Yumemi Hidaka (日高 ユメミ Hidaka Yumemi) is the main female protagonist of the story.
Personality[]
She is a dreamy and gentle girl who is compassionate towards her friends and family. However, she is very insecure about being able to see things other people can’t, such as the “floating islands” as well as things falling from the sky. The confusion she feels from not understanding her special vision holds her back from believing in herself. Throughout the second OVA, she becomes more confident of who she is, but is still insecure about what she sees because of her special connection with Munto. Because of the connection, she is constantly haunted by images of Munto's past and is confused and distressed as to why she sees them. In the second OVA, Yumemi takes the initiative and becomes more accepting of her gift and role. She is the one to offer her help to Munto in the second OVA. As time passes by, she soon develops feelings for Munto as seen when she blushes, where he later reciprocates the mutual feeling by becoming more kind and gentle with her.
Background[]
Ichiko, Yumemi, and Suzume as children
Yumemi was the firstborn child of Shigeru (father) and Nozomi Hidaka (mother). A few years later, her little brother, Chikara, was born.
When Yumemi was about five years old, she began to see floating masses in the sky. Not understanding then that she was the only one who could see them, she pointed them out to a group of children at her school thinking nothing of it. After being accused as a liar, she started to cry. It was then that two girls who witnessed the incident, Ichiko Ono and Suzume Imamura, called her over and asked about what she was pointing at. Yumemi explained the “floating islands” to the fascinated girls.
The two friends both wanted fiercely to see the islands that Yumemi talked about. One day while playing in the schoolyard, Suzume suggested that they needed to be up higher in order to see them. So, in a burst of excitement, the trio went racing up to the building's roof and to the top of the water tower. Suzume and Ichiko both
Yumemi with Umbrella
gazed hard but they still could not see the islands. When they reached the ground again, Ichiko started to cry out in frustration.
Feeling that she was at fault for causing her friend pain, Yumemi began to carry a pink umbrella to block out her view of the sky. She even started preferring rainy days since it was the only time she could see the same sky as everyone else. From then on, she felt that something was wrong with her and that the islands were some sort of hallucination. No matter how much her friends insisted that there was nothing wrong with her, she was still convinced that there was. She understood from a young age that she was different and wanted desperately to be able to see the same sky her friends saw.
OVA I[]
(Series Episodes 1-3)
The Pillar disappearing
Like most nights, Yumemi has dreams of things falling from the sky. She stands on a rocky ledge, overlooking the sea as she witnesses a massive pillar vanish from sight but still strike the ocean as if it was a solid mass causing a huge tsunami. Suddenly the image of the water washes away and she sees the now visible pillar strike a desert and disintegrate. The vision goes blank as she wakes from her sleep.
Yumemi watching the rain
To Yumemi the day begins like any other day, except, gladly, it was raining that morning. While having breakfast with her family, she goes off in a daze while watching the news about an unexplained tsunami, which devastates the city of Kisuido. Disappointed by the suddenly sunny weather, she opens her umbrella and goes to meet her two friends, Ichiko and Suzume, for school.
On their way, Ichiko asks if the islands are still there. Yumemi reluctantly looks and confirms it so. She exerts her feelings of insecurity, but Ichiko berates her, saying that nothing is wrong with her and changes the subject. The tomboy then expresses her concern about Suzume's unstable boyfriend, Kazuya Takamori. Yumemi feels that he is harmless and says that Ichiko should not worry.
Munto asking Yumemi for her power
As they approach a crosswalk Yumemi is suddenly overcome by a strange sensation. She looks up, questioning the feeling, which she is then engulfed in an explosion. The smoke clears and a young man with flaming red hair, a flowing red cloak, and a red shirt and pants stood before her. Reaching to her, he claims to her that his world is in danger and that her power was needed to save it. Yumemi is too astonished to answer, so he walks towards her, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier, identified as the space-time continuum, which damages his hand. He calls to her again, but the girl is pulled back to her reality by Ichiko. He vanishes and no one but Yumemi seems to have seen him at all.
Yumemi and Ichiko Confronting Kazuya
While dressing for PE, Ichiko lectures Yumemi about how the strange "Red Man" is troublesome and advises that she should stay away from him. To change the subject, Yumemi asks Suzume about Kazuya. Suzume confirms that they are doing well and that they are going to get married the next day. Astonished by the news, Yumemi and Ichiko decide to go and talk to Kazuya about the situation.
