Film Review: "Mirai" ("未来のミライ") (2018).

"A story of a family and life, that connect past and future." This is Mirai (未来のミライ). This Japanese animated adventure fantasy film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, and produced by Studio Chizu. The movie follows a four-year old boy who is struggling to cope with the arrival of a little sister in the family, until things turn magical. A mysterious garden in the backyard of the boy's home becomes a gateway allowing the child to travel back in time and encounter his mother as a little girl and his great-grandfather as a young man. These fantasy-filled adventures allow the child to change his perspective and help him become the big brother he was meant to be.

According to Hosoda, the film and the characters of Mirai and Kun draws from his own children, and was partially inspired to write the script after seeing his then-three-year-old son's first reactions to having a baby sister in his life. Hosoda had no siblings, so it was a new experience for him to see the jealousy that an older child feels when a baby arrives. While initially only cautious of the newborn when meeting her for the first time, Hosoda's son threw a tantrum one day, jealous of the attention that his parents were giving his sister. Hosoda's curiosity with how his son reacted, and how he would adapt to being a big brother, prompted him to make the protagonist of Mirai four years old. By making the protagonist so young, Hosoda wanted to capture how life would be like at such a young age. The title of character is the name of Hosoda's own daughter. Hosoda brought his children to the Studio Chizu office and had them be the model for the animators, giving them plenty of reference material to sketch and animate from. Hosoda also wanted to use the fantasy elements to propel inner character development.

The film stars Moka Kamishiraishi, Haru Kuroki, Kaede Hondo, Gen Hoshino, Kumiko Aso, Mitsuo Yoshihara, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Koji Yakusho, and Masaharu Fukuyama. The characters are entirely credible and likable thanks to the efforts of the talent voice cast.

This charming, visually fertile film captures the conflicted emotions and reality of family with real sensitivity. It's not quite up there with the best of Miyazaki's coming-of-age dramas, but Hosada has proved himself after his Ghibli debacle. Great stuff. It has few fireworks, but still sticks in the mind, and is a definite upgrade from Digimon: The Movie for Hosoda. This is one of the most thoughtfully engaging anime features to reach these shores, and a perfect place to start for anyone, of any age, who's been resistant to anime (and manga) as a popular Japanese import. While the animation is only so-so, Mamoru is a good storyteller with a firm grasp on both the story and characters. It's basically the equivalent of a sensitively wrought read from the Young Adult shelf, and there's naught wrong with that.

Simon says Mirai (未来のミライ) receives:

Also, see my review for The Boy and the Beast (バケモノの子).