Maybe the plot should be described as follows:
Natsu is a wartime orphan getting by by polishing shoes on the streets along with her elder brother Saitaro, younger sister Chiharu in the chaotic post war Tokyo. They lost their mother and home during an air raid in 1945. They would spend their nights together with their former neighbor and orphan Nobuya at the railroad station corridors with other numerous orphans. But one night they are all hunted down by the authorities and eventually sent to orphanages. After Chiharu gets adopted by a relative, Takeo, a discharged soldier, visits Natsu and Saitaro at their orphanage. Takeo explains that he was a comrade of their father who died during action, and he had brought home a letter from him to the family as a promise. After handing the letter to the brother and sister, Takeo proposes them to come along with him to his home which is a dairy ranch in Hokkaido but Saitaro persuades him to just take Natsu, because he wants stay in Tokyo just in case for Chiharu. Saitaro persuades Natsu to agree to this and thus Takeo takes Natsu home to his family's ranch in Tokachi region, Hokkaido.
Natsu grows up to become an agricultural high school student. She is considering to help the ranch in the future, but also has a keen passion for drawing. When she is drawing a scenery of Tokachi out on the hills, she comes across a visitor, who happens to turn out as Nobuya. He is a college student now and has traveled to Tokachi to see Natsu because he was shown the letters Natsu had sent to Saitaro at the orphanage. Nobuya grew up at a different orphanage and visited Saitaro's orphanage only to learn that Saitaro had been missing for a long time, but Natsu's letters had been coming to the orphanage periodically and the orphanage had kept the letters. Also, Nobuya refers to some clues of what Saitaro could be doing, that he is probably involved with the vaudeville business in Tokyo. Fujiko, Takeo's wife, urges Natsu to go and find her brother, leading Fujiko and Natsu to head for Tokyo. They actually succeed in finding Saitaro at a vaudeville theater in Asakusa, but the next day, Saitaro gets arrested for a false accusation of watch robbery. Later Natsu and Fujiko learn that Saitaro had been swindled while trying to save a vaudeville theater and has been left with a great debt. In the midst of such turbulence Natsu is met with an occasion to visit an animation production workshop. Animation movies had been a big inspiration for Natsu at school and Fujiko encourages her to make the visit. The visit leaves a deep impression on Natsu. （Natsu will eventually become an animator. As of May 2019)Shonuffyo (talk) 04:15, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply
