Portal:Studio Ghibli/Selected feature films

Selected feature films

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Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ, Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta) is a 1986 Japanese animated adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and is also the first film produced and released by Studio Ghibli. The film was distributed by Toei Kabushiki Kaisha. Laputa: Castle in the Sky won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1986.

Human civilizations had built flying cities which were later destroyed by an unspecified catastrophe, forcing the survivors to live on the ground while the sole exception—Laputa—remains in the sky, concealed within a powerful thunderstorm. In the film's opening, an airship carrying the young girl Sheeta and her abductor, Muska—a secret agent working for the government—is attacked by the air-pirate Dola and her sons in who are in search of Sheeta's crystal amulet. In the resulting struggle, Sheeta falls from the airship with the amulet.

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Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓, Hotaru no haka) is a 1988 Japanese animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. It is commonly considered an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been challenged by some critics and by the director. The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi. Set in the city of Kobe, Japan, the film tells the story of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War.

Grave of the Fireflies received critical acclaim from film critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his "Great Movies" list. Two live-action remakes of Grave of the Fireflies were made, one in 2005 and one in 2008.

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My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ, Tonari no Totoro) is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film–which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi–tells the story of the two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Film in 1988.

In 1988, Streamline Pictures produced an exclusive dub for use on transpacific flights by Japan Airlines and its Oneworld partners. Troma Films, under their 50th St. Films banner, distributed the dub of the film co-produced by Jerry Beck. It was released on VHS and DVD by Fox Video. The film was released on VHS and laserdisc in the United States by Tokuma Japan Communications' US subsidiary in 1993 under the title My Friend Totoro. Troma's and Fox's rights to this version expired in 2004.

The film was re-released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 7, 2006 and by Madman on March 15, 2006, with a new dub cast. This DVD release is the first version of the film in the United States to include both Japanese and English language tracks, as Fox did not have the rights to the Japanese audio track for their version.

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Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便, Majo no Takkyūbin, "Witch's Delivery Service") is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film produced by Studio Ghibli. It was written, produced and directed by Hayao Miyazaki as an adaptation of the 1985 novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono. The film features the voices of Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma and Kappei Yamaguchi, and tells the story of a young witch, Kiki (Takayama), as she moves to a town with her talking black cat, using her flying ability to earn a living. According to Miyazaki, the movie touches on the gulf between independence and reliance in teenage Japanese girls.

Kiki's Delivery Service was released in Japan on July 29, 1989, and won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize. It was the first Studio Ghibli film released under the distribution partnership between The Walt Disney Company and Studio Ghibli; Walt Disney Pictures recorded an English dub in 1997, which premiered theatrically in the United States at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23, 1998. The film was released on home video in the U.S. and Canada on September 1, 1998. It received very positive reviews from critics worldwide.

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Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ, Omohide Poro Poro, lit. "memories come tumbling down") is a 1991 Japanese animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on the manga of the same title by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. Toshio Suzuki produced the film and Studio Ghibli provided the animation. It was released on July 20, 1991. The ending theme song (愛は花、君はその種子 'Ai wa Hana, Kimi wa sono Tane', lit. "Love is a flower, you are its seed") is a Japanese translation of Amanda McBroom's composition "The Rose."

Only Yesterday is significant among progressive anime films in that it explores a genre traditionally thought to be outside the realm of animated subjects, in this case a realistic drama written for adults, particularly women. The film was, however, a surprise box office success, attracting a large adult audience of all genders.

The plot follows Taeko, a 27 year old, unmarried, OL who has lived her whole life in Tokyo and now works at a company there. She decides to take another trip to visit the family of the elder brother of her brother-in-law in the rural countryside to help with the safflower harvest and get away from city life. While traveling at night on a sleeper train to Yamagata, she begins to recall memories of herself as a schoolgirl in 1966, and her intense desire to go on holiday like her classmates, all of whom have family outside of the big city.

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Porco Rosso (紅の豚, Kurenai no Buta, lit. Crimson Pig) is a 1992 Japanese animated adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is based on Hikōtei Jidai, a three-part watercolor manga by Miyazaki. The film stars the voices of Shūichirō Moriyama, Tokiko Kato, Akemi Okamura and Akio Ōtsuka. Toshio Suzuki produced the film for Studio Ghibli. Joe Hisaishi composed the music.

