A full length trailer has just been released for Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime film, The Boy And The Beast ( バケモノの子 Bakemono No Ko ). The director previously gave us such great films as Summer Wars and The Wolf Children. View the trailer right below :
In a nutshell, the story tells of a young boy who wanders into an inter-dimensional gate in Shibuya called the Jiutengai, a portal between the human world and the monster world. Taken in as a disciple by a beast named Kumatetsu, the boy is given the name Kyuta and their adventures begin…
Animation production is handled by Studio Chizu and from the trailer it looks pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to the art books that will be released for the film as well – check out the excellent ones for the Wolf Children and Summer Wars.
The film starts its theatrical run in Japan from the 11th of July 2015. In conjunction with the release there will also be a Mamoru Hosoda exhibition held from the 28th of July to the 30th of August. More details on the official website ( In Japanese only ).
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April 27th, 2015 at 12:51 am
Cheers for covering this. I did enjoy Summers Wars but not so much Wolf Children. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is still my favorite Hosoda’s.
April 27th, 2015 at 5:42 pm
It looks really wonderful, but I find a bit puzzling the stylistic gap between, for example, the photorealistic rendering at minute 0.04 and the usual cartoon style at 0.32 (which I strongly prefer, actually). I guess they wanted to stress the differences between the two “worlds”, but too much photorealism kills the “dreamy” feeling which I always look for in a cartoon. Urban scenes have been depicted very convincingly in many japanese animes, without giving up that distinctive look.
I noticed something similar in “Wolf children”, too.
April 30th, 2015 at 7:53 am
Really excited about this movie, Hosoda has never dissapointed me.
April 30th, 2015 at 11:32 am
Zé/Daniel B – I’ve enjoyed all of Hosoda’s films as well. My fav is probably Summer Wars. :]
Mario – I believe the photorealistic rendering you mentioned is referring to the background art ? So far as I remember the backgrounds for Hosoda’s films have been pretty realistic, and in that sense they do stand out from the more “cartoonic” drawn characters, but it doesn’t really bother me personally. 😛
May 12th, 2015 at 2:15 pm
I almost cried. Another Hosoda film! Something to live for again!
Will never forgot Digimon’s Children’s War Game from 1999 or something. This man’s utter genius.
I also love how his collaborates with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. I remember how I once upon a time wished that Hosoda, Sadamoto, Miyazaki, and Anno would do a collab… or at least compile a montage of short films. Sigh…
May 14th, 2015 at 11:15 pm
Petit Orenji – Definitely looking forward to this one. :]