Maboroshi

The film was created by MAPPA and distributed by Warner Bros. Japan and MAPPA.

It runs for 111 minutes and features music by Masaru Yokoyama.

The main cast includes Junya Enoki, Reina Ueda, and Misaki Kuno.

Its theme song is "Shinon" by Miyuki Nakajima, marking the singer's first song for an animated film.

The promotional tagline was "The impulse of love destroys the world."

The film later won the Animation Film Award at the 78th Mainichi Film Awards.

This was Mari Okada's second feature as director after Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms.

Like that earlier film, it was an original work rather than an adaptation.

Several core staff members from Okada's previous directorial project returned here.

They included Tadashi Hiramatsu as assistant director, Yuriko Ishii as character designer and chief animation director, and Kazuo Higashiji as art director.

MAPPA described the project as an effort to fully pursue the world that Okada wanted to create.

For the studio, it became its first original theatrical animated feature.

The project was first announced on June 27, 2021, during MAPPA STAGE 2021 10th Anniversary.

Further details, including the release date, cast, and major staff, were revealed at MAPPA STAGE 2023 on May 21, 2023.

The story is set in Mifuse, a steel-town surrounded by sea and mountains.

The protagonist, Masamune Kikuiiri, is a third-year middle school boy whose father and uncle both work at the local steelworks.

In January 1991, a sudden explosion erupts at the plant while Masamune is studying for entrance exams with friends.

After that moment, the town is completely cut off from the outside world, and even the seasons stop moving forward.

A man named Mamoru Sagami, who works at the steelworks and also serves a local shrine, claims the disaster is divine punishment.

He says the mountain sacred to the local god was carved away, and that the transformed steelworks now trap the town.

Mamoru insists that everyone must remain unchanged until the god's anger cools.

To enforce this, residents regularly submit a document called a self-confirmation form, listing their identity, personality, and preferences.

Cracks sometimes appear in the night sky.

Smoke from the steelworks rises up and seals them like a daily ritual.

Because time has stopped for minors, they are strangely allowed to get driver's licenses.

Masamune and his classmates drift into reckless games, including dangerous pain-based dares.

One day, Masamune is forcefully taken to the steelworks by his classmate Mutsumi Sagami, whom he dislikes.

At the Fifth Blast Furnace, he meets a wild girl who can barely speak and seems almost feral.

Mutsumi has been secretly caring for the girl and orders Masamune to help with her care.

He is told to come three times a week.

Later, Masamune's father Akimune tells him, "There is no escaping now," and goes off to a night shift.

He never comes back.

When Masamune visits the girl alone, he gives her the name Itsumi, taken from the Fifth Blast Furnace.

He starts bringing her picture books, teaching her, and sketching her.

Soon he overhears a chilling conversation.

Mamoru calls Itsumi a girl who should become the bride of the god, while Masamune's uncle Tokimune questions whether there is another way besides keeping her imprisoned.

On a day when Mutsumi skips school, Masamune meets classmate Yuko Sonobe, who is carrying school papers to Mutsumi's house.

Together they visit Mutsumi, who reveals the twisted nature of her relationship with her foster father Mamoru.

Masamune later drives Yuko home.

That small act makes her develop feelings for him.

During a pair-based courage test in an abandoned railway tunnel, Yuko confesses her feelings by drawing an umbrella over their names on the wall.

When classmates catch them in the act, she panics and runs.

As she flees, her body begins to glow.

Then smoke from the steelworks attacks her and she disappears.

At a public meeting, Mamoru explains that the smoke is Shinkiro, a god-machine wolf that seals not only the cracks in the sky but also the cracks in human hearts.

Masamune, furious, refuses to go home and lashes out at Tokimune over being trapped in this town and over the truth about Itsumi.

Tokimune tells him plainly that Itsumi is not a being who should exist in this world.

The words only deepen Masamune's distrust.

Later, when Masamune visits the steelworks alone, Itsumi clings to him affectionately.

Mutsumi appears, enraged, but when Masamune says he wants to let Itsumi see the outside world, she goes along with it.

The moment Itsumi looks up at the sky outside, an enormous crack opens.

