This one sneaks up on you. It looks like a soft, sweet story about two girls chasing dreams, and then somewhere between Yokohama and Paris it puts a lump in your throat you did not sign up for. Fujiko wants to paint, Chizuru gets pulled into ballet, and the film understands that étoile means both the star in the sky and the rank at the top of the Paris Opera, which is exactly the kind of double meaning that only pays off if the animation can carry it. It can. The early 20th-century Paris here is built with obsessive care, the light, the streets, the clothes, the way a body moves when it has been drilled for years, and the side cast actually shows up for these two instead of existing to doubt them. Plot complexity is not the point, so if you need twists, skip it. If you have ever wanted something badly and had no guarantee, you will sit very still through the last stretch.

Two young Japanese women hold on to big dreams in the early twentieth century, a hard period that tests their resolve. Fujiko hopes to become a painter, while Chizuru finds herself pulled into the world of ballet. They first cross paths by chance in Yokohama. Later, as if fate intended it, they meet again in Paris, where they commit to pursuing their ambitions side by side. The film is a slice-of-life story with a sports element, centered on perseverance and a friendship built around shared goals.