After school, they go to the canal stream to confront him about the 'marriage'. They find out about his past and how Suzume saved him from killing himself. He explains that the 'marriage' is not a real, only symbolic to prove that they can overcome any obstacle.
Munto and Yumemi
Feeling better about the situation, Yumemi and Ichiko walk home together. However, Yumemi is engulfed by another explosion, which knocks her to the ground. The ‘Red Guy’ appears once again and continues to insist that her power is needed. He demands her name and she hesitantly answers in broken syllables. He continues to explain how the 'Akuto', the source of life and energy in his world, is disappearing but she has no idea what that means. She asks who he is and he orders to be addressed as Lord Munto. Despite his insistence, Yumemi still believes that this is another one of her dreams. Ichiko again severs the connection between the two and grows more worried about Yumemi.
When she goes home, Yumemi asks her mother about what responsibility really is. In her response, Nozomi says that she is too young to worry about all that and the only thing she has to do is to study hard. Later that night, Munto appears again and tries to explain that she has a greater duty to the world. Despite believing that he is just part of a dream, she decides to listen to him and asks what to do. Unable to hold the connection between their worlds open, Munto disappears again.
Munto in a weakened state
While at school, Yumemi worries about Munto’s weakening state. She is interrupted from her thoughts by Ichiko's concern for her. Suddenly, everyone in the classroom is drawn to the window where Kazuya is waiting outside for Suzume. Scared for their friend, Ichiko and Yumemi run after them to the canal
On their way, Yumemi is visited by Munto again. She sees that he looks very tired. He staggers to his feet and again asks for her help. Before she could answer him, however, an unknown force, which engulfs them both in an explosion, attacks him and he is gone again.
When they arrive at the bridge that overlooks the Kino River, the girls see that the couple was only going to swim across the canal in order to symbolically overcome their problems and start a new life together. Yumemi and Ichiko decide to cheer them on in support. Half of their school arrives to do the same, as well as Yumemi’s mother of whom the school called in a panic over losing Suzume.
Munto and Yumemi reaching through time
Suddenly, Yumemi sees an entire floating island falling from the sky in a premonition. She decides that she has to help Munto and runs to find him. With him appearing before her so much, she had little trouble finding where he was. When she reached a small bridge, she could see his world mixing with hers like in her dreams. An explosion bursts around her and he appeared to her again. He was badly hurt and slowly disappearing. He asks for her help. Knowing that all of this is real, she believes in her own power and she begins to reach for him. The barrier that separates the two worlds reacts but she pushes through to his hand.
A massive amount of energy surrounds them when they touch and they are pulled away from each other. Yumemi wakes up in Ichiko's arms. She says that she saw the Island that Yumemi always talked about but only for an instant as did everyone else who was outside. Yumemi no longer saw Munto appear before her and she wondered from then on if he was all right.
OVA II[]
(Series Episodes 4 - 6)
The day Yumemi met Munto, she became a little bit stronger and began to believe in herself and her own abilities. She learns to trust her instincts and visions. The connection between them also grows stronger, causing her to see flashes of Munto’s life.
Yumemi watching falling Akuto
It is a year-and-a-half after she had reached through the time-space continuum to Munto’s world and her world has started to experience extreme turmoil. Earthquakes have been rampaging through her town and the weather became harsher. She contently sees large rock pillars from Munto's Kingdom falling to the earth and shards sprinkling down, which look like snow but are actually disintegrating Akuto. Yumemi can feel that something is wrong but she has no idea what to do. She spends most of her time thinking about how Munto is doing and about his ‘island’ in the sky.
Yumemi has just begun her winter break before the last term of her second year of middle school and is on her way to the closing ceremony. Ichiko, being very worried about her friend’s fascination with the ‘islands’, decided to help bring Yumemi back down to earth with an after school part-time job at the local shrine with Suzume and herself. Ichiko also planned an outing at the amusement park with other acquaintances from school the next day.
Yumemi surrounded by energy
While at the shrine, Yumemi is drawn to a sacred rock on the grounds while watching a burning brush pile. The rock is glowing with a sort of mysterious light. Touching it, she is instantly surrounded by energy pulsating around her. Through it, she is shown a vision of Munto unconscious and injured on the other side of time. Not knowing what to do and wanting to help him, she tries to reach out only to be thrown back by the energy.
