Voices of a Distant Star (ほしのこえ)

Color / 1:1.37 / 2002 / 25 min / CoMix Wave Films / English Subtitles

Film Synopsis:

Mikako Nagamine and Noboru Terao were close friends and members of the same club activities in middle school. In the summer of 2046, Mikako told Noboru that she was chosen as a Select Member of the United Nations Space Army. Mikako left the Earth the following year, while Noboru went on to high school in Japan.

Separated by space, they tried to stay in touch by mobile mail. However, as Mikako goes further out in the solar system on board the Lysithea spaceship, Noboru becomes increasingly frustrated as it takes longer for them to receive each other's mail. As time goes by, the Lysithea fleet soon approaches a time warp, a situation that makes both Mikako and Noboru acutely aware of the time gap that might separate them...

Voices of a Distant Star won the Best Packaged Work Award at the 7th Animation Kobe Awards. It also received the Special Award at the 6th Japan Media Arts Festival held by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, and Best Media Award at the 2003 Seiun Awards, a speculative fiction award in Japan.

The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭)

Color / 16:9 / 2013 / 46 min / CoMix Wave Films, TOHO Animation / English Subtitles

Film Synopsis:

It was the start of the rainy season in Tokyo when Takao Akizuki, a 15-year-old student and aspiring shoemaker, skipped his morning class to do shoe sketches in the garden at Shinjuku Gyoen, he encounters the 27-year-old Yukari Yukino, who was avoiding work and seems adrift in the world.

Despite the age difference, they began to have an unusual relationship as they continue to encounter one another in the same garden on rainy days. However, as the rainy season is coming to a close, there are still so many things left unsaid and undone between them. Will there be enough time for Takao to put his feelings into actions and words?

The well-received The Garden of Words was awarded the Theatrical Film Award at the 18th Animation Kobe Awards in Japan. It also won the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival and Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film for Best Animated Feature and other awards.