The Tunnel to Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes (2022) - Time Travel Anime Review
Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei, more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite.
Who doesn't love an overly long anime title that refuses to trip elegantly off the tongue, but awkwardly stumbles out in the wrong order, complete with loo roll stuck to its shoe. Such is the fate of light-novel-now-anime The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes.
Gloomy but handsome Kaoru Tono (Oji Suzuki) is just one in a long line of awkward anime teens who decide to tamper with the very fabric of existence in order to escape their grim reality. Kaoru has begun fleeing his troubled homelife and traversing ever further into the secluded Urashima Tunnel. Local legend has it that the further you go into this mysterious, ethereal tunnel, the closer you are to regaining a lost heart's desire.
As Kaoru is harbouring a dark secret pertaining to his tragic past, he has every reason to desire the return of something he lost. (However, if Stephen King has taught us anything it's definitely "sometimes dead is bettah...")
Joined by his stand-offish, gorgeous, and equally troubled classmate Anzo Hanashiro (Marie Litoyo), the pair embark upon a fantastical and oddly hopeful journey through time; healing old wounds, fulfilling abandoned dreams, tender first love blossoming all the while.
However, stupid teens gonna stupid teen, and in true "going for the two birds in the bush versus the one in hand" fashion, the fate of both our protagonists is altered dramatically, and possibly irreparably. Well, if you're gonna keep tampering with the fabric of time, what do you expect?
Focusing on themes of isolation, found family, and bereavement, ultimately The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes amounts to textbook sci-fi/romance anime. Despite being about the unknown, the plot is linear and predictable. And while I don't claim to be the next Stephen Hawking, even I could tell that they really glossed over how the mechanics of the time travel operated.
For whatever reason, there is an awful lot of time travel themed anime and Asian cinema out there, it's a popular theme, they all just pull it off better. (The Girl Who Leaped Through Time, anyone?)
However, the Urashima Tunnel does have eerie Spirited Away vibes, and the animation was truly gorgeous. Particularly the day-to-day animation, the passing of seasons in anime is always a visual feast. There's great use of symbolic framing, the two leads are always almost divided by something, be it a window pane or time.
I am deeply uncomfortable with certain aspects of the ending, as I think most people would be, but I think we're meant to just ignore certain things and accept the outcome at face value. But still. (You'll know what I mean when you see for yourself.) And while the film is laden with despair most of the time, I'm happy Kaoru and Anzo have each other. (Also, shout out to Kee and his creepy frog song. Kawaii ❤)
Perfect for fans of Suzume and Summer Time Machine Blues The Tunnel to Summer The Exit of Goodbyes was seen in Lighthouse Cinema as part of Japanese Film Festival Ireland.
★★★✩✩
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