Cherry Blo

Three strangers gather in search of an elusive cherry blossom. The tree hardly matters after a while, though, as they stumble into one funny and revealing episode after another.

Short animated film by Tadanari Okamoto

Alexander is searching for his destiny in this world. He wasted money intended to buy a room and has been deceiving his loved ones for several years. Alexander overcomes his fear and comes clean to his parents, plunging into the past, trying to find the root of his depression.

Nanami Ishikawa works as an editor at a publishing company. She travels Hiroshima to go after her father Asahi who left home. During her visit to Hiroshima, she learns about the tragic story of Asahi's older sister Minami Hirano. When Minami Hirano was 13 years old, she was exposed to radiation by an atomic bomb.

Directed by Noburô Ôfuji.

Kazuo Nishii, renowned editor and photography critic, died in 2001 of stomach cancer. Two months earlier he contacted Naomi Kawase, whose works he admired, to document the remaining weeks of his life. Kawase visits him in the hospital and films the progression of his sickness and the conversations between the two.

Short film by Akiyoshi Imazeki

In 1943 Japan is facing defeat. This makes Shinkichi, a straight, selfless student-patriot, ever more restless. He can no longer stand his soft "behind-the- gun" role of munition factory worker. School-mates one after another are going to the front, where he feels he should be. The last straw is an official report of his father's death in the Battle of Attu in the Aleutian Islands. He rushes to the naval air corps training camp at Tsuchiura along with his close school-mates Naito, Yamada, Saito and Tagawa as Volunteer pilot trainees leaving his mother and sweetheart weeping and helpless.

Saki, a high school girl who always skips classes, works part-time as a life adviser.

The poignant focal point for this film is a cherry tree that is over 1400 years old. Beginning with the tree, the director then explores the families and environment around the tree. The editing and music contribute to the sense of a haunting past contained within the solid structure of an ancient natural wonder.

Beginning of the Showa era, Takasaki City in Joshu (Gunma Province). Gambler Inufushi Yoichi continues to lose at Takamasa's gambling house. The authoritative female gambler Ai gives him money and advises him to think seriously about his life. She has to leave Takamasa because of him. She travels to Tomioka for advice from Matsumiya Seiji, who previously helped her. However, the latter is killed due to a conflict with the Kaizu-gumi yakuza family, making his wife Tane a widow...

Yoshitsune was once a hero, a genius strategist who defeated the Heike. But his older brother Yoritomo regarded him as dangerous and betrayed him, and now Yoshitsune is on the run. He flees aimlessly until one day, completely lost, he meets a young woman named Tsune who can turn into a fox. He says he will grant the woman one favor if, in exchange, she will lead him and his follower Benkei through the blinding snow to her hidden village.There Yoshitsune and Benkei take a much-needed rest, but when they try to leave, they become lost in the snow. No matter how many times they try, they always end up back at the village. The villagers laugh and say this is Tsune's magic — it gives the village eternal refuge from the world. Meanwhile, Yoritomo is searching for the entrance to the village in order to capture Yoshitsune. Will Yoshitsune be able to shake off both his pursuer Yoritomo, and the magic of Tsune, in order to return to the outside world where the cherry blossoms bloom...?

Flash animation created by Akira Yoshida.

A short drama

Early japanese horror film from 1909. From the 1759 kabuki play, in which Kiyo-hime transforms into a giant serpent.

Kyoko Otonashi is a 22-year-old widow. Six months have passed since the sudden death of her husband, Soichiro. In her resolve to move on, she has recently taken over the management of a boarding house owned by her father-in-law. She now finds herself reminiscing about the few seasons that she and Soichiro had together, and about the first time that she saw him: when he became her geology teacher during her final year of high school. This prequel is the third and final OVA released after the conclusion of MAISON IKKOKU, an animated series based on the manga by Rumiko Takahashi. The past events are retold through flashback sequences using scenes from the television series, with narration by Sumi Shimamoto as Kyoko.

A young woman receives a dying bouquet of flowers which leaves her grappling with the inevitability of death.