The plot revolves around an Italian World War I ex-fighter ace, now living as a freelance bounty hunter chasing "air pirates" in the Adriatic Sea. However, an unusual curse has transformed him to an anthropomorphic pig. Once called Marco Pagot (Marco Rousolini in the American version), he is now known to the world as "Porco Rosso", Italian for "Red Pig".

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Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ, Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko, lit. "Heisei-era Raccoon Dog War Ponpoko") is a 1994 Japanese animated fantasy film, the eighth written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli.

Consistent with Japanese folklore, the tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs, Nyctereutes procyonoides) are portrayed as a highly sociable, mischievous species, which are able to use "illusion science" to transform into almost anything, but too fun-loving and too fond of tasty treats to be a real threat – unlike the kitsune (foxes) and other shape-shifters. Visually, the tanuki in this film are depicted in three ways at various times: as realistic animals, as anthropomorphic animals which occasionally wear clothes, and as cartoony figures based on the manga of Shigeru Sugiura (of whom Takahata is a great fan). They tend to assume their realistic form when seen by humans, their cartoony form when they are doing something outlandish or whimsical, and their anthropomorphic form at all other times.

Prominent testicles are an integral part of tanuki folklore, and they are shown and referred to throughout the film, and also used frequently in their shape-shifting. This remains unchanged in the DVD release, though the English dub (but not the subtitles) refers to them as "pouches". Also, in the English dub and subtitles, the animals are never referred to as "raccoon dogs", which is the more accurate English name for the tanuki, instead they are incorrectly referred to as just "raccoons".

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Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば, Mimi o Sumaseba, lit. "If you listen closely") is a 1995 Japanese animated drama film directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki based on the 1989 manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi. The film stars Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi and Keiju Kobayashi. It was the first theatrical Studio Ghibli film to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Isao Takahata.

Whisper of the Heart was Kondō's only film as director before his death in 1998. Studio Ghibli had hoped that Kondō would become the successor to Miyazaki and Takahata. A semi-spin-off film entitled The Cat Returns that focused on a minor character of the film, Baron, was released in 2002.

This film focuses on Shizuku Tsukishima, a 14-year-old student at Mukaihara Junior High School. Living in Tokyo with her parents Asako and Seiya, as well as her older sister Shiho, Shizuku is a bookworm and is keen on writing. During an ordinary evening, she looks through the checkout cards in her library books. She discovers they have all been checked out by Seiji Amasawa. She begins to daydream about this mysterious man who shares her taste in books. Being a curious girl, she aims to find out who this man is. Coincidentally, Shizuku soon encounters an annoying young man, later revealed to be Seiji, who often teases her.

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Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Mononoke-hime, "Spirit/Monster Princess") is a 1997 anime epic action historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was animated by Studio Ghibli and produced by Toshio Suzuki. The film stars the voices of Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yūko Tanaka, Kaoru Kobayashi, Masahiko Nishimura, Tsunehiko Kamijo, Akihiro Miwa, Mitsuko Mori and Hisaya Morishige.

The film is set in the late Muromachi period (approximately 1337 to 1573) of Japan, with fantasy elements. The story follows the young Emishi warrior Ashitaka's involvement in a struggle between forest gods and the humans who consume its resources. The term "Mononoke" (物の怪 or もののけ) is not a name, but a Japanese word for a spirit or monster.

Princess Mononoke was released in Japan on July 12, 1997, and in the United States on October 29, 1999. It was a critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, and the highest-grossing there of all time until Titanic was released later that year. It was translated and distributed in North America by Miramax Films, and despite a poor box office performance there, it sold well on DVD and video, bringing Ghibli attention in the West for the first time.

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My Neighbors the Yamadas (Japanese: ホーホケキョとなりの山田くん, Hepburn: Hōhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun) is a 1999 Japanese anime comedy film directed by Isao Takahata and released by Studio Ghibli on 17 July 1999. The film is a family comedy that is presented in a stylized comic strip style which is unusual since all the other Studio Ghibli movies are presented in the traditional anime style of Studio Ghibli. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki.

