Makoto starts this film convinced nothing matters, and the movie spends two hours methodically proving him wrong through the people he's already decided to die for. The pacing stumbles between scenes, cutting away just when momentum builds, but it doesn't matter because the emotional weight of watching him choose connection over nihilism lands harder than any action sequence could. By the end, death stops being a philosophical abstraction and becomes the reason bonds exist in the first place.

As autumn sets in, Makoto Yuuki and the other members of S.E.E.S. draw nearer to the end of their fight against the Shadows. Junpei Iori is abducted by Chidori Yoshino of Strega, while the squad destroys the Hanged Man Arcana. After the twelfth Shadow falls, the team believes its mission is complete, yet Tartarus and the Dark Hour remain. Shaken by that failure, the members must face their own struggles, including the loss of friends and family, and decide whose sake they are fighting for. Meanwhile, a flirtatious transfer student named Ryouji Mochizuki joins Class 2-F at Gekkoukan High School, and the reason Aegis hates him gradually comes to light.