Why I Flew 10,000 Miles To Find One Piece of Obscure Animal Crossing History

We’ve all done questionable things for love. I’m adding this latest adventure to a long, long list of moments I took my fandom too far.

Queuing up 12 hours in a grim London mall for a limited edition Pokemon pop-up and exclusive Pikachu plush? Check.

Flying across the world to see my favourite band play… From the city they were from? Check.

But this latest unhinged obsession has got me stuck, and I’m afraid it doesn’t have a happy ending.

Let me rewind as I take you on this tale.

It’s 2006, I’m 9 years old, up way past my bedtime. I’m going through it, as a 9 year old often is. Snuggled up in my purple duvet, fighting sleep as the blue light on a Nintendo DS screen sears my eyeballs, the beautiful, now nostalgic, tinny soundtrack to Animal Crossing: Wild World playing softly in the night air. Startown, my town, was a home for me, even if said home was owned by a thieving wretch of a racoon.

The fever dream began the next night. I was falling down a late-night YouTube rabbit hole of Animal Crossing dark lore videos.

It was here our paths first crossed. I stumbled across a 240p rip of an 80 minute, official Animal Crossing movie called Gekijōban Dōbutsu no Mori.

Did you know there was an Animal Crossing movie? Because I didn’t.

It was broken up into 7, maybe 8, parts. It had dubious English subtitles and comments in Japanese that I couldn’t read. And I loved it.

Nintendo

What Happens in Dōbutsu no Mori?

It’s a simple tale. An 11-year-old girl called Ai moves into Animal Village, makes friends with her villagers, and confronts heartbreak as her new-found friend leaves the tiny town to pursue her dreams. It was only ever released in Japan, with Nintendo of America saying in 2007 that they had no plans for an English release.

Let’s fast forward a decade. I’ve left my tiny town, off to pursue my own dreams. Surviving on caffeine supplied by my local arthouse coffee shop, crushed by my perfectionist tendencies and lashing out, regressing into childhood comforts.

Once again, it’s late at night. All of a sudden, it pops into my head. A sudden, visceral yearning to watch Dōbutsu no Mori for some small slice of comfort. I needed to see Ai move into the village again. I needed to see her make friends and know everything would be okay. Most importantly, I needed to hear K.K. Slider’s cinematic debut.

But it was gone.

I felt my heart sink. The digital void had swallowed this childhood memory. No streaming service had it. No "Buy Now" button on Prime Video. I found a dodgy Facebook link, but it wasn’t… Right, somehow. My vividly orange room felt darker, somehow. It felt like a hallucination. The more I searched, the more I was sure. It wasn’t there.

I gave up.

Fast forward another decade. I graduated! Bought my home. Adopted 3 beautiful kittens. Started this job.

And I still can’t stop thinking about this movie. So I decided to do something about it.

The Quest to Find Dōbutsu no Mori

It’s at this point where I hear you think: “Why would you not just get it on eBay”. Yeah, true, you might have a point. But who knows if they’re legit. Where’s the romance? Where’s the narrative weight?

If I was going to reunite with Ai, Margie, and the gang, I had to do it properly. I had to go to the source.

I had to go to Japan.

Going to the Birthplace of Animal Crossing

I wish I could tell you the flight to Haneda Airport was glamorous. It wasn't. 20 hours of stagnant air in Economy, all for a 20 year old movie I wasn’t even sure I’d find. And no, it wasn’t an in-flight movie (I checked).

I landed, and after crashing for a full day, I was set loose in Tokyo.

My first port of call - one of Japan’s largest Book-Off's, the Super Bazaar Minatocho, Kawasaki.

For those not in the know, Book-Off is Japan’s gold-standard second-hand physical media store. Head-to-toe walls of pre-owned DVDs, games, hardware… You can find everything here. It was an hour and a half of walking, determination mixed with blisters.

I navigated through the "Family" DVD section. A surprising number of Tom Cruise movies (don’t judge me, I love Mission Impossible). Nothing. I combed through "Classic Anime." Nothing.

I got so desperate I drew back the curtain on the 18+ section. Hey, you never know, I’ve seen some of the Ankha drawings this community has created. Nothing.

At least I managed to score an Animal Crossing: Wild World guide book for 350 yen (about 50p). So, not for nothing.

Nintendo

But This Time, I Didn’t Give Up

I visited every Book-Off from Tokyo to Osaka. I spoke to staff in broken Japanese who looked at me with a mix of pity and confusion.

"Dōbutsu no Mori? Eiga?". They’d shake their heads. "Gomen nasai."

Across the 3 and a half weeks I was out there, I went to 23 second-hand shops trying to secure Dōbutsu no Mori.

I wanted to finish this story by telling you I found it. That I reached behind Tom Cruise (not like that) and felt my fingertips brush the cover. I want to say I’m writing this while the credits roll on my TV, a single melodramatic tear falling down my cheek.

But I didn't find it.

I flew across the planet to find a piece of my soul in a bargain bin, and I came back empty-handed.

Maybe Dōbutsu no Mori only exists in the memories of a kid staying up too late in 2006, watching Part 4 of 7 while the rest of the world slept.

Not everything is forever, and isn’t that exactly what Dōbutsu no Mori taught me, all those years ago?

No. I want it. Has anyone got a copy they'll let me buy off them?