Aki isn’t a brave little boy, but he’s dedicated nonetheless to safeguarding his sickly, mute friend Fuyu. They and their little gang live deep underground, in the concrete warrens to which survivors have fled following the eruption of Mt. Fuji. The community is in decline, however, as illness and despair take their toll. Fuyu dreams of the outside world, which he is too frail to ever reach. But what colour is the sky out there?
Cinematography
Oil-painted backgrounds that breathe ash and memory.
Production
Made by Kamikaze Douga — same studio as Star Wars: Visions' 'The Duel'.
Direction
Yokoshima turns 46 minutes into an entire lifetime.
Director
Toshihisa Yokoshima
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kamikaze Douga animated this with a hybrid technique — 3D models painted over to look like moving oil paintings, taking three years for under an hour of film.
Mt. Fuji's eruption is Japan's collective nightmare — the last eruption was 1707, and government simulations predict 25 million people affected. This film weaponizes that anxiety into intimate grief.
JP
