The anime film Pale Cocoon is released in Japan.
Surface civilization collapses due to unknown catastrophic events, rendering the surface uninhabitable.
Humans establish underground shelters to survive, including the Archive Bureau where historical records are stored.
Kikuyo is assigned as an archive recovery specialist in the underground Archive Bureau, tasked with retrieving and analyzing data from the surface.
Archive Bureau recovers data and artifacts from the surface, revealing fragments of past society and nature now extinct.
Kikuyo discovers undamaged data suggesting the surface catastrophe might not have been as total as believed.
Kikuyo delves deeper into recovered records, uncovering clues that challenge the official narrative about the surface.
As Kikuyo researches, she begins to question the purpose and past of humanity living underground and the true state of the surface.
