In maboroshi, Itsumi is a girl kept captive at Mifuse’s steel factory. She is connected to everything happening in the town. Misaki Kuno and Kitana Turnbull voice Itsumi.
Masamune meets Itsumi when his classmate Mutsumi invites him to the steel factory to help her take care of Itsumi.
Itsumi acts all wild like an animal and can’t speak properly, which suggests that she spent years trapped at the factory without anyone caring for her. Itsumi didn’t even have a name until Masamune gave her this one.
Itsumi means five sins. Masamune picked up this name based on Mutsumi’s name, which means six sins, and taking reference from the place Itsumi has been trapped at, which is called the fifth blast furnace.
Itsumi’s importance for Mifuse
In the film, Sagami hints that the Sacred Machine has enticed Itsumi. The journal of Masamune’s father, Akimune, paints the whole picture.
In the journal, Akimune mentions the appearance of a huge crack in the sky after a landslide at Mount Kanzari—the first crack since the explosion of the factory.
On that day, Akimune finds a little girl on a freight train. According to Akimune, the train brought this little girl, who is Itsumi, from the real world to their immaterial world of phantoms.
Unlike the people of Mifuse, Itsumi grows. Akimune had figured out that Itsumi’s emotions impact the events in Mifuse, causing cracks in the sky and on people, leading the Sacred Wolves to come and erase them.
Akimune wanted to send Itsumi back home using the train, as they don’t know what catastrophic results they will face once she matures.
However, Sagami, whom people had accepted as their leader, decided to confine her instead to ensure their survival.
Since then, Itsumi has grown up locked inside the steel factory, robbed of the experiences that she could have had in the real world.
While the people of Mifuse can’t have the pleasures of growing up, Sagami didn’t let Itsumi have that either.
Itsumi’s true identity and her fate
A glimpse into reality through a crack reveals that Masamune and Mutsumi are married in real life.
After watching Masamune see this, Mutsumi lets him know that Itsumi is their daughter, which is why she shares a resemblance with Mutsumi.
The backpack that was discovered with Itsumi spelled her real name, Saki Kikuiri, and also had a picture of her family.
In the real world, Masamune and Mutsumi are still looking for their lost daughter, hoping they will find her one day.
During the final moments of the film, Masamune and Mutsumi of Mifuse manage to send Itsumi back home on a freight train.
Itsumi leaves Mifuse on a sad note, as she is not willing to part ways with Masamune and Mutsumi.
Years later, a grown-up Itsumi visits Mifuse again. As predicted by Masamune and his friends, the place has become a ghost town since the factory explosion. Itsumi roams the town and revisits all the places she has been to.
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