That evening, she walked to the last place she saw Munto; the small bridge where she pierced through time to save him. When she arrived home, she spent her night trying to make sense of the visions of Munto’s past; how his parents left
Yumemi at the bridge
him with the responsibility of saving the Heavenly Kingdoms, how he was considered an outcast and a cursed child to the Elders of his Kingdom, and how he watched the energy that sustains his society dwindle away. Ichiko calls to check up on Yumemi. She exhibits her sorrow over not knowing what to about the occurrences that are disrupting her city and about her visions of Munto.
Yumemi at the amusement park
The next day they visit the amusement park, which cheers Yumemi up immensely. During lunch, however, Yumemi sees a horrible premonition that comes true only moments later. Huge explosions devastate the area, crumbling the Farris wheel, part of the shrine where the mysterious rock is, and various buildings around the city. What caused it was a huge ship from the other world, which crossed the time and space barrier that used gigantic pillars to tear her city up from the ground and take it back in order to get to her.
Yumemi walking on the Farris Wheel
Sensing where Munto was attacking the pillars in order to protect her, she raced to him. Finding him at the bottom of a crater where the destroyed Farris wheel was hanging over, she climbed out over the ledge and onto a dangling compartment to better reach him. Calling out to him, she breached the barrier with her voice alone making Munto, the pillars, and the ship visible in her world.
He insisted that he did not need her, but she knew he was just trying to protect her. She reminded him of what he told her when they first met, about her being the key to save both worlds. Just then, Ichiko and Suzume arrived and insisted that she did not have to do this; that she could go back to being with them and not push herself. Yumemi replied that she was protecting the life she had with them and that it was them who taught her that if she had the courage she could open up the future she sees. Worried, Ichiko admits that if Yumemi goes, then she cannot follow and protect her.
While listening to them, Munto decides to give his trust and tells her to come to
Munto catching Yumemi
him. She leaps off the Farris wheel compartment and he jumps to catch her. As he does, she tears through the time-space barrier, connecting both worlds through a sort of gate. Energy released destroys the pillars that are ripping her city apart. Looking down at her friends who have gathered with Suzume and Ichiko, Munto makes sure she understands that their mission is to open up a new future for both worlds. Everyone watches them both disappear into the sky.
Movie[]
(Series Episodes 6 - 9)
Munto protecting Yumemi
Beginning immediately where OVA II ends, Yumemi is taken to the other world by Munto through the space-time gate, which was created when they tore through the barrier between their worlds. Arriving right in the middle of a battle, Munto strives to protect her. When his comrades, Shuza, Louie, Teo, Harka and Marty, arrive he hands Yumemi over to Shuza, charging him with her protection.
Yumemi meeting Munto's companions
Suddenly they were attacked by Guridori, the king of Holgooze, who was at war with the Magical Kingdom. He sought over control over the Akuto, which Yumemi resonated into their world. Munto rushes to fight Guridori in order to give his comrades a chance to take Yumemi to safety. Unfortunately, they were followed and ultimately attacked by an air squadron of mechanized mobile suits from Holgooze.
Breaking up to form a defensive barrier in order to help Shuza and Yumemi escape to safety, Louie, Teo, Harka and Marty attacked the force, but to no avail. It forces through and continues its advance. Louie runs ahead of them saving Shuza from a head-on attack only to be stabbed from behind. Yumemi tried to warn them but it was too late and she slipped from Shuza’s grasp. As she fell to the Lower World, she opened her heart up with her need to protect everyone and released an onslaught of energy, which destroyed the squadron as well as assisting Munto by wounding Guridori.
Yumemi in the garden
Waking up on a bed in a garden, Yumemi finds Munto standing nearby. After changing out of her worn clothes, Yumemi follows Munto to where he introduces Lady Ryuely, the royal Prophetess, so she could prepare herself to fulfill their mission of connecting the two worlds. Discovering Yumemi was rather hungry, Lady Ryuely summons Toche, her apprentice, to take her to where she could eat.
Arriving at a suitable place, Yumemi is presented with a bowl of oddly shaped fruit made just for her. While eating, Yumemi asks about the Heavenly Beings. She learns that they had the ability to create physical things from Akuto, such as the world in the sky around them and the food she was eating. Heavenly Beings also did not eat, but absorbed Akuto as sustenance. To be able to absorb the energy more efficiently they replaced their bodies with Akuto made parts.
