Maboroshi

Maboroshi
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji	アリスとテレスのまぼろし工場
Literal meaning	Alice and Therese's Illusory Factory
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Arisu to Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō
Directed by	Mari Okada
Written by	Mari Okada
Produced by	Manabu Otsuka
Starring	Junya Enoki Reina Ueda Misaki Kuno
Cinematography	Yuusuke Tannawa
Edited by	Ayumu Takahashi
Music by	Masaru Yokoyama
Production company	MAPPA
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures Japan (Japan) Netflix (International)
Release date	September 15, 2023 (2023-09-15)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Maboroshi (Japanese: アリスとテレスのまぼろし工場, Hepburn: Arisu to Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō, lit. 'Alice and Therese's Illusory Factory') 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[edit]

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In January 1991, third-year middle school student Masamune Kikuiri lives in Mifuse, a steel mill company town in rural Japan. Masamune's father, Akimune Kikuri, and uncle, Tokimune Kikuiri, both work at the mill. Masamune 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 has completely isolated from the outside world and the seasons no longer change. A man named Mamoru Sagami, who also works at the mill and also serves as the head priest of the town's Mifushi Shrine, claims that the incident was a punishment from the gods for mining out the local mountain, which has been said to be their sacred home. He also claims that the townspeople were imprisoned by the mill, which had become a "sacred machine". According to Sagami, once the mood of the gods improve, the townspeople will be able to return to the real world however until then it is necessary for them to remain unchanged from what they were before the explosion. The townspeople heed Sagami's advice and they are required to periodically submit a biographical identification form in order to prevent any inconsistencies as soon as they return to the real world. Fissures in the night sky open up occasionally and smoke coming from the steel mill would close them up.

Masamune and his friends then start playing pain-inducing games. They are completely 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 girl there who looked like a teenager just like them but acted like a wild child and could only speak in an infantile manner. Mutsumi, who is the one taking care of the girl by preventing her from going outside, makes Masamune clean up after her. Mutsumi orders Masamune to come three times a week from now on. A while later, one night, he was told by Akimune that fleeing 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 unknown girl a sandwich before naming her Itsumi. While Itsumi is playing in the courtyard, Sagami and Tokimune both show up. According to Sagami's claims, 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. Since then, Masamune has been visiting the same blast furnace alone, bringing books for Itsumi to read. When Mutsumi was absent from school, Masamune returns from the steel mill and meets Yuko Sonobe, Mutsumi's classmate, who is delivering her school documents to her. The two visit Mutsumi's home and meet her. Mutsumi while speaking to them about her relationship with Sagami, reveals to them that he is actually her adoptive father.

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 symbol with her and Masamune's names on it. The sight of the graffiti then surprises Masamune. Sonobe explains that she thought Masamune liked her because he let her ride in the passenger seat. When the other classmates arrived, Sonobe starts fleeing towards the tunnel's exit before Masamune and the others chase after her. They make it out, only to see many fissures open up in the sky with Sonobe starting to emit light from her body. Just as Sonobe was explaining about how the blatant reveal of her brief relationship with Masamune was 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, causing her to disappear and close up the fissures in the sky. The townspeople gather at the community center following the incident. According to Sagami's claims, 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 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 rest of the world rather than just Mifuse. 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. According to Sagami's claims, their world is an unreal space that was created by the sacred machine. Some residents object to his claims but he defends his claims by insisting that their unreal world is free of problems. 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 contradicts it, 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 identification 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 that 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 named Mutsumi Kikuiri, talking about the town's Obon festival. Masamune tries to enter the real world but is pulled back by his world's Mutsumi. Mutsumi asks Masamune if she can see the real world even when indoors, before revealing 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 refuses to believe it before storming 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" smoke 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 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" smoke 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 get on board the train. While on the departing train, Mutsumi responds to Itsumi that she can't chase after the things in the real world and 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 gets itself rid of the "sacred wolf" smoke 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.

Voice cast[edit]

Production[edit]

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.^[4]

Release[edit]

The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan, who released the film in theaters on September 15, 2023.^[1] Miyuki Nakajima performed the film's main theme, "Shin-on".^[5] Netflix has acquired the global rights to the film and released it, as simply Maboroshi, on their platform on January 15, 2024.^[6]

Marketing[edit]

Okada wrote a novelization of the film, which Kadokawa Shoten published under their Kadokawa Bunko imprint on June 13, 2023.^[1]

Reception[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10.^[7] The film won the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film in 2023.^[8]

Accolades[edit]

In March 2024, the film won a Kabuku Award at the Niigata Int'l Animation Film Festival.^[9]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Maboroshi on Netflix
• Maboroshi (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia