the bad guys. Hana comforts him, and assures him that she loves wolves. Growing up surrounded by hatred of wolves causes the children to want to suppress that part of themselves. Hana suppresses her wolf half, even vowing to never turn into a wolf after hurting her friend. In order to live among humans, she has to deny half of herself. 

A scene that really stood out in the movie is when Ame and Yuki fight. Yuki tells Ame that he has to go to school because he is a human. Ame tells Yuki that she is a wolf. Both children see themselves as fully one or the other, not a mix of both. The movie seems to suggest that the children have to pick one or the other in order to live their lives. Ame decides to live as a wolf in the mountains and Yuki decides to live as a human and keep going to school. Despite this message, though, I really enjoyed the movie.