My Neighbors the Yamadas follows the daily lives of the Yamada family: Takashi and Matsuko (the father and mother), Shige (Matsuko's mother), Noboru (aged approximately 13, the son), Nonoko (aged approximately 5, the daughter), and Pochi (the family dog). It has a significantly different "feel" to it than the other Studio Ghibli films, not only because of its different style of animation, but also because it is not a contiguous plot, but rather a series of vignettes, each preceded by a title such as "Father as Role Model", "A Family Torn Apart" or "Patriarchal Supremacy Restored".

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Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, lit. "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away") is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film stars Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takeshi Naito, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono and Bunta Sugawara, and tells the story of Chihiro Ogino (Hiiragi), a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, enters the spirit world. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba (Natsuki), Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and return to the human world.

Miyazaki wrote the script, and with a budget of US$19 million, production of Spirited Away began in 2000. Pixar director John Lasseter, a fan of Miyazaki, was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to supervise an English-language translation for the film's North American release. Lasseter hired Kirk Wise as director and Donald W. Ernst as producer of the adaptation. Screenwriters Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt wrote the English-language dialogue, which they wrote to match the characters' original Japanese-language lip movements.

The film was released on July 20, 2001, and became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing about $330 million worldwide. The film overtook Titanic (at the time the top grossing film worldwide) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history with a ¥30.4 billion total. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday) and is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

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The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し, Neko no Ongaeshi, lit. The Cat's Repayment) is a 2002 Japanese animated drama film directed by Hiroyuki Morita of Studio Ghibli. A spin-off of Whisper of the Heart, it was theatrically released in Japan on July 19, 2002 through the Toho Company and in 2003 in the United States through Buena Vista Home Video. It received an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival.

The story is of a girl named Haru, a quiet, shy and ditsy high school student who has a suppressed ability to talk with cats. One day, she saves a darkly-colored, odd-eyed cat from being hit by a truck on a busy road. The cat is Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom. As thanks, the cats give Haru gifts of catnip and mice, and she is offered the Prince's hand in marriage.

Haru meets Muta, a large white cat the voice told her to seek for directions, who leads her there to meet the Baron (the same Baron from Whisper of the Heart), who is a cat figurine given life by the work of his artist, and Toto, a stone raven who comes to life much like the Baron.

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Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film scripted and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is based on the novel of the same name by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. Mamoru Hosoda, director of one episode and two movies from the Digimon series, was originally selected to direct but abruptly left the project, leaving the then-retired Miyazaki to take up the director's role.

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2004, and was released in Japanese theaters on November 20, 2004. It went on to gross $190 million in Japan and $235 million worldwide, making it one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history. The film was later dubbed into English by Pixar's Peter Docter and distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. It received a limited release in the United States and Canada beginning June 10, 2005 and was released nationwide in Australia on September 22 and in the United Kingdom the following September. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006.

Wynne Jones's novel allows Miyazaki to combine a plucky young woman and a mother figure into a single character in the heroine, Sophie. She starts out as an 18-year-old hat maker, but then a witch's curse transforms her into a 90-year-old grey-haired woman. Sophie is horrified by the change at first. Nevertheless, she learns to embrace it as a liberation from anxiety, fear and self-consciousness.

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Tales from Earthsea (ゲド戦記, Gedo Senki, literally Ged's War Chronicles) is a 2006 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Gorō Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film is based on a combination of plots and characters from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu; however, the film's title is named from the collection of short stories, Tales from Earthsea, made in 2001. The plot was "entirely different" according to Le Guin, who told director Gorō Miyazaki, "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie", although she later expressed her disappointment with the end result.

The story starts with a war galley caught in a storm at sea. The ship's weatherworker is distressed to realize he has lost the power to control the wind and waves, but is more so when he sees two dragons fighting above the clouds, during which one is killed by the other—an unprecedented and impossible occurrence.

The King of Enlad, already troubled by tales of drought and pestilence in the land, as well as the news about people going insane, receives news both of the strange omen at sea and of the disappearance of his son, Prince Arren. The King's wizard Root tells the tale of how dragons and men were once "one", until people who cherished freedom became dragons, and men chose possessions; and of his fears of how the land's plight is because of the weakening of the world's "Balance". The King has little time to ponder on this before he is killed in a dark corridor by a young boy who is revealed to be his son Arren. The young prince steals his father's sword and flees the palace.

