The Tunnel to Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes

The opening narration that the Urashima Tunnel will grant wishes while extracting a price is standard warning in most of the world’s myths and fairytales. You don’t get something for nothing as Kaoru (Oji Suzuka) finds out when he falls down a bank and discovers the tunnel.

Stepping in it’s a glorious sight of deep orange – the colours oddly reminiscent of Aladdin’s escape from the cave in Disney's 1992 animation. Stepping out he finds he’s lost a week.

A week that before had seen him acquainted with lonely, spikey new school colleague Anzu (Marie Iitoyo) who’d punched a bully on the first day. They form a wary friendship, and after her introduction to the tunnel, they embark on a series of semi-scientific tests to assess its properties.

There’s a bond between them though with their own reasons for testing the power of the tunnel its tested to the limits. Kaoru is mourning his little sister and Anzu has ambitions to be a top Manga artist. Both see the tunnel’s powers as way to resolve their issues.
Directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, co-written with Mei Hachimoku there’s no faulting the animation that is stunning both with the fantasy sequences and the more mundane day to day settings.

Where it does drop a little is the writing with it concentrating on the motives of the two protagonists driving the narrative. This is a little dull at times and puts to one side what maybe would have been more explicit in a Western fairytale the consequences of messing about with time and space, or mystical forces, having been warned.

Nevertheless, each take something from their experiences be it time and people move on or just have some confidence and damn the rest. Coming to terms with these let the budding relationship between Anzu and Kaoru move forward, staying just the right side of sweet.

The Tunnel to Summer, Exit of Goodbyes is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 14 July 2023.

©2022 Mei Hachimoku, Shogakukan/The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes Film Partners