Children Who Chase Lost Voices

Eleven-year-old Asuna Watase has been forced to grow up, after her father died. Her mother is a nurse working long shifts at the hospital. Asuna spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from the cat’s-whisker receiver her father gave to her as a memento, accompanied by pet cat Mimi, who bears strange red markings on her fur.

One day, while walking to her clubhouse across a bridge, she is ambushed by a fearsome creature and saved by a mysterious teenage boy named Shun. Asuna treats him from fighting the creature, and later they both listen to the radio. Shun tells Asuna he is from another country called Agartha and that he came to this place to find something. He then gives Asuna a blessing in the form of a kiss to the forehead. Asuna leaves quickly and tells Shun she will return tomorrow. However, Shun falls to his death, while looking at the sky.

The next day, Asuna hears from her mother about a boy in the river, but she does not believe it is Shun. Asuna’s substitute teacher, Mr. Morisaki, gives a lecture on a book for them to understand about Agartha, the land of the dead. When Asuna visits Morisaki, he explains to her that long ago, humans needed the guidance of Quetzalcoatls, keepers of the dead, until they matured and no longer needed them. They went underground along with the few who joined them.

Afterwards, Asuna goes to the hideout to find another mysterious boy, resembling Shun and standing on the ledge. Soon, a group of armed men, called the Arch Angels, appear and ambush them. The mysterious boy hides in the underground entrance with Asuna, and the two proceed further into the cave when the cave’s entrance is bombed. The two meet a Quetzalcoatl who has apparently lost its physical senses and attacks the boy. He refuses to kill the gatekeeper, giving Asuna his clavis, a crystal, and fights back. The Archangels interfere, killing the gatekeeper. The Arch Angel commander captures Asuna and uses the clavis to open a gateway to Agartha. The commander and Asuna enter the gateway followed by the boy. Once inside, the commander reveals himself to be Morisaki and the boy also reveals himself to be Shin, Shun’s younger brother. Morisaki tells Shin that all he wants is to resurrect his wife, Lisa. Shin leaves Asuna and Morisaki.

Morisaki tells Asuna that she must return home, but she decides to accompany him. They both go into the realm via an underwater entrance. Once inside, they journey to the Gate of Life and Death, which can resurrect people from the dead, along with Mimi (who had sneaked in inside Asuna’s backpack).

Upon arriving in his village, Shin is told he failed his mission to retrieve the clavis, because Asuna has unknowingly returned with a fragment of one. Shin plans to stop Asuna and Morisaki from wreaking havoc in Agartha. Along the way, Asuna is kidnapped by a race of monsters called the Izoku. She awakens in a closed area and meets a young girl named Manna. They are unable to escape. The day begins to darken and the Izoku begin to appear, but they can only move in the shadows. In their escape attempt they encounter Shin, who helps them but is wounded by an Izoku during the escape. Morisaki finds Asuna and Manna down the river, as well as Shin and Mimi. Shin tries to retrieve the clavis crystal fragment that Asuna had. However, he is too weak to put up a fight and Morisaki easily defeats him. Asuna convinces Morisaki to take him with them while Manna leads them to her village.

Once there, the villagers are at first reluctant to help the “top-dwellers”, but the village elder convinces the guards to let them in. The elder allows them to stay one night at the village because they have brought Manna back, but they cannot stay more than that due to past history in that top-dwellers always bring bad luck to Agartha. Meanwhile, Asuna checks up on Shin, but he tells her to leave the village.

The next day, Asuna and Morisaki leave Amaurot by boat, but Mimi stays with the villagers. Shin wakes up and finds that Mimi has died. Shin, Manna, and the elder proceed to offer Mimi’s corpse to the Quetzalcoatl. When Shin sees the villagers riding away to kill them, he decides to follow, in order to protect Asuna. Morisaki and Asuna walk towards a steep cliff, when they are ambushed by the villagers but they are saved by Shin. Morisaki trades the gun for the clavis shard with Asuna, when she refuses to climb down the ledge. Meanwhile, Shin is fighting the villagers and is about to be killed when they sense that the clavis crystal has reached the Gate of Life and Death. They leave Shin to wander aimlessly, having betrayed his country.

Asuna stays in the river on the night, before accepting the truth that she came to Agartha, and that she was lonely. When the water dries up, she is ambushed and attacked by the Izoku, but is saved by Shin. The two return to the cliff after seeing the Ark of Life descending. They encounter a Quetzalcoatl. Before dying, he sings a song to send all of the memories into the world. Asuna realizes that the last song she heard in her world was Shun’s. The Quetzalcoatl offers to take them to the bottom of the cliff.

They both find the Gate of Life and Death and enter it. Morisaki has already made a wish for Lisa to return. However, her soul requires a vessel. Asuna and Shin find Morisaki, who tells Asuna she should not have come. She is soon possessed by the soul of Lisa, but the price becomes insufficient. Morisaki loses his eye. To undo Asuna’s possession, Shin destroys the clavis crystal, despite Morisaki’s warning. Breaking the crystal brings Asuna’s soul back to her body, when she had an illusion. Before Lisa leaves Asuna’s body, she tells Morisaki to find happiness without her. Asuna gets reverted to her normal self, but Morisaki is devastated and asks Shin to kill him. However, he tells him that carrying the burden of a deceased person can bring a curse, telling Morisaki to live on. Asuna says farewell to Shin and Morisaki, and heads back to the surface. A year later, an older Asuna looks out her window at the cliff side where she had met Shun and Shin. She returns to school for a graduation ceremony.

Last Updated: September 25, 2025 at 23:39