So last night I attended an English dub screening of The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Japanese: 夏へのトンネル、さよならの出口, Hepburn: Natsu e no Tonneru, Sayonara no Deguchi) which for me was a re-watch, having seen the world premiere of this movie in original subtitled Japanese at Otakon 2023 in Washington DC this past summer.
The Dub is courtesy of Sentai Filmworks / HIDIVE and features relative newcomers to the industry for the main roles of Kaoru Touno (Gabriel Regojo) and Anzu Hanashiro (Patricia Duran). As for me I only recognized Shelly Calene Black as the voice of their homeroom teacher.
For my 2nd time through this story, with the language barrier removed and on the basis of the excellent dub performances, I found the Kaoru & Anzu relationship more believable, natural and plausible. Just their spending so much time in each other's company, even just scientifically investigating the nature of Urashima Tunnel together, draws them emotionally closer. Kaoru is grieving the death of his little sister Karin who died from falling out of a tall tree that she was climbing to catch exotic beetles for her brother. Anzu lives alone in her uncle's condo, having been disowned by her parents for wanting to become a manga artist like her grandfather with only 1 published title to his name who died in poverty and was regarded as a burden and a failure by his family but dearly loved by his granddaughter Anzu. The legend of Urashima Tunnel is it can grant you any wish but in return you are flung a century into the future....this isn't entirely accurate, as the two begin to discover. Kaoru's home life is very unstable after his sister's untimely death. Their mother leaves and his father descends into alcoholism & self-pity and becomes emotionally and physically abusive towards Kaoru, blaming him for Karin's death and wishing Karin had lived instead of him. He spends long hours alone listening to music by himself to cope. Meeting Anzu is a stroke of luck and he has in her a friend and confidant he can rely on. Although they don't get along at first, Karou becomes a familiar face at school and someone to hang out with for Anzu.
Anzu doubts herself, wrestles with her own adequacy as a mangaka....as an author and illustrator. Kaoru is slowly able to win her trust and persuade her to let him read the first draft of her manga. He really enjoys it and wants to read it again. This makes Anzu very happy and she finally has the courage to submit her manuscript to a publisher, who shows interest and assigns her an editor. Anzu believes the Tunnel can grant her wish for artistic excellence that will make her work truly stand out. Kaoru realizes that is not what the Tunnel does and decides to enter the Tunnel one last time....he meets the ghost of his sister and spends some quality time in her company. His sister is happy to see him but tells her brother it is her sincere wish for him to fall madly in love with a girl at school someday. This snaps Kaoru back into his young adult form and Anzu's desperate, lonely texts finally reach him in the spiritual beyond. He learns of her graduation from school, the serialization of her manga, etc. and other milestones of success as she grows into becoming a successful, professional mangaka. He determines to exit the Tunnel and return to Anzu despite being away for just over a decade and change. Anzu in the meantime has hit a kind of writer's block and is sinking into a tough bout of depression. Sitting at the train station where she first met Karou, a random train service interruption announcement takes her back to the moment they first met and she bursts into tears with heavy sobs, heartbroken. Then suddenly she hears her old High School cellphone ding with a text from Kaoru, announcing his return. Anzu gathers herself and runs down the train tracks to the crossing where the Tunnel is located....he hasn't emerged yet so she goes in after him, finding him having tripped and knocked himself unconscious. He wakes in her lap and they embrace then kiss. Kaoru jokes that with the time dilation effect, their 10 second kiss lasted 6 hours in the real world.
The two emerge from the Tunnel where a light rain is falling, and Anzu returns Kaoru's rusted umbrella to him which he opens for both of them; they can resume their relationship anew....we just kind of have to hand-wave away the awkwardness in age difference....a woman in her 30s taking a boyfriend who is still a teenager physically. Not unheard of but perhaps a little scandalous. Reminds me of the same dilemma for Haruka Shitow of RaXephon...and in the RaXephon movie she even bears him a child....
But you know, time dilation, undying timeless love, yada yada....awkward, sure, but the do still love each other and the age gap wasn't their fault, etc. Once the younger person is 18 and a consenting adult, it's all cool, technically. They were technically born around the same time, etc.
All told, the story takes place between the years 2005 up through 2013.
Anyway, The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Japanese: 夏へのトンネル、さよならの出口) is a good movie, beautifully animated. In subtitled Japanese their relationship felt under-developed and unearned somehow, but re-watching in English made their dynamic feel more believable, at least to me. I'm glad I watched it again, and I'm always happy to support anime on the big screen.