The Big First-Grader and the Small Second-Grader

Ai is a self-reliant girl that moves to Animal Village. She makes friends with the various villagers as she settles into the village. One night as she walked along the beach, she finds a message in the bottle. It sets her off on a quest of planting pine trees around the village to fulfill a miracle on the eve of the Winter Festival.

The story is set in 1955 in Kokuga, Hofu City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. One thousand years ago it was the site of the ancient capital, Suo no Kuni, and traces of the Heian Period (year 794-1185) are passed down to us in the form of ruins and historical place names. The protagonist is Shinko, a third grade elementary school student, who was born and raised in one of the town's venerable families. She is a little girl whose characteristic is a strange curl on her forehead (she calls it her "Mai Mai"), and her love for playing in the fields. On the other hand, her secret joy is to imagine and to daydream about the world of one thousand years ago. Her fantasies travel far into the days of the Heian Period… One day, a girl called Kiiko transfers from Tokyo and enters Shinko's class. This girl from the big city has difficulty feeling at home in this small town, but gradually her friendship with Shinko deepens. Before long, the two of them become engulfed in a strange incident of one thousand years earlier...?!

The story of the first film of four is set in the spring, when Fuu, Kaoru, Norie, and Maon get promoted to third-year high school students, while Kanae has graduated. Two kouhai join the photography club. Even though they bring in new friends, their lively daily life remains unchanged. Yet, the four third-year students are slowly thinking about their own future dreams and paths as they face graduation in about a year.

One summer in the third grade, a quiet boy named Tsubasa meets Kyotaro, a boy everyone in the class looked up to, and the two become close friends. Within their small world, they share irreplaceable moments—until a small incident suddenly tears them apart. Spanning more than thirty years, this gentle, contemplative story invites the audience to reflect on the meaning of life through the paths their lives take.