Wonderful Half

Fourteen-year-old Kentaro has learned that it’s best to stay invisible at the bottom of the social ladder. Tormented by guilt over his mother’s drinking, he relies only on himself and expects little from anyone.

At the end of the rainy season, a foreign boy, Akira, appears in their small town and slowly attaches himself to Kentaro and his only friend, Naoki. As they put up with each other through the exhausting Kansai summer, a tentative friendship begins to form.

Akira is odd and quirky, but it soon becomes clear that he is still pursued by shadows from his life back in Europe. By the end of the summer, Kentaro faces the reality that the damage Akira carries is far darker than his own and must confront what their friendship would cost him.

Set on the outskirts of Osaka at the turn of the millennium.