A child who has learned to believe she is worthless discovers that surviving another day is enough reason to live. The animation is rough and the sound is worse, but neither matters once you realize this movie is just Asuka learning to cry in front of people who won't hurt her for it. By the end you understand why a birthday matters when nobody has ever let you have one before.

Asuka has suffered both physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother. When her grandparents take her in, she begins a new life away from that home. Little by little, she comes to understand that she has value as a person, and she works her way past the many obstacles in her path. This 1999 film is a quiet drama rooted in everyday life, centered on a girl slowly rebuilding her sense of self.