Through it, a summer landscape appears.

Itsumi climbs onto a crane car, and Masamune follows.

As the two cry out that they want to see more of the other world, the rupture expands through space itself.

Beyond it lies the real world, where the steelworks are already in ruins.

Inside the space between worlds, Masamune's body becomes translucent, while Itsumi remains solid.

Tokimune then reveals the truth.

The world they live in is an unreal space created by the god-machine.

At a town assembly, Mamoru says the place may be unreal but it can continue forever if Itsumi is returned to the machine.

Tokimune counters that the world is already nearing its end, and many townspeople side with him.

The self-confirmation forms are returned to their owners.

But the god-machine wolves begin appearing more often and erasing people from existence.

Itsumi and Mutsumi move into Masamune's home.

One night, Masamune sees the real world through a crack inside his living room.

He spots a middle-aged man who looks like his father, along with the man's wife, a woman named Mutsumi.

Mutsumi then reveals that when she first found Itsumi, the girl had a name tag reading Kikuiiri Saki.

She also says the woman in the real world is her real counterpart.

That woman is waiting for her missing daughter.

At school, classmate Hara confesses to Nitta, and he accepts.

After school, Masamune tells Mutsumi that he likes her.

She initially rejects him, but after slipping in the snow and being caught by him, the tension breaks.

He confesses again in a roundabout way, and the two finally kiss.

Itsumi sees the kiss and bursts into tears.

At once, cracks rip through the town, and scenes from reality begin to overlap with their frozen world.

At the same time, the blast furnace producing the god-machine wolves shuts down.

An evacuation order is issued.

While packing, Masamune's mother shows him Akimune's diary.

There he learns that Itsumi is actually Saki Kikuiiri, the daughter of Masamune and Mutsumi in the real world.

She had arrived from reality on a freight train.

Akimune had also written that strong emotional shifts in Saki could destabilize the false world.

He wanted to return her to reality, but Mamoru objected and kept her confined.

That decision helped set the tragedy in motion.

At the evacuation center, Masamune asks his classmates to help him send Itsumi back to the real world.

Meanwhile, Tokimune tries to prolong the dying world by restarting the blast furnace and recreating the god-machine wolves.

As a Bon Festival can be seen in the real world through the cracks, Masamune and Mutsumi rescue Itsumi from Mamoru.

He had dressed her in a wedding gown to make her the god's bride.

They attempt to send her back using a train, but sabotage causes it to derail.

Masamune then drives a car himself toward a train in the real world that is running as part of the festival.

When that train stops, Itsumi and Mutsumi board it.

After a brief exchange on top of the moving train, Mutsumi jumps off just before it enters a tunnel and escapes the pursuing wolves.

She returns to Masamune and the others in the fading false world.

Itsumi continues on toward reality.

Several years later in the real world, Saki Kikuiiri, now grown, arrives at Mifuse Station by train.

She takes a taxi to the former steelworks.

Most of the site is gone, but the remains of the Fifth Blast Furnace still stand.

Inside, among farewell messages left when the plant closed, there is a drawing that appears to depict Mutsumi and Itsumi.

Main characters

Masamune Kikuiiri

Voiced by Junya Enoki.

Masamune is the film's protagonist, a 14-year-old third-year middle school student.

He likes to draw and gradually develops a dream of becoming an illustrator.

He sees himself, and is seen by others, as somewhat feminine in appearance.

Although he fills out the self-confirmation form, he never submits it.

When all forms are returned, a teacher tells him that maybe he had been right all along.

He loves the hot sandwiches sold at a roadside automatic snack stand.

He also shares them with Itsumi.

In the real world, he lives in the same house, but his future occupation is not revealed.

Mutsumi Sagami

Voiced by Reina Ueda.

Mutsumi is Masamune's classmate and is also 14 years old.

She describes herself as a liar.

At one point she jokes that her name means "six sins."

She lives apart from her foster father Mamoru.

According to her own account, her mother married Mamoru because he wanted an heir, then died soon afterward.

After time stopped, Mamoru drove her out of the house.

