光の子養護施設で育ったおてんばな少女ユキは、建設会社を営む岩渕家に養女として迎えられる。ある日、屋敷で目にした北海道の写真に心を奪われたユキは、自身の出生の秘密を探る旅に出ることを決意する。 数奇な運命に導かれ北海道へ渡ったユキは、岩渕家の運命や様々な人々との出会いを経て、衝撃の事実にたどり着く。幾多の困難と悲劇を乗り越え、ユキは本当の家族との絆を取り戻していく。 宮崎駿の監督初作品としてTVアニメ化検討用パイロットフィルムが制作されたものの、放映には至らず、長年幻の作品とされてきた。
"Yuki" is abandoned as a baby and left with only a wooden cross to call her own. Luckily, she is taken in by a kindly family and raised as a tomboy of a child who sets about trying to track down her mother. Using just about every form of ground transport available, we follow her quickly paced adventures as she races wild horses, takes a train - you get the drift. There's nothing really special about this at all - it reminded me of a sort of adequately animated Japanese equivalent of one of the "Heidi" stories. Indeed were it not for the fact that it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, I doubt it would feature on many watchlists as all. That said, it does signal a little of what's to come, and is watchable enough for that.
