Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light

蛍火の杜へ

Six-year-old Hotaru Takegawa gets lost in a mountain forest inhabited by spirits and is guided out by Gin, a boy in a fox mask who warns her that he will vanish if any human touches him. Hotaru returns every summer, and as the visits accumulate she grows from a clumsy child into a teenager while Gin stays the same. Their bond deepens into something neither can name, shaped entirely by proximity without contact — walking side by side, passing objects through a cloth, sitting close but never closing the gap. This forty-four-minute film reaches its conclusion in a single summer festival night.