Adachi-ga Hara

Adachi-ga Hara (安達が原) is a 1991 anime short film and the fifth anime episode in the Lion Books series. This episode is the only one in the series released to theater first (unlike the rest of the series, which was released directly to video), making it not an OVA.

Plot

The story is a sci-fi fantasy which is loosely based on the classical Japanese Noh theatre drama Adachigahara about the demon Onibaba, of which lyrical extracts are quoted at intermission-like intervals throughout the film.

The plot centres on a journey by a space pilot named Yūkei, who is technically around 90 years old but does not look older than 30 due to his having spent about 60 years in suspended animation, to a planet upon which a murderous "witch" is said to reside; he is tasked with eliminating her.

Yūkei reveals that he was, in fact, a rebel terrorist against the then-dictatorship which ruled Earth; his name at the time was Jes Mitaka. He had a lover named Annie Kurozuka, from whom he was separated due to his exile as a terrorist to a far-away planet 30 years away from Earth. However, upon arrival at the planet, he was informed, along with the others who were exiled with him, that the anti-dictatorship revolution had succeeded in toppling the government, and that he was no longer exiled. He therefore took another 30-year trip back to Earth whilst being cryogenically frozen. There, he changed his name to Yūkei and began to work as a military agent for the new government. It is also revealed that, upon his return, he tries to find out what happened to Annie, but to no avail, learning only of rumours which say she may have been deported or killed.