He forced her to care for Itsumi because men were not allowed to touch the so-called bride of the god.

Once she realized Itsumi was actually her daughter from reality, she deliberately kept emotional distance.

She feared that if she got too close, she would love her too much.

In the real world, she was with Saki at the Bon Festival.

She pretended to leave the child behind after refusing her request for something from a stall, and Saki vanished.

That regret haunts her.

Itsumi

Voiced by Misaki Kuno.

Itsumi is a young girl who looks very much like Mutsumi.

She is confined in the Fifth Blast Furnace and can only speak at the level of very simple childlike language.

She is innocent, impulsive, and untamed.

Masamune gives her the name Itsumi based on the Fifth Blast Furnace.

In truth, she is Saki Kikuiiri, the daughter of Masamune and Mutsumi in the real world.

When she entered the false world, she was wearing a name tag with a family photo dated June 15, 2005.

According to Mutsumi, Saki was five years old when she disappeared in reality.

Classmates

Daisuke Sasakura

Voiced by Taku Yashiro.

A classmate of Masamune with a strong curiosity about romance and relationships.

Atsushi Nitta

Voiced by Tasuku Hatanaka.

A classmate who accepts Hara's confession.

Later, that relationship is used as part of the plan to get Itsumi back.

Yasunari Senba

Voiced by Daiki Kobayashi.

A classmate who dreams of becoming a radio disc jockey.

After learning the truth of their world, he is consumed by doubt and erased by a god-machine wolf.

Yuko Sonobe

Voiced by Ayaka Saito.

A girl close to Mutsumi's group and described as chubby.

Mutsumi once says that Yuko stole her indoor school shoes, forcing her to wear Yuko's pair.

After riding in Masamune's car, Yuko develops feelings for him.

She is the first girl to agree to the tunnel courage test.

Her emotional outburst leads directly to her disappearance.

Hina Hara

Voiced by Maki Kawase.

A strong-willed girl near Mutsumi's social circle and nicknamed Hara-chin.

The novel describes her as a leader among the girls in class.

Despite her bold personality, her self-confirmation form lists her dream as becoming the bride of the boy she likes.

During the escape attempt, she tricks Itsumi into getting into her car because she believes sending Itsumi away will end the world where she and Nitta are in love.

But Nitta outmaneuvers her.

Reina Yasumi

Voiced by Yukiyo Fujii.

Another girl close to Mutsumi's group.

When Hara describes her painful crush on Nitta as a sweet pain, Reina laughs and calls it masochistic.

Adults

Mamoru Sagami

Voiced by Setsuji Sato.

Mutsumi's foster father, a steelworks employee, and a shrine family member.

He is considered an eccentric and is the one who establishes the rules of the frozen town.

In the novel, he becomes the director of the steelworks after the explosion.

He refers to Akimune and Tokimune with formal distance.

To the end, he wants to keep Itsumi as the bride of the god.

Akimune Kikuiiri

Voiced by Koji Seto.

Masamune's father and a steelworks employee present at the plant on the night of the explosion.

He met Masamune's mother Misato through Tokimune's apartment.

After leaving university, he married her when she followed him.

His final diary entries express joy at Masamune's artistic growth.

They also reveal his regret at taking away Saki's chance to change, and his own regret at failing to change the way Masamune could.

In the real world, he died in the explosion accident.

Tokimune Kikuiiri

Voiced by Kento Hayashi.

Masamune's uncle and Akimune's younger brother.

He works at the steelworks, smokes, and regularly rides a motorcycle.

He and Misato were university classmates, and he still harbors feelings for her.

That unresolved love is the reason he tries to regenerate the god-machine wolves and extend the false world.

Masamune angrily calls him an old fool in love.

Misato Kikuiiri

Voiced by Toa Yukinari.

Masamune's mother.

Near the end, when Tokimune makes another emotional approach, she rejects him and says she will at least finish as a proper mother.

Soji Kikuiiri

Voiced by Yohei Tadano.

Masamune's grandfather and a former steelworks locomotive operator.

Radio disc jockey

Voiced by Naoki Yoshida.

A voice-only role heard on the radio.

