Onis are scary and horrendous creatures. In ancient Japanese folklore, people even associate Oni with murder and cannibalism. I’m not sure why this isn’t the case in Tomotaka Shibayama’s My Oni Girl, but it’s probably for the better. In this movie, the Oni only has a horn to resemble the tales, and that horn is far from scary and even feels cute at moments. The movie follows a shy teenage boy breaking free from his shackles when he meets an Oni girl. Together, they embark on a mystical journey that changes both of their lives.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
Hiiragi Yatsuse is a kind-hearted boy who finds it difficult to make friends, even though he always helps his classmates, hoping they will befriend him. Hiiragi goes to extreme lengths to help people who don’t care about him, and he even agrees to play a boyfriend for one of his classmates. Despite his every effort, his life remains the same until he meets Tsumugi. He tries to help Tsumugi get on a bus, but she refuses to take the help and starts to walk with him instead. Hiiragi invites Tsumugi to his home, where his mother and sister are only too happy to welcome her. Hiiragi’s father and him have their fair share of differences, as he refuses to let Hiiragi join a cram school and sets him up with a private tutor instead. Hiiragi runs to his room to weep in secret, and snowy bubbles come out of his body. Moments later, a translucent, snowy, serpent-like monster attacks Hiiragi, and Tsumugi saves him. Both of them ran out of the house to protect themselves. Hiiragi notices that Tsumugi has a little horn on her head, and she reveals that she’s an Oni.
Why did Tsumugi run from her house?
Tsumugi tells Hiiragi that the bubbles that are coming out of him are called mini-oni, and this only happens to people who bottle up their actual feelings and suppress them. Tsumugi thinks he’s hiding his fears, but Hiiragi refuses to agree. The mini-oni coming out of him also means that Hiiragi is also going to turn into an oni soon enough. Tsumugi tells him how she comes from a place called the Hidden Village, and that’s where all the Oni community lives. She ran from the village to find her mother, who had left her when she was three years old. Tsumugi’s mother is probably at a place called Hie Shrine, and she asks Hiiragi to guide her to the shrine. Since she has no idea of this world herself, Hiiragi hesitantly agrees to go with her, even though he’s nervous about how his dad is going to take this.
What happens when Tsumugi reaches the shrine?
The kids have a long way to go before they reach the shrine, and they hitchhike with a brother-sister duo who they thought were a couple. When the snowy monster attacks again, Tsumugi leaves Hiiragi to lure the monster to her. Hiiragi finds her unconscious on a riverbed and takes her to a hotel, where the owners take her in. The owners are a couple with their cute differences, but both of them look content with each other. Hiiragi offers to work for them in exchange for letting him and Tsumugi stay until she gets better. After they leave the hotel, they stop at a cafe when a folding screen grabs their attention. Tsumugi reveals how the hidden village was cloaked in snow, thanks to the Snow Gods. But a few weeks ago, the Snow Gods turned hostile and started attacking their village and eating people. The monsters they’ve been fighting resemble the Snow gods, and another one attacks them before Hiiragi traps them inside a train. The duo finally reach the shrine, where Tsumugi’s father is waiting for her. He tells Tsumugi that people are getting killed in Hidden Village. Tsumugi doesn’t care, and she’s furious after not finding her mother here. She runs away from Izuru and Hiiragi, and when Hiiragi goes to console her, they get into a fight too.
How does Hiiragi survive the Snow God?
Hiiragi’s father is desperately searching for him, and he finds Tsumugi walking by the side of the road. Tsumugi points to show him where he’d find Hiiragi. Hiiragi is sad and again holding his emotions back instead of letting them out, and the dense clusters of mini-oni attract the Snow God to come and hunt him. Hiiragi’s father comes to take his son back home, but the Snow God eats Hiiragi. He couldn’t see what happened to Hiiragi except for the fact that he just vanished in front of him. He finds Tsumugi and Izuru again, who first offer to help but then choose to escape since they know that Hiiragi’s father can’t be taken to the Hidden Village. Hiiragi lies unconscious inside the Snow God, but a bright golden light comes out of him, causing the Snow God trouble. The creature eventually falls to the ground and disappears, and the Oni of Hidden Village take Hiiragi to keep him safe. Hiiragi’s horn is out too now, and now he’s finally turned into an Oni.
Does Tsumugi find her mother?
When Hiiragi opens his eyes, he finds himself in the hidden village. Chief Gozen tells him about a place that is situated in the deepest regions of the Hidden Village. The Oni people used a spirit mask to summon the Snow Gods before they turned hostile, and that mask is kept on a shrine on Oni Island. The Spirit Mask has powers, and that’s why it’s kept hidden from human beings. Tsumugi arrives to interrupt the conversation and takes Hiiragi with her, only to lock him in the food pantry. Tsumugi thinks she must make this journey alone. Izuru finds Hiiragi locked up, and Hiiragi convinces Izuru to set him free, as it’s equally important for him to make this journey. Izuru and Hiiragi hop on snowmobiles with two other members of the village, but it comes to only Hiiragi making it to Oni Island, as the bridge broke before Izuru and the others could cross. Hiiragi sees Tsumugi entering the cave where the mask is supposed to be, and then he discovers her buried under snow hours later. Tsumugi relived every experience she had with Hiiragi and knows she couldn’t have done anything without him. Hiiragi wakes her up, and both of them gain the ability to fly above the beautiful snowy mountains. Izumi comes running, and Tsumugi’s mother comes out of the cave. He asks her if their daughter found her, and they see Tsumugi coming from the sky to visit. Just as Tsumugi reunites with her mother, all the Snow Gods start to die. It’s either Tsumugi or her mother who destroyed the mask, resulting in the weird creatures being gone forever. Hiiragi bids goodbye to them and sees his father waiting on him right outside the Hidden Village. The movie ends with Hiiragi gaining enough self-confidence to talk with his father, man to man, and Tsumugi coming to meet with her favorite boy again.
Is The Mask Destroyed?
Even though the Snow Gods disappear by the end of the movie, we never really get to see somebody actually destroying the mask. Tsumugi’s mother was burdened with wearing the mask in order to keep the Snow Gods happy, and as long as she did, the village flourished. Leaving her child and all of the people she ever cared about. After years, she decided not to carry on, as the thought of her daughter got too heavy for her to handle. When Tsumugi goes to destroy the mask, she sees the mask going away from her, and she falls from the shrine as the shrine floats off into the sky. Tsumugi is free-falling from the sky as she learns the truth about her mother by touching the golden beams that shoot through the sky. She sees her mother and even embraces her, and in that process, the mask falls off her mother’s face. Although the moment didn’t last long, the mask disappeared right in front of Tsumugi. One thing is certain: it takes way too much to destroy an ancient mask that holds such a lot of power.
My Oni Girl is a fantastical journey and a visually pleasing experience; the only thing missing is a decent plot. Even though the pacing is alright and doesn’t bore you, there’s too little at stake for the characters, and that makes it harder to care about them. The ending feels rushed, and despite all the time they spend together, Hiiragi and Tsumugi romancing each other just sounds like a horrible thought.
