After the Song

Kiita, a 14-year-old boy, grows up surrounded by music under the care of his blind mother, Hanae, who runs a music school on Mukojima Island in the Seto Inland Sea. Kiita, a boy with a beautiful singing voice, reaches puberty and begins to feel confused by the changes in himself. He also harbors special feelings for his best friend, Daiya. Eventually, he rejects the act of “singing”—something his mother loved—and begins to feel isolated. While his mother only ever jokes about his father, with whom he no longer lives, Kiita longs to know the truth. He dons the eccentric gifts his father occasionally sends, dyes his hair, and tries to act like an adult—but only ends up losing himself even further. As if fleeing his anxiety, Kiita runs away from home without telling anyone, determined to meet the father who abandoned him when he was a child.