Hirayasumi

At twenty-nine, Hiroto Ikuta has no girlfriend, no full-time job, and no plan whatsoever for the future—yet he has never been happier. Convinced that slowing down is sometimes the surest way to move forward, he drifts through life with an unshakable ease that the people around him find difficult to comprehend. In a world weighed down by anxiety, uncertainty, and sorrow, Hiroto and those in his orbit are all simply doing their best to work out what living really means. His leisurely existence takes an unexpected turn when he strikes up an improbable friendship with the cantankerous old woman who lives in his neighborhood. Before he knows it, Hiroto finds himself the heir to her house—along with a complicated tangle of heavy emotions he never asked to carry. Things shift again when his eighteen-year-old cousin Natsumi moves in. A young art student grappling with her own doubts and frustrations, Natsumi brings a very different rhythm into the home, and her presence may prove the ultimate test of Hiroto's laid-back way of life. Together, this mismatched pair stumbles through everyday ups and downs, each searching for their own answer to the question of how to live.