Goodbye, Eri

After four pages of all-black panels, Yuta’s dialogue cuts across the black background to explain that in the movie, the protagonist successfully films his friend’s death as he could not do for his mother, which gives him the confidence to face the rest of his life and continue making movies. However, this is not what happens in real life. Instead, after showing his movie at the school festival, Yuta withdraws. He stops going to school and spends all day recutting Eri’s movie. He has the sensation that something is missing and hopes that sifting through all 2,728 hours of footage will help him figure it out.

He manages to finish school. Even in college, he continues to tinker with the footage. He drops out of college and finds a nondescript full-time job. Eventually, he gets married and has a daughter. Even then, he continues to cut and recut Eri’s movie.

A single black panel signals a scene shift, and then a camera angle shows Yuta, now a grown and haggard-looking adult, sitting on the floor and speaking to the camera. He says that his father, wife, and daughter all died in a car accident while he was driving.