Munto and Yumemi
While going back to the place where Lady Ryuely was to begin her preparation, Yumemi met Munto waiting for her. He felt it was necessary to show her exactly what she was creating and protecting. Pulling her subconscious into a vision, Munto showed her the history of his people and the horrors of their past wrongdoings on humanity. Heavenly Beings became crazed with power and destroyed worlds while draining the Akuto from them. They cultivated humanity to produce the energy they yearned for but eventually discarded them to the Lower World for not creating enough to sate their tastes.
Yumemi and Munto in the vision
One day, however, the humans they cast off rebelled and attempted to destroy their world they built in the sky. Feeling that there was no way to win, the King of the Heavenly Realm closed the gate of the space-time continuum, which connected the two worlds forever cutting off the source of Akuto. Deeming it taboo to travel between the dimensions, a guardian was placed by the door to prevent any who attempt it. As time passed, this guardian was called the Outsider.
Devastated by what she saw and now knew, Yumemi asked if they were doing the right thing. Munto answered that even though his world was full of sin and probably deserves its fate, even he does not want to see it fall. Looking over at the pillar of light, which was the gate between worlds, Munto saw that it was fluctuating. He decided to go on ahead and hold it open while Yumemi prepared herself for the trial merging the worlds.
Lady Ryuely summoning a mirror.
Beginning her preparations with Lady Ryuely, Yumemi asked what was expected of her. She told her that she was missing something and that as soon as she found out what it was then she was ready to go meet Munto. Summoning an oval mirror from the water in the fountain they were next to, Ryuely asked Yumemi to look deep at the reflection of herself (meaning her soul rather than her actual image).
In the vision, she saw the decimation of her world by tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes. The images soon turn towards the fate of her friends, Ichiko and Suzume, of whom she left behind in the other world at the demolished Farris wheel. Ichiko and Suzume had climbed out on to it where Yumemi jumped from to get to Munto. A blizzard had started and the crumbling Heavens were causing huge tremors.
Ryuely said that the people she was seeing were about to disappear and that Yumemi's heart was trying to break (Meaning her heart/soul was reaching a crossroads and she would have to choose the path she was to follow). When a great jolt threw her friends off of the Farris wheel and over the cliff, Yumemi reached into the mirror in a panic causing it to collapse. Fearing the worst, Yumemi's knees buckle, closing into herself, and faded into oblivion taking most of her energy in the Heavenly Realm with her.
Yumemi inside of herself
She comes to a place inside herself where she is confronted by the truth of her own heart and its effect on the world. The Akuto released by her heart was still connected to her in that her indecision and lack of self-confidence was physically affecting both worlds. Her heart was creating the darkness, which was consuming everything in the past and the future. Losing herself in her grief over what she has done and will do, Yumemi closes her heart in fear.
Her connection with Munto, however, was still strong and he calls out to her. He says that if she succumbs to the darkness then the world will be lost. She expresses her fear and grief over creating the darkness and destroying the world with it. He reminds her that she has the ability to change her fate by using her own will and believing in her own strength. Munto tells her that she had bonds, which can never be broken, and because of that, she had something to protect. Thinking of protecting her friends gives her the strength to pull herself from oblivion. At that instant, Yumemi crosses through the gateway to her world, pulls her friends from falling off the cliff and takes them to the other world.
Yumemi and her friends
Though overjoyed to see her friend, Ichiko is shocked to find herself on the mysterious floating island but begins to berate Yumemi for going off alone and insists on staying with her from now on. Agreeing with her friend, Yumemi asks them both to go with her on her mission. After a short rest, Yumemi, Ichiko, and Suzume make their way to where Munto was in the Lower World. Upon arrival, the girls are attacked by Gntarl. He snatches Yumemi's friends in order to crystallize them and steal their energy. Yumemi defeats him with ease by trusting in her own power and will and to save her friends.
Yumemi touching the barrier
Unable to hold open the gate to the other world, darkness consumes the sky. Munto worries about the fate of the worlds. Putting his fears to rest, Yumemi reminds him that a human heart was capable of anything and that she had hers with her. Taking his hand and the hands of her friends, Yumemi opens her heart and creates the pillar that use to connect the worlds. As it reached the barrier in the sky, she jumps up
Munto in Yumemi's world
and touches it, merging the worlds into one.
Yumemi is next shown starting her third year of middle school. At the end of the day, she is sitting by the canal with her friends when a gust of wind engulfs them. Sensing a familiar presence, she turns to find Munto standing up on the hill looking down at her.