Why “To your eternity” is not a show about separation but the connection?

To Your Eternity’s (Fumetsu no Anata e) manga was created by Yoshitoki Oima and started its publication in 2016 in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, followed by the anime started airing in the spring season of 2021.

To Your Eternity is quite different from mangaka’s previous work “A Silent Voice”, which was much more grounded and focused on challenges people face in their day-to-day life, while it takes on a more supernatural and fantasy direction, and unlike A Silent Voice, the show seems much darker and depicts a lot separation and death. 

But on a closer look, you will find that the show is actually about meeting people and making connections with them and it uniquely does this. Let us take a look at how. 

Plot

The story of To Your Eternity (Fumetsu no Anata e) is about a mysterious orb with no emotions, no identity, and no knowledge of the world, but it can take information and replicate it if it gets a strong impulse from it. When it arrives on earth, it takes on the form of stone, when the weather gets warm, it takes on the form of moss growing on it and when a wolf dies near it, it turns into a wolf. 

Most of the story revolves around orb getting new experiences and meeting new people and learning from them. But what makes this story great is the interaction of the orb with all the people around it. The supporting cast is quite well developed with the story showing their problems, desires, and emotions. Orb often finds itself with humans and it gets a new experience from them and though people around it find this immortal being weird or even scary at first, they are also able to connect with it. March a young tribal girl gives orb its first name, “Fushi”. 

But the interaction with people is also the saddest part of the show. Fushi connects with people and bonds with them, but eventually reaches a point where he has to part with them. As every time Fushi takes a new form, it is tied to someone’s death. 

Relationship with Death

To Your Eternity’s story arcs have so far followed a trend, every time Fushi encountered someone, it will lead to a new learning experience but the time of separation will also come especially at the time of moving onto the next arc.

From start the characters Fushi end up getting together with, be it the boy from episode one, or March, or Gugu, they all end up dying. Using the same plot point, again and again, seems repetitive and the show is getting the reputation of trying to get sympathy by killing of character. But the show is more than that. 

The connections Fushi makes

Even though all the story arcs of To Your Eternity are tied to the death of some character, the story is about connection. Every character Fushi encounters teaches him something and ends up making Fushi more human.  

At the start of To Your Eternity, Fushi encounters a boy in the snow, who is abandoned by adults now has only choice to venture out of that place himself. It is the first separation Fushi feels, though he did not understand it. This encounter gives Fushi a human form that he will use quite often. 

His second encounter comes in the form of March, a young girl who is decided to be sacrificed to a deity. She acts as his mother, teaches him how to eat, how to speak his first words, and gives him warmth for the first time in his life. His later encounters with Pioran and Gugu, who teach him human language and what is truly meant to live like a human. And Gugu becomes an elder brother figure to Fushi. 

Even though Fushi eventually has to part with the people he meets, the time that he spends with those people makes the show worthwhile. The show is quite grounded in this regard, even in real life, we have to part with the people we meet. 

The growth of Fushi

At the start of To Your Eternity, Fushi was just an emotionless stone but with time he gains a lot of personality and sympathy towards. At first, he didn’t know how to react to death and the pain of people around him but with time he learns the meaning behinds the emotions he was feeling.

During his earlier experience with death, be it the death of the boy in snow or the death of March, Fushi reacted based on his instincts but he grieved at the death of Gugu. Not only he learned how the loss feels like, but he also learned what it means to be part of the family. He learned how it feels to be around people and have a warm meal after a lot of work. 

Fushi being an immortal will outlive everyone but it is alright as he has the memories of those he lived with. Even Pioran said in episode 13: “We’ll only be truly dead once we’re forgotten”, where she talks about second death which only comes after there is no one to remember you. With the flow of anime, Fushi may grow and become a vessel for the people around him, by keeping them alive inside his memories.

Conclusion

To Your Eternity is not just a show about death, it is about the connection we make, the people we live and spend time with, and the memories we make with them.

Have you seen To Your Eternity yet? What do you think about this show? Do let’s know in the comment section.