maboroshi

In the quiet countryside town of Mifuse, time seems to have stopped completely. After an explosion at the local steel mill, the residents discover they’re stuck in a strange, frozen state-completely isolated from the outside world. As a prominent figure in town claims this is divine punishment, the people cling to superstitions, trying to maintain the fragile order of their lives until things return to normal. For middle schooler Masamune Kikuiri and the other youth of Mifuse, the idea of escaping this stagnant world feels like an impossible dream. Their emotions have dulled, and they haven’t aged a day in years. Masamune has grown used to his hollow, uncertain life-until his classmate Mutsumi Sagami leads him to the steel mill’s fifth furnace. There, they find a wild, wolf-like girl. This meeting becomes the spark that begins to unravel the darkness shrouding Mifuse’s reality.