Origin: Spirits of the Past 2006

In the 24th century, Earth lies scarred and green, a plant-strewn wasteland born from an ecocide linked to genetically engineered trees that arrived centuries earlier. Japan has become a dystopia ruled by the Forest, a vast network of sapient trees controlled by the tree-like Druids, who regulate the planet’s water supply for both trees and humans. Agito, a spirited young boy, lives in Neutral City—a settlement carved from shattered skyscrapers at the forest’s edge—where he shares a tense coexistence with the trees and with his father Agashi whose own powers have pushed him toward a near-plantlike state. He spends his days alongside his friends Cain and Minka, navigating a delicate balance between hope and the looming threat of Ragna, a ruthless, militarized nation that has defined much of the wasteland and seeks to eradicate the Forest to reclaim the Earth.

One fateful day, [Agito] and [Cain] race toward the water hole at the bottom of Neutral City, a moment that tests the city’s fragile peace. Their reckless disturbance awakens the ire of the Druids and fractures their group, leaving [Agito] separated from his companions. In the aftermath, he stumbles upon a colossal machine harboring cryogenic pods and unwittingly revives Toola, a girl who had slept for centuries since the plants arrived. Toola carries a Raban, a portable device capable of communication and many other feats, which immediately makes the Forest nervous about the possibility that Shunack — an awakened Ragna soldier who has undergone genetic enhancement at the Forest’s hands — could use her Raban to locate an environmental safeguard known as E.S.T.O.C. (Environmental Subsystem Tactical Operations Console) and trigger its destruction.

The Forest deploys a towering plant guardian to block a meeting between [Shunack] and Toola, but the enhanced soldier dismantles the barrier and reveals his willingness to embrace the Forest’s power. As the two teams chase the elusive E.S.T.O.C., Toola and [Shunack] forge an uneasy alliance, and Toola persuades him that saving the Earth means protecting the delicate balance between humanity and the trees. Amid the shifting loyalties, [Agito] seeks guidance from his father, [Agashi], who has steadily become more tree than man after years of using dangerous enhancements. With time running out and the threat of his own fate—being transformed into a tree—looming, [Agito] embraces a drastic path and willingly undergoes enhancement himself, his hair turning silver as a visible symbol of his new connection to the Forest.

The pursuit leads them to E.S.T.O.C., a colossal mechanism built into a volcano by Toola’s father, Dr. Sakul. A holographic reveal from [Dr. Sakul] explains the tangled history: his early genetic research on the trees inadvertently birthed a new world order and a weaponized safeguard intended to shield humanity from the altered forest. Betrayed by his own past, [Shunack] plans to activate E.S.T.O.C near Neutral City to restore Earth in his own way, even as the Ragna army joins the effort to confront the machine. A fierce duel between [Agito] and [Shunack] unfolds, and in a pivotal moment, [Agito] merges with the forest, transforming into a living conduit of wood and will and absorbing the determined warrior. Toola seizes the moment to deactivate E.S.T.O.C., triggering its self-destruction and cancelling the threat.

As the landscape trembles, [Agito] remains present on another plane, where the Forest reveals a profound truth about the bond between trees and humans. The genetic exchange that grants humans remarkable strength and the tendency to become trees is reciprocal: the Forest itself is altered by human life and, in turn, produces new humans within enormous fruit. With this revelation, the Forest grants [Agito] a final return to his human form and the chance to guide a future where there is no need for hostility or separation between people and the trees. Freed from the immediate danger, [Agito] and [Toola] escape the collapsing machine, and the two begin a tentative, hopeful companionship—one that embraces harmony with the trees rather than domination over them. Toola discards her Raban and, at last, commits to living in harmony within the Forest, signaling a new era where humanity and plant life might share the world in peace.