The old water capital, Daiteito, with the Okawa river flowing through downtown and harboring a unique cultural region in its watershed. People were looking at a strange landscape, "Hashi no mukou" (Over the edge), an area of backstreets, rusting zine roofs and brackish water. -"Folk History of Rivers and Streets" by Keitaro Tamaru
"Medicinal Meatballs"
As Otoha cheerfully headed out, her mother asked her.
"Otoha, where are you off to?"
"To the riverside, with Jiro-chan and some others."
"All right, but don't cross the bridge!"
"Why not?"
"That's where the Child-snatchers are."
"Child-snatchers?"
"That's right. The Child-snatchers snap up naughty children!"
"Huh?...Mom..."
"The kids who get caught..."
"what happens to them?"
What was that?
Ready your guns.
We'll be crossing the bridge soon.
All members of the press must observe regulations.
All right.
Things must be different now...
not like those days!
"HASHI no MUKOU"
"Daiteito News By Daiteito Daily Film Department"
"Unrest at Hashinosaka, Gendarmerie called to action"
Tensions reached a boiling point in Hashinosaka-cho,
on the edge of Deiteito.
Gendarmes of the Defense Forces were sent into action
against militia radicals holed up in the slum district.
This message is for all dissidents. It's not too late.
You are bringing anguish to your family.
Once again, this message is for all dissidents...
Huh?
What are these?
There are so many!
I'm gonna keep going.
You're too far forward! Follow the rules!
Sassa Squad!
Yes, we're here!
I've got orders. Sassa Squad is to join TORAFUGU.
OK. Sassa Squad will join TORAFUGU!
A balloon dealer?
Yes. We're just auxiliary gendarmes
who have been called up from the balloon dealers-
I mean, the Balloon Corps.
And only the most useless members were chosen.
Man. I drew the shortest straw, didn't I?
We couldn't help it.
But Corporal Kagomachi seems to be the only one
with any real battle experience.
...Please keep your voice down. squad leader...
What?
No, I mean I hear something. A strange noise.
A noise...?
They said this area had been brought under control, didn't they?
I don't hear anything...
Heads down!
Where are they shooting from?
Corporal! Corporal!
Hey, you press members should fall back now.
I'll detail soldiers to cover your retreat.
I'll head back.
I have to keep going...
You'll die!
Take cover! Take cover! Take cover!
Huh?
Hey, wait!
I'm out.
Me too.
Let's go back, Otoha-chan.
Uhm...
If you want to leave, go on, then.
I'm going to find out, even if I have to go alone.
The Childsnatchers are coming to my house, even if I just wait around.
I heard my parents talking about it the other night.
Jiro-chan!
Otoha-chan!
The edge of town is the bridge, the boundary is the slope...
Viewing Hashinosaka from the hillside, with the Okawa river at your back.
At the farthest limit of the Demon Gate Direction
lie the killing ground and crematorium.
The grindstone appears in the glow of festival lights.
The hour of dusk when the spirits come through...
Oh! That figure ahead myst be...!
What Otoha glimpsed there was her childhood friend,
who vanished when she was seven years old.
Corporal!
I'll wait for you at death's river.
God, that woman reporter is a pain in the ass.
Squad leader. What on earth are all these medicines?
Huh?
They seem to have made a lot of them.
Hashinosaka's specialties are...
fertilizer, face powder, things like that.
Well, something smells really bad.
Huh?
An attack!
Ah, here's our Miss Otoha, chasing after her friend.
But all at once, there's a loud rumbling in the earth!
And at last there appears a bizarre Ara-Zaribone,
it could be a freak-show tent, or perhaps a heavy tank.
With overpowering force, it rushes to attack,
initiating a major running battle!
Otoha races as though her feet had wings.
The Ara-Zaribone launches a huge flare!
The dazzling flash reveals a ragged child.
"Jiro-chan!"
Oh, it was the springtime of their lives! And such a romance!
Fate breaks through the fourth wall!
Rim, docks, a dead realm within the city!
Blades erupt from the bowels of a bizarre figure!
Modern convenience or monsters?
Miss Otoha is stricken with terror!
"Get our of my way, all of you! Hurry!"
Childsnatcher, Infanticide, Bogeyman.
The Bridge of Tears, "Be fruitfull and multiply"
That sweet child was stolen away too.
Tomorrow he'll be in the gunnysack.
Her back is to the wall, will there be a rain of blood?
What will become of our Miss Otoha!
You!
They're over here!
Huh?
Whoah...
OK! Advance!
Huh?
We've been looking everywhere for you.
Where have you been?
Yes, I've been following the dusk, seeking the childsnatcher's puppets.
What? ...Anyway, we have your camera.
You need it for work, right?
Did you stop wearing glasses?
Ah...Yes, I'm fine now.
Hmmm...Anyway, I'm sorry about what happened to you.
I'm going back again, to find out... the children over the edge.
Huh? Children?
Yes...I know what's going on.
The puppet's medicine, Amida's self-sacrifice...
Oh, I found them!
...A tooth?