A thief who steals from the rich to feed the poor moves through Edo like a ghost in the dark, and the film builds its entire moral universe around whether that matters. The animation renders every shadow and fabric movement with the kind of obsessive detail that makes you believe in the hand-drawn world more than the real one. This is a love letter to a filmmaker now gone, made by people who understood that sometimes the most revolutionary act is simply to make something beautiful in his memory.

Edo's nighttime shadows conceal the work of Nezumi Kozō Jirokichi, a chivalrous thief who takes money from the rich and hands it out to the poor. When darkness settles over the city's streets, someone can be heard stirring in the attic. Suzu is a widow who lives a hard life raising her small child. Three men, Bonji, Yasugoro and Chogoro, hope to use her to reveal who the thief really is. Kan'emon, a seasoned detective, is known for condemning the crime while caring for the people behind it. The short film was made in memory of director Sadao Yamanaka and imagines the melancholic human drama he dreamed of setting in Edo. It premiered at the first Niigata International Animation Film Festival in March 2023.