She's 4'4". He's 6 feet. The friend zone has never been this devastatingly cute.
Ogawa Chiiko (Chitchi to her friends) is a vertically-challenged high school student. She's only 132 cm tall (4' 4"), and she's frequently teased by her classmates, except for her loyal friend Tonko. Chitchi's problems are compounded when she falls hopelessly in love with one of the most popular boys in her school, the 6-foot-tall Murakami Satoshi (Sally to his friends). Chitchi succeeds in becoming Sally's friend - he thinks of her as a kind of mascot - but she aspires to be something more. She follows him to his clubs, arranges similar vacations, and pursues her quest from the opening of school in the spring to spring of the following year. She experiences the joys and agonies of first love, while all too keenly aware that she is stuck, despite Tonko's encouragement and help, in Sally's "friend zone."
Direction
Hirata frames Chitchi's smallness with devastating visual poetry.
Writing
Mascot/friend zone dynamic hits harder than most adult romances.
Director
Toshio Hirata
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This obscure TV movie adapts a 1982 shoujo manga that never received an English translation, making it a genuine lost artifact of 80s anime romance.
The 'mascot' dynamic reflects a specific Japanese school social hierarchy where cute, small girls are collectibles rather than romantic prospects—Chitchi's tragedy is systemic.
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