Mirai (未来のミライ) or Mirai of the Future is the 7th major film directed by Mamoru Hosoda. This slice of life sci-fi story premiered in theaters internationally in 2018.
The films main character is four year old Kun. His idyllic life is turned upside down when a little sister is born names Mirai. Kun, being young and selfish, doesn't understand that his parents need to nurture his infant sister. He reacts as any oldest child would and begins to strain the tolerance of his parents. As his tantrums grow he begins to be visited by family members both distant of future. Each visit helps to serve as a learning lesson for him in order to speed up his understanding of his place in his family. The people he encounter do not always realize their connection to him, nor does he always realize the connection either. In the end Kun must come to his own realization about what lessons he should learn if his life is to be a happy and successful one.
Since The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was released Hosoda has been tied with Makoto Shinkai as my favorite anime film director. Mirai did well enough to continue my love for his work, but it was unable to best The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as my favorite. When you pull back from the details of the story it is really a retelling of A Christmas Carol. Instead of spirits, Kun is being visited under mysterious circumstances by people from his past, present and future in order to help him change his behavior and become a better person. Unfortunately, in order to keep from spoiling fun details of the movie, I can't get too deep into a synopsis of the story it's self. All i can really say is the journey is enjoyable and well paced.
The artwork is very calming and soft. The characters are relatively realistic and the mannerisms and personalities are rooted firmly in reality. The one glaring thing, as with pretty much all of Hosoda's films, are some sequences that use less than idea CG. For some reason the production crew and direction he continues to take uses fly over scenes that are clunky and poorly rendered. Mirai does not escape that and it made the final segment a little...comical to some extent. The final segment did have some strange and unnatural aspects to it already but the poorly composed sequences in it made it jarring. Beyond that though, well done and simplistic character designs and fantastic scenery and exposition. There are portions of the film that will fill you with nostalgia and warmth and i can't recommend it enough for fans of slice of life goodness.
As of the writing of this review the movie has not been released on hard copy in North America. GKIDS picked up the release rights to in in North America and produced an English dub for it so it's only a matter of time until it can be had on blu-ray.
The films main character is four year old Kun. His idyllic life is turned upside down when a little sister is born names Mirai. Kun, being young and selfish, doesn't understand that his parents need to nurture his infant sister. He reacts as any oldest child would and begins to strain the tolerance of his parents. As his tantrums grow he begins to be visited by family members both distant of future. Each visit helps to serve as a learning lesson for him in order to speed up his understanding of his place in his family. The people he encounter do not always realize their connection to him, nor does he always realize the connection either. In the end Kun must come to his own realization about what lessons he should learn if his life is to be a happy and successful one.
Since The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was released Hosoda has been tied with Makoto Shinkai as my favorite anime film director. Mirai did well enough to continue my love for his work, but it was unable to best The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as my favorite. When you pull back from the details of the story it is really a retelling of A Christmas Carol. Instead of spirits, Kun is being visited under mysterious circumstances by people from his past, present and future in order to help him change his behavior and become a better person. Unfortunately, in order to keep from spoiling fun details of the movie, I can't get too deep into a synopsis of the story it's self. All i can really say is the journey is enjoyable and well paced.
The artwork is very calming and soft. The characters are relatively realistic and the mannerisms and personalities are rooted firmly in reality. The one glaring thing, as with pretty much all of Hosoda's films, are some sequences that use less than idea CG. For some reason the production crew and direction he continues to take uses fly over scenes that are clunky and poorly rendered. Mirai does not escape that and it made the final segment a little...comical to some extent. The final segment did have some strange and unnatural aspects to it already but the poorly composed sequences in it made it jarring. Beyond that though, well done and simplistic character designs and fantastic scenery and exposition. There are portions of the film that will fill you with nostalgia and warmth and i can't recommend it enough for fans of slice of life goodness.
As of the writing of this review the movie has not been released on hard copy in North America. GKIDS picked up the release rights to in in North America and produced an English dub for it so it's only a matter of time until it can be had on blu-ray.
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