Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho
English title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days
Japanese title: 雲のむこう、約束の場所
Alternative titles: Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place
Type: Movie
Source: Original
Episodes: 1
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Nov 20, 2004
Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Studios: CoMix Wave Films
Licensors: ADV Films, GKIDS
Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Themes: Military

Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa harbor admiration for two things in their life: their classmate Sayuri Sawatari and the vast Ezo Tower that stands boundlessly across the Tsugaru Strait. Fascinated by the limitless structure beyond their reach, Hiroki and Takuya begin constructing an aeroplane from a fallen drone they discovered—naming it the Bella Ciela—to fulfill their dream of one day reaching the sky-scraping top of the tower. Later joined by the girl they love, Hiroki and Takuya promise Sayuri to fly with her to the seemingly otherworldly top together. However, Japan has suffered a North-South partitioning that has fueled conflict near the base of the tower, which marks the border between the America-controlled Southern islands and the Northern lands occupied by the Soviet Union.

Further along, Sayuri suddenly disappears, and Hiroki and Takuya never see her again. Unbeknownst to them, she fell victim to a sleeping disorder that left her comatose for the past three years. Although Hiroki and Takuya later learn about Sayuri's condition, they also discover that the girl's unconscious state is oddly linked to the same tower the trio had promised to conquer together.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

The film won the Best Animation Film award at the Mainichi Film Awards in 2004.