LET IT BE -Kimi ga Kimi Rashiku Aru You ni-/Plot

2nd year high school student Sora Ohara has been elected to his schools graduation board, courtesy of his friends Morihito Arihara and Soshi Kagurazaka, to come up with ideas for how to send off the graduating third years. Sora and the committee struggle to come up with anything to do as their ideas are either impractical or not allowed by the school.

After spending some time after school with Mori, Soshi, and their underclassmen friends, Nozomu Nanase & Ren Munakata, Sora ruminates on what 'youth' means, and how best to celebrate youth with the graduating third years. After a comment from Nozomu about how his elder brother held a concert for his graduation, since he was part of the schools music club, Sora is inspired to create a band!

After several days of pestering the teacher in charge of the graduation committee Sora's idea has been approved by the school. However, in all of his excitement Sora appears to have encountered some miscommunication issues with his friends, as they were unaware that he intended for the band to be made up of the five of them.

Nozomu is immediately on board with the idea, enthusiastic at the prospect to become a 'charismatic bassist' like his big brother. Mori was the next to agree due to his secret desire to hear Sora write new songs again, and to be able to play music alongside Sora; though he warns that he's never sung or played in front of a crowd before. Soshi is reluctant, and claims that Mori is too soft on Sora, initially he neither agrees to join nor outright rejects Sora's invitation, saying instead that he'd think about it. Ren on the other hand is vocally against the idea, Sora and Nozomu try and forcefully persuade him but end up making him more nervous, causing him to run off.

The five friends go off and each ponder the situation and their respective futures. After running into one of their graduating upperclassmen and his own struggle with what do after graduating, Sora ends up discussing the fleeting nature of high school friendships and how everyone must go their own separate ways in the end. Ren's kendo classmate asks if he has something on his mind, as he felt Ren was hesitating in his swings, and he admits that something is troubling him. Nozomu is seen happily murmuring about being a charismatic bassist in his sleep. Soshi has a flashback to when he injured his arm and was forced to quit the basketball club, and Sora comforting him after receiving the bad news from the doctor. During this recollection his basketball slips from his grasp and bounces across the room, knocking into his drumsticks; Soshi wonders if this is a sign from Sora's "God of Youth" about what he should do.

While hanging out at the TSUKINO TEI house, Soshi finally informs the others he's willing to play drums for the band. He plays it off as no big thing since it's just a one time event, but Sora is overjoyed nonetheless. Sora & Nozomu once again turn to Ren to plead with him, along with gentle encouragement from Mori, causing Ren to sheepishly agree.

The next morning, Sora, Mori & Soshi inform their classmates of their newly formed band, getting everyone excited for the graduation concert. At the bands first practice Mori asks Sora what songs they're going to be playing, wondering if they would be doing some of Sora's original songs. This comment is met with great surprise from Ren & Nozomu, who were unaware Sora was a composer in middle school as he'd deliberately not told them about it yet.

After practice, Sora goes home and ruminates on his abilities as a songwriter, glaring at the folder he'd labelled "DO NOT OPEN" on his computer containing the songs he produced during his middle school days. Sora hesitantly opens the folder and listens to one of his songs as he has a flashback to middle school. After playing around with some free music software and instruments Sora managed to create a song he was proud of, and after uploading it to the internet it was met with great acclaim from both people on the internet and Sora's classmates.

He eventually ended up on the local news being praised as a 'musical prodigy'; however, all of the praise and expectations came crashing down when Sora released new music. People felt that his subsequent work sucked when compared to his breakout hit, calling Sora a 'one hit wonder' and telling him to delete it. The comments depressed Sora immensely, causing his parents, Soshi, and his school friends to worry about him. In the end, Sora decided to stop making music and sealed his old work away as after all the negative comments he felt he was wrong about his songwriting abilities.

Back in the present, Mori apologizes to Sora for his comment about songwriting in front of Ren & Nozomu. Mori says that as Sora's biggest fan he just got so excited at the prospect of hearing new music from him, and he was sure that Sora would see the band as an opportunity to try out his abilities again. Sora asks if this was the real reason Mori agreed to join the band, which Mori admits to as he says that Sora's songs are the only music he likes & that he wants to be able to sing those songs alongside him. Despite Mori's enthusiasm Sora is still nervous, wondering if he's actually capable of writing songs that are good enough for everyone to enjoy at the concert. After some more encouragement from Mori, Sora finally gives in and agrees to try his hand at composing again.

Sora spends all night working on a song he once started writing but never finished, and shows the others a demo at practice the next day. The others all agree that the new song is amazing, with Mori saying it made him fall in love with Sora's music all over again. The band become motivated to practice harder and give it their all to prepare for the concert. All five of them end up practicing whenever, and wherever, they can: Sora is constantly in his room fine tuning the new songs, Mori, Soshi & Nozomu are diligently practicing their respective instrument skills at home, and Ren is even seen going over his keyboard skills in the middle of kendo training. Sora, Mori & Soshi manage to talk one of their classmates into creating a flyer to advertise the concert, and all the band members are seen handing flyers out and promoting the show to everyone at school.

After weeks of practice the day of the concert has finally arrived, everyone is both excited and nervous, except for Nozomu who appears as confident as ever despite the surprisingly large crowd. As the group takes the stage, Sora congratulates the graduating class and introduces the band. However, as the band prepares to begin playing Sora is suddenly hit with a wave anxiety and is unable to start playing. The group realizes Sora's anxieties and each encourage him in their own until he's finally confident enough to open the concert with one of his new songs: Douse Nara Ima Kara Kaze ni Natte Miyou.

As the group plays they all see flashbacks of their times together at school, goofing off between classes, laughing together in sports class, and relaxing at the end of the school day. The flashbacks continue as the next song, Owaranai Niji, begins. The band, and the crowd, is having a great time as Sora introduces the final song to conclude the concert: Hanasaku Oka de. The concert finishes to thunderous applause from the school; Soshi's basketball captain, Okaze-senpai, the graduation committee teacher, and Sora's class 2-A friends can all be seen beaming with pride from the crowd.

As the band walks home after the concert ends, all five friends celebrate and exclaim how much fun they ended up having. Even Soshi and Ren, who were initially the most hesitant about joining, express sadness at the fact the experience is over. Hearing this, Sora pipes up and asks how everyone would feel about attending an audition for TSUKINO TALENT PRODUCTION, the company responsible for the popular idol groups Six Gravity & Procellarum.

Mori & Nozomu are once again immediately on board with the idea, causing Soshi to scold them for going easy on Sora again. Surprisingly, Ren is equally enthusiastic about the idea, saying he wants to see how far the band can make it. Soshi eventually relents and agrees to the audition, saying he didn't want the band to be over yet anyway.

In a post credits scene, the band can be seen making their way to the 2015 TSUKINO PRODUCTIONs Music Grandprix. On their way, the others ask whether Sora has finally been able to come up with a proper name for the band yet. Sora admits he's been thinking about it, but that he's a little embarrassed to say it. He says that the group was founded with the spirit of youth in mind, so he thinks it should remind people of something like the great blue skies**＊**. With that in mind, he offers up the name 'SOARA'!

**＊ *Translation Notes:*** 'Sora' in Japanese translates to 'sky', with 'SOARA' sounding phonetically similar. Additionally, 'Soara' can be a feminine first name in Japan, with the first character translating to 'blue'.

## References

1. ↑ Summary courtesy of English translation provided by Nebulous-wanderings & Ryota-kunstranslations on Tumblr.

## External Links

* English Subtitles (unofficial; provided by Nebulous-wanderings & Ryota-kunstranslations on Tumblr)