Okabe signs Takuya on for an excursion to Ezo with Uilta. Okabe is its leader his factory workers are the other agents of the organization. Takuya becomes involved with the Uilta Liberation Front after he learns that Mr. They know that the Hokkaido Tower, which began operating in 1996, replaces matter around it with matter from other universes, but they do not yet know why it does this for only a 2-km radius. Maki Kasahara under the supervision of Professor Tomizawa. Takuya is working as a physicist at an Alliance scientific facility sponsored by the United States' National Security Agency, researching parallel universes alongside Ms. Three years later, Takuya and Hiroki have stopped working on the plane, having taken different paths after the grief they suffered at Sayuri's disappearance. However, before they can do this, Sayuri mysteriously disappears during the summer. The three teenagers promise to one day fly to Hokkaido to visit the Tower. The boys find a crashed Maritime Self-Defense Force drone plane and work on rebuilding the plane with the support of Mr. Sayuri becomes close friends with the two boys. In 1996, the three are in ninth grade, their last year of middle school, and they are fascinated by the Hokkaido Tower visible across the Tsugaru Strait to the north. The anime follows the story of three friends living in Aomori, in northern Japan: two boys, Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa, both child prodigies and one girl, Sayuri Sawatari. In 1974, the Union begins the construction of a strange tower on Hokkaido designed by a scientist named Ekusun Tsukinoe. The film was licensed for North American release by ADV Films.Īfter the Separation of Japan in 1945, the northern island of Hokkaidō (or Ezo, as it is called in the anime) is occupied by the "Union" (referring to the Soviet Union). It has been broadcast across Japan by the anime satellite television network Animax. Unlike his short film Voices of a Distant Star, which was largely made by Shinkai on his own, The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a full-scale production, as reflected by the better animation quality and the longer overall length. Set over several years in an alternate history where the Soviet Union occupies half of Japan, the film follows two childhood friends who grow apart after one of their friends disappears as international tension rises and a mysterious tower built by the Union starts replacing matter around it with matter from other universes, they cross paths once again and realize their missing friend might be the key to save the world. "Beyond the Clouds, the Promised Place") is a 2004 Japanese anime film written, directed, produced, cinematographed, edited, and storyboarded by Makoto Shinkai in his feature film debut. The Place Promised in Our Early Days ( Japanese: 雲のむこう、約束の場所, Hepburn: Kumo no Mukō, Yakusoku no Basho, lit.