Sora and the Big Tree

Inka-Subs and Orphan Fansubs return to the scene of their last Anime no Tane heist with another short from the 2025 edition, Sora and the Big Tree. The other shows in that tranche are:

• Dive-In!, no dialog
• Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills, subtitled by Inka and Orphan
• Trust, raw only from a web source (but stay tuned!)

Like all the Anime no Tane shows since 2021, Sora and the Big Tree is short - under ten minutes. However, while Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills needed every second of its runtime for its jam-packed story, Sora seems padded, even though it's less than eight minutes not counting its ending song.

The actual Japanese title is Hoshi no Kodomo to Hajimari no Ki (Star Child and the Tree of Beginning), which is a lot closer to the content than the official English title of Sora and the Big Tree. It opens with a well-dressed boy walking into the lobby of an ornate hotel. The boy doesn't know his name, but the manager checks him in anyway. 

He shows the boy through the grounds, dominated by a gigantic tree. 

Later, the boy comes out in his pajamas to explore. He meets an obliging guide bird, which shows him into the interior of the tree.

It is studded with gems, and the boy collects the ones he finds prettiest. But after a while, he encounters an ogre king, who hoards gems. 

The king demands the boy surrender his red gem, but the boy refuses and escapes.

The bird and the boy climb to the top of the tree, where the bird shows the boy to put his gems in a silver basin.

 

The gems explode in light and coalesce into a golden globe, which the boy absorbs it into his heart. The manager reappears and wishes the boy a pleasant journey. The boy runs through golden fields, soon joined by other running figures.

 

They leap into the air and fall toward Earth - where they will be born.

The show is very pretty, although there's a distressing ten-frame video glitch at 3:23. But it's tepid stuff. The boy is clearly a preborn soul, collecting the attributes that will make him unique, and then jumping to meet his pregnant mother. Other than that, the show doesn't have a thought, or at least an original thought, in its head. What's the significance of the gem-collecting ogre king? No idea, except to pad out a very short runtime and even shorter dialog script.

The voice cast is:

• Tadokora Asuza (the boy, Sora) played Aoi, Karen, and Yuzu in the Aikatsu! franchise, Iyo in Big Order, Ryoma in Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko, Hiro in Himegoto, Caerina in Leadale, Itsuki in Mononogatari, Miharu in Pop in Q, Astaroth in Sin Nanatsu no Taizai, Mei in SSSS.Dynazenon, Symboli in the Uma Musume franchise, and Mohoro in Yashahime.
• Yamamoto Kazutomi (the bird, Carl) played Mochizuki in Another, Mimic in Blood Lad, Leonardo in Chaika: Blood Princess, Isao in Gleipnir, Kousuke in Love Stage!!, Lance in Hoshi no Samidare, Tsuyoshi in Nichijou, Ibuki in Shounen Maid, and Min-su in Akatsuki no Yona.
• Tooru Nara (the king) played multiple smaller roles in Boku no Hero Academia, Shingeki no Kyojin, Dorohedoro, Youkai Watch, Kiseijuu, Chihayafuru, One Outs, and numerous other shows.
• Shiraishi Kento (the manager) played Moruda in Kirei ni Shite Moraemasu ka, Nanasuke and other roles in Yashahime, and Seiji in Busamen Gachi Fighter.

The animation studio, Buemon, is relatively unknown, but they also animated 2016's Anime Tamago OVA Kaze no Matasaburou, an Orphan release.

For this show, Darkonius translated and timed. Perry Dimes translation checked. darkcart edited. I typeset and QCed. TougeWolf also QCed. The raw is from Gecko and is the only one available. This is a joint Inka-Orphan release.

Sora and the Big Tree is not one of the better Young Animators' Training Project efforts. It's good-looking, but it's insipid, and it vanishes from the mind the moment it's over. As Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills demonstrated, half-length OVAs can be a lot better. Meanwhile, you can get this show from the usual torrent site.