On the TV, after meeting his childhood friends Anjou Naruko, Atsumu Matsuyuki, and Tsurumi Chiriko, the Male Lead turned his back on the Main Character and said something cruel: "Now you understand, don't you? Everyone's changed. No, I've changed the most. Can't this pressure ever let me go? Being with you always reminds me of so many unpleasant things."
He glanced back at the Main Character and delivered another blow: "It's so annoying."
With that, he abandoned her and walked away.
Back home, he sat down in the entryway, lay down, and began to reminisce about his childhood.
That day, in their "secret base," the group had decided on the name "Super Peace Busters."
That day, Anjou Naruko suddenly asked if he liked Menma. Atsumu Matsuyuki chimed in that the Super Peace Busters weren't allowed to have little secrets, and Hisakawa Tetsudō, nicknamed "Poppo," joined in the teasing.
Too shy to admit it, he retorted with a huffy, "Who would ever like such an ugly thing...?"
That day, Menma, who was usually so prone to tears, was called an ugly monster. Instead of crying, she smiled.
Seeing that smile, he blushed and ran home.
He intended to apologize the next day, but that "next day" never came.
Night fell.
The Main Character returned home to find her younger brother grown up, her father with noticeably graying hair, and her mother still lost in the past, unwilling to move on.
Meanwhile, the Male Lead was cooking noodles in his kitchen. As he recalled the past, he couldn't help but sigh, "We, who so carelessly shattered the peace, have drifted apart without even realizing it."
After his reflection, he picked up the egg in his bowl.
Looking at the egg, he remembered the Main Character's words: "Menma wants egg drop soup! Egg drop soup!"
"That girl..."
With that thought, he couldn't help but push open the door and run out to find her.
At that moment, the song "Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~" began to play:
[ The summer with you, our future dreams, ]
[ The grandest hopes I've never forgotten... ]
August, ten years later...
I believe we'll meet again,
holding onto the most beautiful memories...
A song that was once a massive hit, even reaching second place on the Oricon charts and gracing the stage of the Kohaku Uta Gassen, now takes on a fresh charm as it's covered by the voice actors of the three main female characters.
More importantly, the song's themes perfectly align with the animation's narrative, making it feel like it was truly meant to be here.
Under the song's influence, the Male Lead runs desperately, intercut with brief glimpses of Atsumu Matsuyuki, Tsurumi Chiriko, and Anjou Naruko's current lives, along with a voiceover of his inner thoughts:
I've always wanted that "next day"—the day I could apologize to Menma.
My guilt, my trauma... yes, I must have... created her just to apologize to Menma.
If that's the case, I can't just let things stay this way...
He considers where the Main Character might have gone, his mind drifting to their childhood secret base in the mountains. He races up the mountain.
Looking up at the small wooden cabin that served as their secret base from the foot of the mountain, he's startled to see the light on inside.
However, upon entering the room, he realized it wasn't Menma at all, but Poppo, his last childhood friend.
"What are you doing here?" Poppo asked.
The Male Lead turned his gaze toward the spot where "Super Peace Busters" was carved.
Then, an internal monologue appeared like narration: "That day, the time that had stopped here began to flow again."
The main part of the first episode ended here.
It was already past one in the morning when the episode finished. Since she had to work the next day and there was nothing else interesting on, Nakamura Mizuki decided not to watch any more.
She turned off the TV and lay down in bed, but tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
While the plot of the first episode of Anohana wasn't particularly thrilling, it couldn't help but remind her of her old friends.
Her first good friend from elementary school, with whom she walked home after school and talked about everything. But after entering middle school and attending different schools, their contact gradually dwindled. When they met again later, they didn't even know what to say to each other.
Her best friend in middle school suddenly transferred to another town in their third year, and they never saw each other again.
At first, they kept in touch through letters, but after graduating middle school and entering high school, she stopped receiving any more letters from her.
In high school, she made new friends, both in her class and in clubs.
Yet, one by one, those friends she had once been so close to, who had worked hard and laughed together, gradually drifted apart after going to college or starting jobs, each forming their own circles.
Their connections grew weaker.
Especially after graduating college and starting her career, with frequent overtime, she missed several opportunities to meet up with her old friends.
Sometimes she had time, but they didn't.
Even though they all lived in the same city, not scattered across vast distances, it became difficult to gather.
People grow and change, but they also constantly lose.
In the animation, the Main Character only serves as a catalyst. Even if nothing had happened back then, those childhood companions would have drifted apart as they grew up anyway.
In the story, the Main Character's accident and subsequent reappearance in the Male Lead's life were the catalyst for their childhood friends to reunite and rekindle their bonds.
But in reality...
How could they ever mend the distance that had grown between them over the years, for whatever reasons?
As she pondered this, Nakamura Mizuki couldn't help but sigh.
She quickly pulled out her phone, opened her email, and began scrolling through her recent messages.
One email was from a close friend from the same high school club, suggesting a reunion soon and asking if she was free on either of the next two Saturdays.
At the time, she had replied that she was swamped with work and rarely had weekends off, often working late into the night. She added, "You guys go ahead and have fun."
She stared at the email for a long moment, then pressed reply. She tried to draft a new message, but after writing a long paragraph, she deleted it all before sending.
Finally, she turned off her phone, tossed it aside, hugged her teddy bear, and continued to struggle to fall asleep.
Unbeknownst to her, many others shared her sentiments and sleeplessness. Online, fans were buzzing about the first episode of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.
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