YMMV / Takashi Yanase

• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The Kindly Lion is full of touching and heartfelt moments between Muku-Muku and Buru-Buru. Especially the 1970 adaptation, where we get a sequence of her taking care of Buru-Buru while singing him a lullaby. She rocks him back and forth to help him go to sleep, lets him drink milk from her, and gives him a hug.◊ Even when Buru-Buru becomes a lion, he still loves his mother.◊ When Buru-Buru sees his reflection in a lake with his mother, he gets scared thinking it's a monster and thinks himself as ugly due to expecting himself to turn out like his mother. Muku-Muku quickly calms him down by saying "You and I appear different indeed, but in our hearts, we are the same." since she strongly believes "The heart is the most important thing" between a mother and son.
  • The Rose Flower and Joe is considered to be one of his most lighthearted and sweetest works. It's about a homeless puppy named "Joe", who falls in love with a rose. Despite being homeless, he remains cheerful and loves talking to the rose. He even goes so far as to protect it from a crow. However, Joe ends up blind in the process due to the crow throwing a surprise attack at him. After Joe (now blind) finally confronts the crow with the crow drowning in a lake. He is now weak and is slowly dying as he makes his way back to the rose and shares a final conversation. As Joe and the rose both pass away in the process, we see Joe (now as an angel) and the rose reuniting in heaven where both share a kiss.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The book The Gentle Lion/The Kindly Lion is about an orphaned lion cub named Buru-Buru getting adopted by a female dog named Muku-Muku. The story begins with a rabbit discovering the orphaned lion completely skinny and takes him to Muku-Muku. She just lost her own child moments after birth and decides to adopt Buru-Buru with the help of a female rabbit. When Buru-Buru is fully grown, he believes that he will look like his adopted mother (a dog). When he alongside his mother are sitting near a pond of water, he gets scared at his own reflection calling himself a monster and breaks down in the process. The story ends with Buru-Buru and his mother Muku-Muku being killed by an army.
  • Bara no Hana to Joe ends with a weak and dying Joe reuniting with the pink rose for the final time and has a brief conversation. Joe and the rose both die and their bodies are covered in snow. The short end on a happier note, where we see Joe now as an angel sharing a kiss with the rose.
  • Chirin's Bell ends with the protagonist finally getting revenge for the death of his mother. The downside is that he's all alone since the entire flock has been eaten by the wolf.
• Moe:
  • Muku-Muku and Buru-Buru from The Kindly Lion due to their close relationship and the fact that a dog becomes a parent to a lion.
  • Joe the Dog from Bara no Hana to Joe (The Rose Flower and Joe) is an upbeat and very adorable little puppy. He managed to keep his upbeat nature despite being homeless.
  • Chirin from Chirin no Suzu is the cutest little lamb you'll ever see. He's the youngest of the entire flock and really loves his mother. Unfortunately, he starts losing his cuteness once his mother is killed and the rest of the sheep get eaten.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The Kindly Lion and especially Chirin's Bell get this reaction due to it's cutesy art style, but deals with depressing and heavy subject matter despite being a children's book.