Fumetsu no Anata e (Anime)

Fumetsu no Anata e (To Your Eternity) anime adaptation was announced by Kodansha on Thursdays. The anime series premiered on the NHK-E station in April 2021, consisting of just twenty episodes, though its initial release was supposed to have been early October 2020 due to the Coronavirus.

A second season, also consisting of twenty episodes, is said to subsequently premiere in late October, 2022. N.H.K. had revealed the character designs through their website. A third season has been announced.

Episodes that are dubbed in English are released about nearly two months after the new season premieres.

Synopsis
An epic fantasy saga of an immortal hero’s self-discovering journey to understand what it is to be truly human

In the beginning, an orb is cast onto the Earth. “It” can do two things: Change into the form of the living being that stimulates “it”; and return to life immediately after dying. “It” morphs from orb to rock, then to wolf, and finally to boy, but roams about like a newborn who knows nothing.

As a boy, “it”comes to be named Fushi since encountering an overly rambunctious young girl. Through informative encounters with human kindness and greed, Fushi not only gains survival skills, but grows as a “person”. But his journey is darkened by the inexplicable and destructive enemy, the Nokkers, as well as cruel partings with the people he loves. Fushi continues his eternal quest, bearing the pain of living with the fortitude of someone who chooses his own path.

Story
"It", a mysterious and powerful otherworldly white orb, is sent to Earth from the infinite cosmos with no sense of self, feelings, sensations, emotions nor identity of its own. However, It is able to take on the shape and form of those around that have a strong impetus. Initially an orb, it imitates the form of a rock.

As the temperature drops and snow falls atop the moss, It inherits the moss. When an injured, lone wolf comes limping by and lays down to die, It takes on the form of the animal. Finally, It gains consciousness and begins to traverse the empty tundra until It meets a white-haired Yupik boy.

The boy lives alone in a ghost town, which the adults abandoned long ago in search of the paradise said to exist far beyond the endless sea of white tundra. However, their efforts were for naught, and now the boy is in a critical state. When the boy perishes, the Immortal acquires the form of the boy and sets off on a never-ending journey, in search of new experiences, places, and people.

After dying multiple deaths, he is found in a swamp by March, a rambunctious young girl aspiring to be a caring mother, chosen to be a sacrifice to appease what they believe to be a rampaging bear spirit. She names the boy “Fushi” (which translates to "Immortal" as a reference to his inability to truly die), and befriends him, teaching him how to eat and become much less feral. He makes an enemy in the warrior maiden Hayase, who immediately becomes obsessed with having him for herself beyond eternity itself via her own descendants who also happen to be her reincarnations.

Trivia

 * Originally, the anime was to air in 2020, but was delayed to the ever evolving and strengthening Coronavirus.
 * The first season centered on The Nameless Boy, Spirit Bear, Post Spirit Bear, Takunaha  and Jananda Island sagas.
 * The second season centers on The Guardians, Uralis Kingdom and Renil sagas, set four decades later, minutes after the conclusion of the first season finale.
 * The theme song Pink Blood continues throughout every season, but displays very different images befitting the sagas/story arcs taking place in the new season.
 * The third season opens with the New World saga of the modern era five long centuries after the events of the second season, in which Fushi the shapeshifting, otherworldly immortal being learns to adapt to the various advances humanity has made with technology and science while he was in suspended animation/stasis within the marge tree he himself had bonded with in Episode 29. It continues with the Mimori saga.