Crossroads in Their Cases

"Crossroads" was originally an animated advertisement produced by Japanese animation director Makoto Shinkai for Japan's Z Tutoring Club. It was later adapted into a 100,000-word youth campus novel by emerging writer Kiriyama Adult and published in Japan. "Crossroads" is based on the university entrance exam. It tells the story of a female high school student named Kaiho who lives on a small island without even a cram school. She feels confused about the future and finally decides on the way forward - to get into a university in Tokyo, so she prepares hard for the exam. Shota, a male high school student living in Tokyo, admires his father who left when he was a child. He longs to travel far away like his father and work hard to get into his father's alma mater. I don't know when the two people's lives had a subtle intersection. The two people in the ends of the world have different but surprisingly similar experiences. And the bits and pieces that connected the two people eventually led to their final encounter. People standing at two different crossroads, finally, because of the opportunity of the university entrance exam, their paths overlap...