In this visionary debut from the then thirty-two-year-old Makoto Shinkai (here, co-directing with Yoshio Suzuki), an alternate post-war Japan — one divided into the Union-controlled north and the US-controlled south — the teens become obsessed with a mysterious tower which seems to reach high into the heavens. Hiroki and Takuya hatch a plan to visit the tower, but before it can be achieved, their friend Sayuri disappears. Years later, the tower activates, and the two friends reunite to uncover the fate of their friend, whose disappearance may hold the key to the fate of the world.