...

The 1986 movie Tobira wo Akete (not to be confused with the 1995 OVA or the Card Captor Sakura single of the same name) is based on a short story by the award-winning SF writer Motoko Arai, and the only anime adaptation of a work from this author who did so much to popularize the term otaku, which the characters of this anime freely use. Tobira wo Akete was never licensed in English, it is available through the efforts of Orphan Fansubs, a group which has done a heroic job in releasing or encoding hundreds of more obscure anime from the era before one could rely on the overwhelming majority of titles getting licensed. Unfortunately, there’s an opening narration of about a minute or so in French(?) which is not subtitled.

That said, the 77 minutes we do have subtitles for are a fascinating watch. It is unique among the isekai I’ve watched in that the characters’ psychic powers do not have any connection to the other world; their summoner simply pulls in a group of three people who have already bonded over their strange abilities.

The character of Ladin, himself an otherworlder, casts a long shadow over events – I don’t wish to spoil too much, but the ending is the one part which breaks the most from what would become a familiar formula – not in the return, but in how the adventure ends and in the deeds the cast perform in the other world.

Otherworldly strangers are great to manipulate for one’s own motivations, which might be more sinister than calling a destined hero to save the world – a concept which shows up in Seisenshi Dunbine and Magic Knight Rayearth, and more recently in Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road, but which writers in the genre have often declined to adequately exploit; I believe Tobira wo Akete explores this idea most elegantly and disturbingly. Their summoner is no straight-forward quest giver, to say the least.

Much of the plot at least appears to be a straight-forward fantasy adventure (and even in that regard, one of the more appealing ones of the decade) complete with a prophecized heroine riding on a lion, a battle on a dragon’s back, a princess they defeat, who then joins them as an ally, and a rebellious kingdom liberated from its old master.

Gokudo, a plush dinosaur, is made life-sized and animated in a comedic-looking yet climactic moment, and Haruka’s teleportation adds an interesting wrinkle to the various battles and escapes.

The motif of a door separating the worlds, originating (I believe) in the Chronicles of Narnia, also occurs in Fusama Land 4.5 and episodes 27 and 28 of Digimon Adventure (which, however, prefers to open up the sky.) Here, the titular door is both a physical object and an overriding metaphor for any sort of social progress or change.

The film also takes a remarkably hostile view of Earth, even by isekai standards. Earth is described in the hero’s legend as an ‘evil, unknown world’, and flashbacks to life on Earth are distressing traumas, with no missed family or friends or tournaments to go back to. Even going home at the end, although an expected conclusion for isekai of the era, here bears a greater resemblance to an exile than a dream come true.