Echo

One summer vacation, Ruka meets two boys, "Umi" and "Sora," whose upbringing contains strange and wonderful secrets. Drawn to their beautiful swimming, almost more like flying, Ruka and the adults who know them are intertwined in a complex mesh... Meanwhile, an unexplained anomaly is occurring all over the world: fish are disappearing. Thus begins a marine adventure of boys and girls to captivate all the senses!

Masamune, a third-year middle school student, lives in a town where all the exits have been sealed off due to a sudden explosion at a steel mill, causing time to stand still. Residents are forbidden from making any changes and spend their suffocating days in the hopes of returning to normalcy someday. One day, Masamune's mysterious classmate Mutsumi guides him to the fifth furnace of the steel mill, where they encounter a girl who cannot speak and resembles a wild wolf. The meeting between the two girls and Masamune disrupts the balance of the world, and the unstoppable "impulse of love" from boys and girls tired of their daily lives begins to destroy the world.

The story centers on a boy named Kazuki Tsukigase, who transfers to a high school on a remote island to get away from anyone who knows him. Kazuki finds out that there is an inlet on the island where people are rumored to disappear. Exploring the inlet, he encounters an unconscious girl. When she comes to after Kazuki takes her to the clinic, she is unable to give out anything about her identity except that she is named Nao, is 16 years old, and whispers the year "1974."

Young animator Mito feels trapped between the demands of a difficult sequence, a tight deadline, debilitating self-doubt, and a seemingly deranged director. Sometimes the only way to get to the other side is to charge right through. Note: Originally released on June 28, 2024 as a part of "Gemnibus Vol. 1" anthology, however was also simultaneously selected to screen, and then later premiered at Fantasia International Film Festival.