MAPPA decided to make the film because the studio deeply admired Mari Okada's creative talent.

The aim was to create a work that fully captured the world she wanted to express.

At the time, Okada had already been writing a novel that would become the seed of the story.

She became stuck midway through it.

Then MAPPA president Manabu Otsuka approached her about creating an original screenplay and also directing it.

She submitted the concept, and it was approved.

Assistant director Tadashi Hiramatsu took on a larger and more hands-on role than in Okada's previous film.

He handled directing, storyboards, and animation work, paying close attention to gestures, breathing, and subtle character behavior.

The production placed particular importance on lip-syncing.

Instead of forcing the actors to match the animation exactly, the team often let performances flow more naturally and adjusted the drawings afterward.

The film also used a process in which the script and storyboards were followed by a temporary voiced video storyboard.

Even after the storyboard was settled, the script was revised again, which is unusual.

For casting, Okada always consulted character designer Yuriko Ishii.

Junya Enoki won the role of Masamune through audition, and Okada later said she felt immediately that he was the only choice.

Misaki Kuno was envisioned for Itsumi from the start, and Okada wrote the role with her in mind.

Reina Ueda first joined to help with early video storyboard recordings before being officially cast as Mutsumi.

Theme song

The theme song is "Shinon" performed by Miyuki Nakajima.

It was Nakajima's first theme song for an animated film.

The single's artwork was also notable.

It became the first Miyuki Nakajima release to feature a newly drawn animated illustration on the cover.

Okada approached Nakajima without much expectation, thinking it might be impossible.

But Nakajima read the screenplay carefully, fell in love with the world of the film, and agreed to the collaboration.

Songs used in the film

The film also uses "The Night the Gods Come Down" by Kaori Kawamura.

Another song referenced in the film is "Cape Tour", hummed by Tokimune during a visit to Masamune's house.

The film opened nationwide in Japan on September 15, 2023.

In the weekend box office ranking announced on September 19, 2023, it debuted at number 8.

Director Makoto Shinkai posted on social media on September 17, 2023 that he liked the film very much.

He wrote that the sense of confinement in its winter town felt strangely familiar to him.

Critic Kaho Miyake commented on social media on September 28, 2023 that the film functioned as an antithesis to The Boy and the Heron.

She also praised the fact that a film so thoroughly shaped by female emotional intensity could exist in the modern Japanese film market.

Kenji Horikawa, president of P.A. Works, which produced Okada's earlier directorial film, also praised the work.

He said it fully captured the condensed emotions of youth at the core of Okada's creativity.

He added that many people around the world would connect with those feelings.

At the same time, he noted that such painful honesty can be difficult for viewers who do not want to confront emotional hurt in a theater.

At the Mainichi Film Awards, critic Akiko Sugawa wrote that the film speaks not only to young viewers trying to live neatly and safely, but also to former young people who have become afraid of change.

She described it as a film that makes viewers notice something moving deep inside their hearts and want to hold onto that feeling.

Because the Mainichi Film Awards discontinued the Animation Film Award after that year, Maboroshi became the final winner of the category.

Main awards

78th Mainichi Film Awards — Animation Film Award — Won.

2nd Niigata International Animation Film Festival — Fukiya Koji Award for Kazuo Higashiji — Won.

2nd Niigata International Animation Film Festival — Feature Film Kabuki Award for Maboroshi — Won.

A novel version of Maboroshi was written by Mari Okada herself.

It was published by Kadokawa Bunko on June 13, 2023, ahead of the film's release.

The novel was not originally planned as a film tie-in.

At first, Okada was simply trying to write a completely new story as a novel.

The original idea began with the image of a wolf girl.

An early working title was Alice and Therese of the Wolf Girl.

Okada eventually found herself unable to continue writing it in prose form.

She felt she might be able to complete it as a screenplay instead, which led to the film project.

After the screenplay and visual materials were completed, she was asked to return to the story as a novel once again.

She finished writing it while also handling her directing duties.

Bibliographic information

Mari Okada, Maboroshi, Kadokawa Bunko, published June 13, 2023.

ISBN: 978-4-04-113774-1.