Happy Birthday: Inochi Kagayaku Toki

Synopsis:

Trailer:

Characters:

• Fujiwara, Asuka (Main) - Voice Actors: Sakuma, Nobuko
• Fujiwara, Naoto (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Okano, Kousuke
• Fujiwara, Shizuyo (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Tajima, Reiko
• Hamamoto, Akiko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kawakami, Tomoko
• Hanamura, Megumi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Masuda, Yuki
• Hiroshi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hishizu, Yukari
• Kanazawa, Junko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kawata, Taeko
• Kobayashi, Daisuke (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Sakurai, Toshiharu
• Masako (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Tani, Ikuko
• Mr. Sanada (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Toochika, Kouichi
• Shuzo (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kojima, Toshihiko

Staff:

• Mikami, Tetsuo (Producer)
• Dezaki, Tetsu (Director)
• Masui, Ippei (Key Animation)
• Nakajima, Yuuki (Music)
• Nodate, Seiichi (Key Animation)
• Sakai, Kyuuta (Key Animation)
• Sakurai, Konomi (Key Animation)
• Shibuichi, Setsuko (Character Design)
• Suzuki, Rumiko (Color Design)
• Suzuki, Shinichi (Key Animation)
• Suzuki, Mitsuru (Key Animation)
• Takahashi, Atsuko (In-Between Animation)
• Tsuzuki, Yukako (Key Animation)
• Yamamoto, Naoki (Director of Photography)

Reviews:

• User danus_au (Score: 8/10):
  You owe it yourself to watch this movie. I agree with most of what the previous person stated in their review. I find it sad that a movie of this quality (ignoring the animation and sound issues) can go unnoticed and unappreciated for so long. This English sub is quite good, again the animation and sound are not the best, but I think anyone who really loves Anime and wants to see everything Japan has to offer should watch this. My personal opinion (keep in mind it is my opinion) is that if someone re-made this movie for western audiences it would be very well received.
• User Firechick12012 (Score: 10/10):
  I can't believe I never knew of this thing's existence until JUST now! I seriously can't believe it! Where has this movie been all my life?! This thing is just amazing! Wonderful, sublime, awesome, tear-jerking, emotional, beautiful, heartbreaking, I'm running out of adjectives! Worst of all, WHY IS THIS THING NOT SUBBED YET?!? Well, Licca Subs seems to have interest in subbing it, but they better do so once they have time, because this anime movie NEEDS a sub! How did I see this, you ask? Well, the only footage of this movie I could find was from a Russian fansub group, and I don'tunderstand Russian, but I did manage to understand the core of the story and some of the dialogue (yes, the Japanese version exists). Now, onto reviewing Happy Birthday: Time When Life Shines (or Happy Birthday: Inochi Kagayaku Toki)!nnSo basically the story's about a sweet but weak-hearted girl named Asuka Fujiwara who goes to a school full of bullies and cowards. Her mother doesn't give her much attention. She seems to favor her big brother, Naoto, over Asuka. Asuka feels better when she befriends a severely disabled girl named Megumi (who I think might have cerebral palsy or something). But when her mother intentionally forgets her birthday and says it'd be better if Asuka didn't exist, Asuka is so traumatized that she loses her voice. Naoto, feeling angry at his selfish mother, decides to send Asuka to her grandparents' for a while. There, she learns everything she needs to know about the beauty of nature, her mother's reasons for being the way she is, and, most importantly, the fact that life is precious.nnI'm gonna get to the good parts first, and believe me, there are TONS of good things about this movie. Wanna know the thing about this movie that got my attention the most? The fact that THERE'S ACTUAL DISABLED KIDS IN THIS MOVIE!!! Yes! There are ACTUALLY disabled kids with illnesses like cerebral palsy or something like that! No anime I've seen has ever been gutsy enough to show actual disabled kids before! No wonder this anime is so criminally underrated and under appreciated! Yes, someone gets it! Someone gets that NOT EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN JAPAN is physically and mentally beautiful (no offense intended). Seriously, why are most anime nowadays making all their characters look physically perfect? Jeez! It's like they have a complex against flaws or something! Even most American cartoons acknowledge that not everyone is perfect, both physically and emotionally! Heck, they don't even give their characters braces! Well, I'm glad to say that this beautiful gem not only acknowledges that not everyone is perfect, but acknowledges that that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Bravo!nnNow onto the characters! I'm just so happy that this anime portrays all of it's characters realistically and makes them into real, down-to-earth people with flaws and reasons for doing what they do. Asuka's a great lead character. She starts off weak and broken, but thanks…
• User OnegaiSensei666 (Score: 10/10):
  It's needless to say that i cryed and got a lot of cold shivers through spines from this movie. So if you are in any case reading this before movie, i should warn you that it's so sad. My eyes were watery 15 mins intro movie, so i had to pause it for 5-10 minutes. Story: We all got through some trouble in our lifes ( well someone didn't ) , wheter it's family problems or school problems or anything similar to that. This is exactly about that. If you ever felt like a leftout that no one cares about, this story is right foryou. It's not kinda unique ( it was probably for that time when it was writted )nnThis movie is about young girl Fujiwara Asuka that get's rejected by everyone, including her brother and mother, which leaves most impact on her life. She is strugling and don't tell anyone about her problems cause she doesn't have anyone... As she goes through her sad life, finally a little bit of sympathy and care for her and she's gone to her grandma and grandpa so she could recover from weakness and voice which she lost. But after storm comes sun, and story develops more and more about her having happy life, while bringing sad things that ends up good.nnAnimation: I love this animation. I know it's not that good but in 1999 it was pretty much awesome. They managed to bring me back to my childhood with those scenes in the village, when Asuka is helping her Grandpa and Grandma to find a chicked that hides in bush to lay eggs. Everything was almost perfect.nnSound: OST in this movie was sad yet happy. Also voice acting was very good.nnCharacters: Now this is the best thing. With clearly character development and other things, they managed to get you to hate some characters, and than love them. Everything was perfect in every aspect of characters.nnOverall: Everything is working in this movie, it's enjoyable, it isn't too long. I completely enjoyed this, and got a feels trip gratis with movie. Anyways i suggest you to watch it, but if you are reading this review and this sentence, it just means you found movie with lack of popularity, which isn't known that is like a gold nugget in anime world.nnAlso you will notice one character that doesn't even talk ( Megumi ) which will just prove you how good Asuka is :)
• ... and 2 more reviews

Forum Topics:

• Happy Birthday: Inochi Kagayaku Toki Episode 1 Discussion
• Happy Birthday, Inochi Kagayaku Toki Movie Discussion

External Links:

• Official Site
• AniDB
• ANN
• Wikipedia