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Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Gake no Ue no Ponyo, literally "Ponyo on the Cliff"), initially titled in English as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, is a 2008 Japanese animated fantasy comedy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and Toho. It is Miyazaki's eighth film for Ghibli, and his tenth overall. The plot centers on a goldfish named Ponyo who befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sōsuke, and wants to become a human girl. The film has won several awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. It was released in Japan on July 19, 2008, in the US and Canada on August 14, 2009, and in the UK on February 12, 2010. The film reached #9 in the US box office charts for its opening weekend.

Brunhilde is a fish-girl who lives with her father Fujimoto—a once-human wizard-scientist who now lives underwater—and her numerous smaller sisters. One day, while she and her siblings are on an outing with their father, Brunhilde sneaks off and floats away on the back of a jellyfish. After becoming stuck in a bottle, she drifts to the shore of a small fishing town and is found and rescued by a small boy named Sōsuke. Splitting the bottle open, Sōsuke cuts his finger in the process.

Brunhilde licks his wound when he picks her up, and the wound heals almost instantly. Fujimoto calls his wave spirits to recover her. After the wave spirits take Ponyo away, Sōsuke is heartbroken and goes home with his mother, Lisa, who tries to cheer him up, to no avail. Ponyo and Fujimoto have an argument, during which Ponyo refuses to let her father call her by her birth-name, "Brunhilde". She declares her name to be Ponyo and voices her desire to become human.

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Arrietty, titled The Borrower Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ, Kari-gurashi no Arietti) in Japan and The Secret World of Arrietty in North America, is a 2010 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. It is based on The Borrowers by English author Mary Norton, about a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of a typical household, borrowing items from humans to survive. The film stars the voices of Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Otake, Keiko Takeshita, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Tomokazu Miura and Kirin Kiki, and tells the story of a young Borrower (Shida) befriending a human boy (Kamiki), while trying to avoid being detected by the other humans. Toshio Suzuki produced the film and Studio Ghibli provided the animation.

Ghibli announced the film in late 2009 with Yonebayashi making his directorial debut as the youngest director of a Ghibli film. Miyazaki supervised the production as a developing planner. The voice actors were approached in April 2010, and Cécile Corbel wrote the film's score as well as its theme song.

Released in Japan on July 17, 2010, Arrietty received very positive reviews, praising the animation and music. It also became the highest grossing Japanese film at the Japanese box office for the year 2010, and grossed over $145 million worldwide. The film also won the Animation of the Year award at the 34th Japan Academy Prize award ceremony. Two English language versions of the film were produced, a British dub produced by Studio Canal which was released in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2011, and an American dub released by Walt Disney Pictures in North America on February 17, 2012.

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From Up on Poppy Hill (コクリコ坂から, Kokuriko-zaka Kara, lit. "From Coquelicot Hill") is a 2011 Japanese animated drama film directed by Gorō Miyazaki, scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, and produced by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1980 serialized Japanese comic of the same name illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi and written by Tetsurō Sayama. The film stars the voices of Masami Nagasawa, Junichi Okada, Keiko Takeshita, Yuriko Ishida, Jun Fubuki, Takashi Naito, Shunsuke Kazama, Nao Omori and Teruyuki Kagawa.

Set in 1963 Yokohama, Japan, the film tells the story of Umi Matsuzaki, a high school girl living in a boarding house, Coquelicot Manor. When Umi meets Shun Kazama, a member of the school's newspaper club, they decide to clean up the school's clubhouse, Quartier Latin. However, Tokumaru, the chairman of the local high school and a businessman, intends to demolish the building for redevelopment and Umi and Shun, along with Shirō Mizunuma, must persuade him to reconsider.

From Up on Poppy Hill premiered on July 16, 2011 in Japan. The film received positive reviews from most film critics and grossed $61 million worldwide. An English version of the film was distributed by GKIDS; it was released to theaters on March 15, 2013 in North America.

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The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, Kaze Tachinu) is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli. It was released by Toho on July 20, 2013 in Japan, and by Touchstone Pictures in North America on February 21, 2014 and in the UK on May 9, 2014.

The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi A5M and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, used by the Empire of Japan during World War II. The film is adapted from Miyazaki's manga of the same name, which was in turn loosely based on the 1937 short story The Wind Has Risen by Tatsuo Hori. It was the final film directed by Miyazaki before his retirement in September 2013.

The Wind Rises was the highest-grossing Japanese film in Japan in 2013 and received critical acclaim. It won and was nominated for several awards, including nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.

