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  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Ame, Yuki, and their journeys of self discovery. Did they grow up, grow more mature, and find their true places in the world, or were they shamed into choosing one side at the expense of the other?
    • Is Souhei's mom really entitled and selfish, or is she just an ambiguous case of an overprotective mom with a worst case scenario in mind?
    • Also, was Souhei's mom really going to neglect or abandon Souhei once his half-sibling was born? Or was Souhei using child logic to think up a worst case scenario? Yuki pointing out how worried his mother was could imply it's the latter.
  • Angst? What Angst?: There's no indication whatsoever that Yuki even reacted to her brother leaving for good, despite the fact that she wasn't there when he left or the fact he didn't even say goodbye to her. And she's the narrator of the film.
  • Awesome Art: The whole thing. This movie has better animation than The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars combined!
  • Awesome Music: The song at the end is a Tear Jerker and a Heartwarming Moment, as the lyrics are a mother singing to her children, before and after they're born.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Ame when he leaves Hana and Yuki. Ame pursuing the path to become a wolf is pretty justifiable, but the way he handles it causes him to be this. After finding Hana unconscious on the slope, instead of taking her home, Ame leaves her on a parking lot and then leaves. It doesn't help that moments before the storm, Ame had been as unhelpful as possible to Hana. This has caused some the fans to think that Ame is pretty rude and selfish, not even saying goodbye or giving any parting words to Hana. Some have defended him on the grounds that in his own way, he kind of does.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: The scene where Yuki gets sick and Hana has to rush her to medical help. Ordinarily a toddler in potentially life-threatening danger from ingesting something poisonous shouldn't be funny, but then we have Hana arrive at a crossroads with the children's hospital on one end and the veterinarian on the other and desperately try to figure out which she should take Yuki to, only for Yuki to just throw up and be relatively fine after, making the scene a pretty funny moment despite how initially serious it was.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: Ame leaving for good is presented as a very positive thing, with uplifting music and Tears of Joy on Hana's part. However, this can come off as unsettling/unsatisfying to people who were expecting a different kind of resolution, in the vein of the fact that he and Yuki never explicitly made up (though they did talk once after the fight without issue), and Ame doesn't apologize to his mother after everything, which may or may not just be part of his wolf behavior.
  • Fan Nickname: Fans sometimes call the Wolfman "Ookami" because it's the Japanese word for "wolf" and fits the Family Theme Naming of Hana and her kids being named after important objects.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: When she's gardening, Hana wears a yellow straw hat with a red band. When the film was dubbed into English, she was played by Colleen Clinkenbeard, the English voice of Monkey D Luffy.
  • Hype Backlash: Minor case. Due to so many people raving about the movie, there have been people who watch, will admit it's good, but then say it didn't live up to the expectations that the hype has caused.
  • Narm:
    • When Hana and the Wolfman lie down to make love, the latter is still in his wolf form. note 
    • Ame's farewell howl. It's obviously a human voice attempting to mimic a wolf's howl, and just a little funnier than it should be.
  • Narm Charm: The aforementioned lovemaking scene is silly and potentially squicky, but it's also quite sweet. The Wolfman, despite dwarfing Hana, is impossibly tender with her.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • Yuki's fierce expression and bloody claws after she scratches Souhei. Souhei chasing her through the school and cornering her in the garden with harsh violin music playing in the background can also be unsettling, especially for anyone who has experienced a panic attack
    • Ame and Yuki fighting each other as wolves. Special mention goes to Ame viciously biting at Yuki's throat while Hana watches in shock.
  • No Yay: Hana lies down with the Wolfman to make love when the latter is still a wolf, though it's likely he did turn back.
  • Popular with Furries: It's about wolves and werewolves, so it was bound to be popular with furries.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Both Yuki and Ame have shades of this during their fight:
    • On Yuki's side, she's meant to be sympathetic because of the drama that happened at school stressing her out. However, she throws her eraser and slaps her brother, which starts the fight in the first place, and refuses to accept his decision to be a wolf despite knowing how unhappy he is in school.
    • Ame arguably handles the situation worse than Yuki. While his desire to live as a wolf is sympathetic and Yuki ultimately starts the fight, his actions during their fall out are not. Ame keeps telling Yuki that she's a wolf and denies her humanity, not realizing that she just doesn't have the same passion for it as before and ignores her rising anger when he pushes the subject. It proceeds to get worse when he decides to beat the living crap out of her as she's running away and refusing to fight back. Lastly he does nothing but throw a Death Glare at their worried mother, who only wants the fight to stop.
  • Values Dissonance:
    • Yuki lets go of her plucky attitude along with her love of collecting bugs and animal skeletons to fit in more with other girls. While to a Japanese audience, it makes sense as conformity is more encouraged in their society, to a Western audience the message might look more like "different is bad". While Hana does tell Yuki to just be herself, it only seems to fall on deaf ears. The fact that she goes through a Girliness Upgrade in the process also reflects Japan's stricter enforcement of gender roles.
    • Ame is allowed to do whatever he pleases, simply because he's a boy and is given a privileged position by his mother. Yuki, on the other hand, is constantly chastised for whatever she does, even if not even being or doing wrong and especially when standing for herself. This culminates with Ame being allowed to simply stay in the wilderness as a wolf as if nothing, but Yuki has to fit in into the human society, something that was drilled into her for most of her growing up as her final duty and obligation, without even considering she might want to do something else. This fits with Japanese perception of gender roles and traditional male favouritism, not to mention enforced Tall Poppy Syndrome, but can make anyone else grate their teeth as the plot goes on and can even (unintentionally) make Ame look like an Ungrateful Bastard for all the hardship and effort Hana went through when raising him.
  • Woolseyism: The scene in which Ame sits alone in the dark just prior to his departure into the wild has him saying just one line: "I have to go." The dub succeeds in making it even more painful than it originally was.
    Ame: Sorry, mom.

Alternative Title(s): Wolf Children Ame And Yuki

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