Mai Mai Miracle

Mai Mai Miracle , Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Mah? , lit. Mai Mai Shinko and the MillenniumOld Magic is a Japanese animated film based on Nobuko Takagis novelization of her autobiography, Maimai Shinko. It was produced by the animation studio Madhouse, distributed by Shochiku, and directed by Sunao Katabuchi.

Its the spring of 1955, and the place is the area of Mitajiri in the countryside around then smalltown Hfu in Yamaguchi Prefecture, southwestern Japan. A nineyearold girl named Shinko Aoki imagines she has a way of connecting to the world around her, a thousand years before. Then, an upperclass girl called Nagiko Kiyohara lived in this same land, at a time when the area was known as the province of Su and its capital Kokuga. Shinko invites Kiiko Shimazu, a new student who has recently transferred to her school, to her magical timetravel, i.e. her vivid imaginings of the past. Despite the girls quite different characters Shinko is an outgoing, exuberant tomboy, while the shy and initially very reserved Kiiko still mourns her deceased mother they get along surprisingly well and end up learning from each others differences.The family of Aoki farms the land. Like many of their neighbours in southern Japan around the mid20th century, they cultivate durum wheat in spring, followed by a rice harvest in late summerautumn. Shinkos and Kiikos differences include Shinko living in a house without stairs, and like most of her classmates she goes to school barefoot. At Kiikos house theres a wellkept little garden, and her father is a doctor at the new factory in the area. Kiiko has seen television a couple of times, and at the house theres a gaspowered refrigerator, alien things to countrykid Shinko. What Shinko does have is an unruly cowlick which she calls mai mai in her forehead, which she believes makes her able to imagine things from the past. For that Kiiko is a bit jealous of Shinko. ........

Source: Wikipedia