Maboroshi

Maboroshi (アリスとテレスのまぼろし工場) is a 2023 Japanese animated science fantasy drama film. Produced by MAPPA and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan, the film is directed and written by Mari Okada. The film debuted in Japanese theaters in September 15, 2023 and was released worldwide on Netflix on January 15, 2024.

Plot
Mifuse is a steel mill company town in rural Japan. Akimune Kikuri, and his brother, Tokimune Kikuiri, both work at the mill. On January 1991, Masamune, the son of Akimune, is studying for an entrance exam with his friends in his home until an explosion suddenly occurs at the mill.

Since then, the town has been completely isolated from the outside world and experiences an everlasting winter. A man named Mamoru Sagami, who is also a worker at the mill and also serves as the head priest of the town's Mifushi Shrine, claims that the incident was the gods' punishment for their mining out of their sacred mountain. He also claims that the townspeople were trapped by the mill, which had become a "sacred machine". Sagami explains that once the mood of the gods improve, the townspeople will be able to re-enter the real world however until then it is necessary for them to remain unchanged from what they were before the incident. The townspeople heed Sagami's advice and they are required to periodically submit their biography ID forms in order to prevent any inconsistencies as soon as they re-enter the real world. Fissures in the night sky now open up occasionally although they would closed up by the steel mill's smoke.

Masamune and his friends then start playing pain-inducing games, unaware that they don't actually feel any pain at all. The next day, Masamune is invited by Mutsumi Sagami, a classmate he dislikes, to visit the steel mill with her. Arriving at the mill's fifth blast furnace, they both find a feral girl already in her adolescent stages. Mutsumi, who is the one taking care of the girl by preventing her from going outside, makes Masamune clean up after her. She orders Masamune to come three times a week from now on. A while later, he was told by Akimune that escaping the town was impossible. Akimune then works the night shift at the mill afterward, only to never return.

Masamune visits the steel mill alone and feeds the feral girl a sandwich before naming her Itsumi. While Itsumi is playing in the courtyard, Sagami and Tokimune both show up. Sagami claims that Itsumi was a woman of the gods and said that if she was presented in front of them, she would be forgiven by the sacred machine someday. Tokimune debunks his claims by recalling that Masamune's father said something different, with Masamune secretly listening.

As per Mutsumi's orders, Masamune has been visiting the same blast furnace alone, bringing books for Itsumi to read. Some time later, Mutsumi is absent from school. Masamune returns from the steel mill and meets Yuko Sonobe, her classmate, who is delivering her school documents to her. The two later meet Mutsumi at her home. Mutsumi while speaking to them about her relationship with Sagami, reveals to them that he actually adopted her.

Masamune, Mutsumi, Sonobe and their classmates undertake a test of courage in an abandoned railway tunnel near the town. Sonobe, who was paired with Masamune, creates a graffiti drawing to mark the destination on the tunnel wall, drawing a romantic symbol with her and Masamune's names on it. The sight of the graffiti then surprises Masamune. Sonobe nervously explains the graffiti's symbol of love, to him. When the other classmates arrived, Sonobe starts fleeing in embarrassment towards the tunnel's exit before Masamune and the others follow suit. The group makes it out, only to see many of the sky fissures opening up while Sonobe body's begin to emit light. Just as Sonobe was explaining the reason why she fled, the light spreads out like a crack. Immediately after that, smoke rises from the steel mill, and they completely shroud Sonobe, leaving no trace of her body and the fissures in the sky close up.

The townspeople gather at the community center following the incident. Sagami claims that the factory smoke is a "sacred wolf" that fills the fissures in the sky, and that it can also crack people's hearts. Masamune flees the scene and remorsefully sits down in a corner of the town's shopping street. Tokimune, who was looking for him, arrives. Masamune then berates Tokimune, thinking that he and Akimune were hiding the fact that they knew the truth about Itsumi's origins. Tokimune then vaguely reveals that Itsumi actually doesn't belong in their world.

Masamune returns to the steel mill once again and Itsumi is overjoyed to see him. Mutsumi appears and is extremely excited but Masamune lets Itsumi out of the furnace, with Mutsumi doing nothing to stop him. When Itsumi scurried outside and gazed up at the sky, a large fissure opens up in the sky and the sight of the summer could be seen behind the fissures. Itsumi climbs onto the nearby crane wagon with Masamune following suit. Tokimune arrives and tells Masamune to keep still, but Masamune disobeys him. Masamune also expresses his desires to see the outside world again. Itsumi encourages him to reach into the fissures. The fissures then spread into space, where the steel mill in the real world was revealed to be in ruins.

