by On Saturday, the “ANOHANA 10 YEARS AFTER Fes.” event featured a staged reading that reveals what happened to the main characters ten years after the end of the anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day anime. Original scriptwriter Mari Okada wrote the script, while director Tatsuyuki Nagai drew the storyboards and character designer Masayoshi Tanaka drew the illustrations. The event was streamed for two days on Saturday and Sunday.
Warning: Detailed spoilers below:
The event reveals the occupations of the Super Peace Busters and their current relationship statuses while affirming the themes of the anime. It begins at the fateful “hide and seeks” moment in the anime’s final episode. As Menma begins writing the messages to her friends, she wonders what they’ll be doing ten years into the future.
The story then fast-forwards to a conversation between Anaru and Tsuruko 10 years later. It is revealed that Tsuruko has become a web designer, while Anaru has become a dental hygienist. Poppo started a critical business, and Jintan works with him.
The women discuss their relationships with the men in their lives; Tsuruko says that she and Yukiatsu didn’t find “the right timing” to get married, so their relationship is still vague. Anaru and Jintan are not in a relationship, but she still has strong feelings for him. Meanwhile, Poppo married a foreign woman named Stephanie and had two children.
A conversation between an older Poppo and Yukiatsu also reveals another significant development: The Secret Base from all those years ago is about to be demolished. Before that happens, the five friends gather at the location for a reunion and a barbeque.
The big reunion scene emphasizes that the characters are all adults now by showing them drinking alcohol. In Anaru and Yukiatsu’s case, they get drunk. Anaru turns into a weeping drunk and starts lamenting about the incoming loss of the base. Yukiatsu suddenly declares that he’ll buy the land in an emotional outburst since he works at the Chichibu town hall and formerly worked as an elite banker. Tsuruko tells her that’s unrealistic, and Yukiatsu is forced to accept that, saying, “There’s nothing that never changes.”
Anaru falls asleep and sees Menma in her dream in the form of the sake she was drinking. In an amusing and sweet moment, the dream Menma comforts her. Anaru wakes up but pretends to be still asleep as she realizes that Jintan is having a serious conversation with the others.
Everyone’s attention is drawn to the words “The Super Peace Busters will always be friends” carved into the base. They make sure not to forget it. Yukiatsu says that while he understands Anaru’s feelings, he can accept that things change. Jintan says it’s less about keeping things the same as they were when they were children so much as keeping the spirit of what they had even as adults. They reminisce for a while and affirm that the most important thing is keeping their promise to Menma.
As an aside, Tsuruko grills Jintan about his relationship with Anaru, to which he casually says he was thinking of asking her to marry him after she wakes up. Anaru freaks out after hearing that, inadvertently revealing that she was actually awake. When Jintan asks if she doesn’t want to marry him, she stumbles and awkwardly admits that she does want to do that, but she was expecting them to date first. The others take this as confirmation that Jintan and Anaru are now an item.
The scene closes with the Super Peace Busters drinking to Menma’s memory. Menma looks over all this and is assured in the knowledge that the Super Peace Busters will get along forever. The reading play concludes as she utters those words of certainty:
“I know. I know…”
