Interesting movie about Hokusai's daughter (and not about Hokusai himself, so don't expect to watch a biography of him!! I have no idea why people thinks it's a biography of him since the title is "Miss Hokusai"...). The movie is about her art, but also a slice of life, showing some parts of her everyday life. I personally really enjoyed it. The animation is very pretty and I like the fact that I didn't really know what to expect of the story. However, it's difficult to really understand the intentions of the movie since it doesn't really focus on anything and it can be rather puzzling. I advice to see the movie as a brief representation of a moment in Oei Katsushika's life and to not expect to see something with a "structured" plot with a beginning and a end.

Despite being an animated film, "Miss Hosukai" is not a film for children nor was it ever intended to be. Instead, it's a very melancholy portrait of the life of the famed Japanese artist Hosukai and his daughter, O-Ei and it's seen through his eyes. But it's not a normal biography, as you only see bits an pieces of one period of Hosukai's life. If you want to learn a lot about the guy, you're better off reading a biography. The story itself is VERY meandering and this lack of direction to the film made it difficult viewing for me. You see how flawed a man Hosukai was and MOST of the information about him and O-Ei is learned at the very end through a very brief prologue. Beautifully animated but otherwise the film left me very cold and left me wanting to know more.