Rennyo and His Mother

The story centers around Ryōken, a young man who lamented his misfortune and despised temples and monks. He had placed all his hope on his unborn child, but an unfortunate incident took everything away from him. In his time of despair and suffering in the dark, Ryōken came across the preachings of the holy priest Rennyo. They tell the answer to "why we live," as revealed by the monk Shinran. Finding new meaning, Ryōken becomes Rennyo's apprentice. Angry at the increase of followers at Honnōdera, the other Buddhist sects chase Rennyo and Ryōken out of Kyoto. Seeking a new place of worship, the two arrive in Yoshizaki (Fukui) in the Hokuriku region.

A dramatization based on the novel "The Story of Rennyo" by Hiroyuki Itsuki.

In the chaos of the Jinshin-no-Ran civil war of 762, a child with a small horn in his forehead was born. The child's mother condemned him as an oni and cast him away. An elderly shūgenja woman claimed the child and named him Utsunomiko, or 'Divine Child of the Heavens', telling Miko that his horn symbolizes the union of heaven and earth. Miko matured in the wilderness learning the ways of Shugendō, and soon started venturing into villages out of curiosity. He found that the common people of the villages live in poverty and suffering, and began using his spiritual powers to help them. But his anger at the self-serving rulers and their petty power-struggles grew until he came into open conflict with the Imperial Court, setting Miko down a long path as a champion of the oppressed.

Ryo is about the son of a samurai who lost his parents during the attack of English ships on a Japanese town who is given the name Ryo and becomes the bodyguard of Ryoma Sakamoto, a man who has his own plan to fight for the country. Note: Ryo was one of the four films of Anime Mirai 2013 (Young Animator Training Project), a project funded by the Japanese government's Agency of Cultural Affairs in order to support training animators.