A briefing session is held for the townspeople. Sagami claims that their world is an unreal space that was created by the sacred machine. Some residents object to his claims but he defends such claims by insisting that their unreal world is perfect. It is then revealed that the unreal world could continue forever, and that in order to let that happen, Itsumi would need to be returned to the sacred machine. However, Tokimune disagrees, knowing that their world will soon end and explains he only accepted Sagami's claims because he was still uncertain about how their unreal world came to be. Many of the townspeople agree with the former's statement.

The townspeople's ID forms were then submitted. Meanwhile, the sacred wolf frequently appears and wipes out each of the townspeople one by one, including Masamune's classmate Yasunari Senba during gym class. Itsumi and Mutsumi move into Masamune's house. In the middle of the night, Masamune wakes up and sees the world beyond the fissure from his living room. There was a middle-aged man who looked like his father and his wife, a woman also named Mutsumi, talking about the town's Obon festival. Masamune tries to enter the real world but is pulled back by his world's Mutsumi. Mutsumi reveals that Itsumi had a name tag with her real name, Saki Kikuiri. With these revelations, Saki was revealed to be the couple's daughter. Mutsumi said that the Mutsumi in the real world was what she was supposed to become but the real world Mutsumi was a completely different person who was waiting for Saki to return.

After school, Masamune goes to the town's local roadside stop and amusement arcade, confessing to Mutsumi that he actually likes her. Mutsumi disagrees and storms outside. However, she falls in the snow and Masamune, who followed her, covers her. When Masamune continues confessing his love for Mutsumi in an innocent manner, both of them kiss. Itsumi then shows up, eavesdropping on their brief affair before crying, resulting in fissures opening up in space all over the town. The scenes in the real world within the fissures appear at the same time. At around the same time, the blast furnace at the steel mill that was producing the sacred wolf suddenly stopped.

Evacuation orders are later issued for the town's residents. While packing up his belongings, Masamune's mother Misato Kikuiri shows him the diary that his father left behind. There, it is revealed that Itsumi, then known as Saki, was actually transported on a freight train from the real world and Masamune was revealed to be the husband of Mutsumi in that world. It is also revealed that there is a possibility that something bad will happen in the unreal world due to the big movement of Saki's heart. There was a proposal to return Saki to the real world but Sagami rejected it and had her locked up in the blast furnace. Akimune then rejoices over Masamune's improved drawing skills but regrets that he himself was unable to change like Masamune, robbing Saki of her possibility of change.

At the evacuation center, Masamune asks his classmates for help in returning Itsumi to the real world. Meanwhile, Tokimune regenerates the sacred wolf by restarting the blast furnace at the steel mill in an attempt to stop their world from ending. Sagami invites Itsumi to participate in his ritual. As the Obon festival is visible in the reality beyond the fissures, Masamune and Mutsumi free a reluctant Itsumi to bring her onto a freight train. The train departs with Masamune's grandfather Souji Kikuiri, revealed to be a former engineer who once worked at the steel mill, operating the train. However, the train is derailed as someone had activated the track switch to derail the train. After a battle for Itsumi between the vehicles driven by his classmates, Masamune drives his own car and approaches a train in the real world by driving through the other side of the fissure, and when the train stops, he helps Mutsumi let Itsumi on board the train. While on the departing train, Mutsumi responds to Itsumi that she can only chase after Masamune's heart. Itsumi hugs Mutsumi and offers Mutsumi her wedding veil by shrouding it over her head. Mutsumi leaps just before the train rids itself of the sacred wolf and enters the tunnel. She falls onto the slope and rolls down towards Masamune.

A few years later in the real world, Saki, now a young adult, arrives at Mifuse's local railway station and takes a taxi to the ruins of the steel mill, with much of the town deserted. Although much of the mill has been demolished, the remains of fifth blast furnace were still standing. On a glass wall inside, a picture that depicts Mutsumi and Itsumi was left behind, along with many farewell messages written when the mill was closed down. Saki then jumps along the furnace's platforms like she did as Itsumi and goes up to the furnace's viewing platform to reminisce about the memorable moments she had as Itsumi in the past.

Production
Maboroshi is produced by MAPPA, written and directed by Mari Okada, with Yuriko Ishii designing the characters, and Masaru Yokoyama composing the music. Much of the animation staff from Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms worked on the film.

Release
The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan, who released the film in theaters on September 15, 2023. Miyuki Nakajima performed the film's main theme, "Shin-on". Netflix has acquired the global rights to the film and released it, as simply Maboroshi, on their platform on January 15, 2024.

Marketing
Okada wrote a novelization of the film, which Kadokawa Shoten published under their Kadokawa Bunko imprint on June 13, 2023.

Accolades
Maboroshi won the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film in 2023. In March 2024, the film won a Kabuku Award at the Niigata Int'l Animation Film Festival.