The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes
2022 · Directed by Tomohisa Taguchi
Original language: Japanese
- animation
- drama
- romance
- fantasy
- science fiction
The story
Urashima Tunnel – Once you enter that tunnel, you can get whatever you want, but at a price. Kaoru Tohno, who seems to have an elusive personality and traumatic past, and Anzu Hanashiro, who is struggling to reconcile her ideal image and true-to-heart attitude, team up to investigate the Urashima Tunnel and get what they want. This is an unforgettable summer story of nostalgia and sprinting in a remote countryside.
What it’s like
Sun-bleached and wistful, with the look of a rural Japanese summer rendered in hand-drawn animation: saturated cumulus skies, cicada-heavy heat haze over rice fields, and the cool blue dim of a long concrete tunnel that feels like a held breath. The palette swings between bright greens and golden afternoon light and the murky, echoing grey of the passage, and the camera lingers on empty station platforms, lantern-lit festival lanes and quiet classrooms with a patient, observational calm. The score leans on soft piano and gentle strings that swell when the story turns, while ambient sounds of wind, distant trains and crickets carry most of the mood. Pacing is unhurried in the middle and sharpens toward a bittersweet finale, with melancholic undertones throughout. Violence is absent; the peril is emotional and existential rather than physical, with grief and regret landing as the main intensity. It suits a rainy Sunday, a late-evening watch, or a nostalgic rewatch, and is best for viewers who enjoy coming-of-age romance with a supernatural hook and an ache for lost summers.
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