This article was written for the January '24 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 336).

Writer-director Tomohisa Taguchi’s The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, which won the Paul Grimault Award this year at Annecy, is a striking mixture of fantasy-adventure and romance that tackles serious issues. The hero and heroine are believable teenagers who have been emotionally damaged by harsh experiences that American animated characters seldom, if ever, encounter. The film is based on the light novel of the same name by Mei Hachimoku (available in English).

“Ryoichiro Matsuo-san, a producer from CLAP studio, and I were developing an original project; when it did not get through, I was handed The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes,” Taguchi explains. “I had been making action movies for most of my career, and I wanted to make a story that focused on purely human drama. This story has protagonists settling with his/her past and broken love. I thought these elements would make this title different from other animated features.”

Taguchi, whose credits range from Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War to Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, wrote the screenplay, storyboarded and directed the film, trimming its rambling narrative and tightening its focus on the main characters. He discussed the creation of Tunnel to Summer in a recent interview conducted via email.

The Right Length

“The producers wanted something around 60 minutes long, but Matsuo-san negotiated it to 70 minutes before we went into production (the film is 76 minutes long),” Taguchi says. “We had to choose episodes in the novel to make the story work in the fixed time. I decided to focus on Kaoru and Anzu. We reshaped the original novel to make the narrative stronger and condensed it so the story can be fully experienced as one movie.”

High school student Kaoru Tono meets Anzu Hanashiro, the new transfer from Tokyo, at a rail stop near Kozaki, a small town so far out in the boondocks that commuter train service is frequently disrupted by accidents with deer and wild boars. Anzu is carrying a package she’s trying to protect from the rain, so Kaoru insists she take his umbrella. But the characters’ emotional baggage far outweighs their physical burdens.

Kaoru’s adored little sister Karen died when she fell from a tree while trying to catch a rhinoceros beetle for him. Kaoru’s mother left. His hard-drinking father yells at Kaoru, blaming him for Karen’s death. Kaoru is an alienated, withdrawn young man whom Taguchi makes into a sympathetic character.

“In Japan, many stories (especially in anime) have repressed heroes,” Taguchi explains. “I think it is linked to the history and culture of Japan. But repression is universal. Anybody can experience times when they find life is hard and feel very desperate. That’s why I thought viewers could relate to a repressed protagonist.”

‘I wanted to make a story that focused on purely human drama. This story has protagonists settling with his/her past and broken love. I thought these elements would make this title different from other animated features.’

— Writer-director Tomohisa Taguchi

 

“The movie develops from Kaoru’s perspective, so you don’t really have a lot of scenes about his father,” he continues. “But the original novel hints that the father had a lot of inner struggles. Parents and children [have] different personalities. If one side forgets that and tries to control or shut down the other, the relationship might go bad. In order to face the ‘other,’ you must first face yourself.”

Anzu left her parents to follow her beloved grandfather’s example and become a manga artist. He never achieved success in the industry and had to rely on Anzu’s parents for money; now, they want their daughter to choose a more stable career. Although she’s insecure about her talent, Anzu still refused to deny her artistic nature and moved into an apartment in Kozaki that once belonged to an uncle. Anzu is even more withdrawn than Kaoru: She ignores her new classmates and reads her grandfather’s manga.

But she’s a complex character who has little in common with the socially maladroit, math whiz girls in recent American animated features. When class mean girl Koharu Kawasaki harasses her, Anzu punches out the bully and calmly returns to her reading. Although he’s shocked at her violent outburst, Kaoru recognizes Anzu’s talent. He encourages her to keep drawing and to submit her work to publishers. She sees how deeply the loss of his sister wounded Kaoru and draws him out of his shell — a process he doesn’t always enjoy.

“I believe human beings have multilayered personalities,” Taguchi says. “I wanted to express Anzu’s strong side and her sensitive, fragile side seamlessly. I hope the viewers can relate to her by not showing her as a stereotypical ‘strong woman,’ but a multilayered human being.”

While walking along the railroad tracks, Kaoru stumbles onto the Urashima Tunnel, a reference to “Urashima Taro,” Japan’s “Rip Van Winkle” story. The Tunnel can grant wishes — but at a price. Time is so condensed within the Tunnel that a few seconds inside equals hours in the real world. The first time Kaoru enters, he thinks he’s spent an hour or two there, only to discover he missed a week of school, worrying his best friend and upsetting his father.

To explore the Tunnel thoroughly and find what someone is looking for could take years or even decades. Anzu wants the lost manga pages that link her to her grandfather; Kaoru wants to bring his sister back to life. As they explore and test the tunnel, an unexpected romance develops.

Hachimoku’s Urashima Tunnel featured a line of eerie torii gates “colored an off-white that was almost the pigment of human bones.” Taguchi and his artists reimagined it as a glittering fantasy lined with maple trees whose trunks seem to be decorated with old greeting cards.

A Beautiful Entrance

“The tunnel described in the original novel was horrific; we tried to make it into a stunning visual since it would be one of the key scenes in the movie,” he says. “I presented the basic idea, and the background artists touched it up. In Japan, the great manga artist Fujiko Fujio is known for the concept of sukoshi fushigi (literally ‘a little strange or marvelous’); I aimed to create the tunnel along those lines, which became what we have in the film.”

Taguchi was surprised to win the Grimault Award and hopes to continue reaching audiences beyond Japan. “I couldn’t believe it when the title of our movie was announced at the Annecy festival,” he says. “It was a great honor, and I was very happy to receive it. I was looking to a Japanese audience when I was making the movie. But attending the Annecy festival made me want to look to the larger world outside Japan. I hope to make more films that will reach more people who live far, far away.”

The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes screened in U.S. theaters in early November. It’s now available for purchase via digital download or VOD rental from online platforms including Prime Video. The film will be released on SVOD on HIDIVE and on Blu-ray via Sentai  in early January.