'Journey Eta'
Directed by Mamoru Yokota
Aimlessly wandering the meadows of Elysium, the forgetful girl Tenru Kowak hopes to stumble upon her Reason. After following a narrow water stream she meets a middle-aged man fishing in it. In his brief introduction he refers to himself as "Yaril". The two of them start their journey through Eta, the Elysium of those separated by unthinkable tragedy in their past lives. Those who end up in it become Wanderers - wandering the mystic plains in hope they will find their Reason: the recollection of one's past in which, by their own actions, they were separated from the other person by death.
The Wanderers do not know what the nature of Reason is, they only have a strong intuition that drives them into search for it. Eta is a beautiful land of meadows, lakes, hills and foresets. Tenru and Yaril go through various beautiful places meeting other Wanderers who reach their Reason along the way. Oblivious to the true nature of a Wanderer's departure, at the end they stumble upon their past home in a forest where they find their dead bodies. this is the moment they are given recollection and their next actions decides their fate: will they be given Congruence; become a single entity in peace and return to the Earth as voices of those who overcame their past, or will they damn themself into repeating their miserable mistake for all eternity?
Spoiler on their past: Tenru Kadinsky is a girl who lived in rural Russia on the edge of a forest with her mother and father. While on a trip in the forest with them, her parents die in a forest fire when Yaril Kowak, a local forester, saves her and takes her into his home. They lived for a decade, she being raised by Yaril when they confess love to each-other. Their first child was born dead. This mentally broke Tenru and they found out she is unable to produce a living child. In a fit of rage, Yaril strangles Tenru with his bare hands and takes his own life by hangning besides her unconscious body. The last words he can hear are muffled "I... still... love you" coming from Tenru. Yaril's vision fades to nothing and Tenru dies of shock - they become Wanderers of Eta.