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The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari) is a 2013 Japanese animated film produced by Studio Ghibli, and directed and co-written by Isao Takahata, based on the folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. This is Takahata's fifth film for Studio Ghibli, and his first in 14 years since his 1999 feature, My Neighbors the Yamadas.

The film follows the protagonist, Princess Kaguya, from her infant years to adulthood in the human world. It also explores the "crime" she committed prior to the events of the film. The story begins with Okina, a bamboo cutter and gatherer, discovering Kaguya in a glowing bamboo shoot in a bamboo grove. Believing her to be a divine gift, he bears her home; Okina and his wife Ona then decide to take Kaguya (simply naming her "Princess") as their child. Kaguya transforms from a miniature girl into a full-size infant, and Ona suddenly finds herself able to breast-feed. The couple remark on their new daughter's remarkable growth.

Kaguya's growth continues perceptibly, earning herself the nickname "bamboo" among the children of the village. Sutemaru, the oldest among Kaguya's friends, develops a particularly close relationship with her. Okina later comes upon large amounts of gold and fine cloth in the bamboo grove much in the same way as he found Kaguya. He takes these as confirmation of Kaguya's divine royalty and begins planning to make Kaguya a proper princess, believing it to be her destiny.

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When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー, Omoide no Marnie, lit. "Memories of Marnie") is a 2014 Japanese anime film written and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, produced by Studio Ghibli, and based on the novel When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson. It was released on 19 July 2014. It was the final film for Studio Ghibli before they announced that the film division is taking a short hiatus after the box office disappointment of The Tale of Princess Kaguya, and the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki a year before the film was released.

The film opens to a 12-year-old girl named Anna, sitting alone on a park bench, sketching in incredible detail a scene of children playing on the playground equipment as part of a school assignment. Looking over and comparing herself to a group of girls laughing and talking amongst themselves on another bench while sketching the same assignment, she goes into a soliloquies, "There is a magical circle in this world that no one can see. Those girls are in the circle, and then there's me, on the outside. But I don't care about any of that. I hate myself," and begins to cough, goes into excruciating pain, then collapses.

She is then taken home, and is looked at by a doctor. A woman, Yoriko, reveals that Anna suffers from asthma and that she doesn’t have any friends because she is very quiet, and closed-off to others. Yoriko explains to the doctor that it seems like she doesn't know who Anna is anymore, because she used to be so happy and full of emotion, but is now always making the same, emotionless face. In order to help Anna, Yoriko decides it's best to put her on a train and send her away from the polluted air of her home city of Sapporo, to a small village on the shores of northern Hokkaido and have her stay with her relatives, Kiyomasa and Setsu for the summer.

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Ocean Waves, also known as I Can Hear the Sea (海がきこえる, Umi ga Kikoeru), is a 1993 Japanese anime television film produced by Studio Ghibli. It was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and written by Kaori Nakamura based on the novel of the same title by Saeko Himuro. The TV special first aired on May 5, 1993 on Japanese TV. The film was an attempt by Studio Ghibli to allow their younger staff members to make a film reasonably cheaply. However, it ended up going both over budget and over schedule.The story is set in the city of Kōchi, on the Japanese island of Shikoku. It concerns a love triangle that develops between two good friends and a new girl who transfers to their high school from Tokyo.

At Kichijōji Station in Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. As the plane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life. The story is told in flashback.

In Kōchi, two years prior, Taku is working in a restaurant, where he receives a call from his friend, Yutaka Matsuno, asking to meet at their high school. He finds Yutaka at a window, looking at an attractive girl. She is a transfer student from Tokyo whom Yutaka was asked to show around. Taku's interest piqued, he tries unsuccessfully to view her. The boys discuss their upcoming school trip to Hawaii. Taku meets Yutaka at the school gates, where he is introduced to the new girl, Rikako Muto. She smiles, and thanks Yutaka for his help. He explains that she was asking for directions to a bookstore. Walking home, Taku teases him about his infatuation.

Rikako proves to be gifted academically and at sports, but also arrogant. Taku believes she is unhappy at having to leave Tokyo. His mother learns from gossip that a divorce brought Rikako's mother to Kōchi. In a later phone conversation with Yutaka, he also discovers that Rikako is living alone, away from the family house.

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