Melting Sounds

A man comes home. But something is wrong. People appear one after another. Everyone insists that this is their house, and the man is confused. Before he knows it, eleven people are living in this house.

The Residents

High school girl Hinoki has a keen sense of smell. Perhaps it has something to do with her father, who ran a coffee bean roasting store. This sets the quiet and contemplative girl apart from others. When she reads a notebook left behind by her late father, she discovers that he had written his impressions of the films he had seen at mini-theatres across Japan. However, one mini theatre, the location of which is unmarked, has notes on smells and impressions. Inspired to find it (and without telling her mother), Hinoki decides to venture forth and visit the cinemas her father had visited, handing out coffee beans to people she meets, all while searching for her father’s fading scent. As she does so, over the course of her laidback and slightly melancholy adventure she becomes a little more mature.

Memories of His Scent

A person in charge of “Belonging” appears before people whose lives have ended and tells them, “Do you have any regrets in this world? If you have, you can become an object and return there.” A wife decides to become her husband’s favorite mug, a boy becomes his favorite blue jungle gym, a grandmother becomes the camera that she gave to her grandson, and a mother becomes rosin that is used in a baseball game so that she can watch her son pitch in the game. At the very end of their lives, they spend time with their loved ones as objects.