Three strangers meet online to chase an urban legend because their real lives have already failed them. Summer Ghost takes 40 minutes to tear through their reasons why, and the pacing never lets you step back and catch your breath. The animation and score move together like they're the same instrument, turning a night at a shrine into something that feels like watching someone's last chance flicker out in real time. The movie doesn't have room to explain who these kids are before it shows you what they're willing to do to change it. By the end, you understand exactly why they needed each other, even if you barely got to know them.

Tomoya, Aoi and Ryou are high school students who got to know each other over the internet. A local legend tells of the Summer Ghost, the spirit of a young woman who shows herself when fireworks are set off, and only to people close to death. Tomoya is an artistic teen weighed down by pressure to get into a good university. Aoi is a timid girl her classmates bully without letup. Ryou was a basketball star until a grim diagnosis forced him to give up the sport. Each has a reason to meet the ghost, who is said to know the answers about death. When their first encounter leaves him unsatisfied, Tomoya goes looking for her again, and the mystery of who she is begins to come apart in this supernatural drama film.