A fifth grader watches the girl he likes pack up her life and leave, and somehow a 30-minute movie makes you care desperately about whether he finds the courage to say anything before she goes. The animation is janky enough that you stop noticing it within minutes, which means the writing has to carry everything, and it does. By the end you're not watching a cute romance premise anymore, you're watching a kid choose between safety and the possibility of something real.

Mikio is a quiet fifth-grader living in the suburbs of Osaka, harboring a crush on Haruko, the sweetest girl in his class. His shyness keeps him from telling her how he feels, and his close friend Megane is part of his everyday life. Then comes the news that shatters everything: Haruko is moving away to another town, and Mikio's window of opportunity is closing fast. What follows is a gentle, bittersweet romantic comedy about first love and unspoken feelings. Set against the backdrop of a suburban neighborhood, the film recalls the kind of hometown many viewers grew up in, with a soundtrack by the band The Aprils and singer-songwriter Tomovsky. Illustrator Naoto Iwakiri, who was born in Osaka, wrote and directed the story. This is for anyone who remembers what it felt like to be young and caught between wanting something badly and being terrified to reach for it. It's a quiet film about loud hearts.