Mamaru Hosoda has a problem.
That problem is not one created by him or his actions, but rather a poor matter of circumstance.
That problem is the phrase: “Hosoda is the next Miyazaki.”
However true or valid the claim of that statement may or may not be, it is indeed something
that pops into the minds of many people when you watch his work.
For me, prior to this point, it was a claim that I usually disregarded.
Hosoda may produce films for similar age ranges covering similar themes, but he usually always
did things with topics that few if any films from Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki or no, bothered
to touch, and no I don’t just mean the awkward wolf banging.
I was always confident that while people will always constantly bring up Miyazaki, and make
comparisons left and right, that Hosoda would take it in stride and never let it affect
him.
Then I watched the Boy and the Beast.
Ladies, gentlemen and others my name is Arkada and welcome to Glass Reflection.
Today, the 2015 animated film my Mamoru Hosoda, The Boy and the Beast.
Let’s Jam.
I should start off by saying that this film, is a good film.
It’s actually more than that; it’s a great film.
If you are sitting down, looking for a nice and relaxing – but fully engaging – piece
of animated work for your evening to enjoy, this will do you far better than most.
But I’d like to think that I can hold Hosoda to a higher standard than most other directors.
He has proved to me that he can produce some amazing work, and he is a far cry from a one
hit wonder as a director.
So, I’m not going to sit here every time he releases a film and sing all of its praises
simply because he made it.
I’m not a doting relative or any such thing, I am simply an admirer who wants to hope and
believe that I haven’t watched the best Hosoda film yet and that future films can
always improve.
Now to the film itself!
The Boy and the Beast is about this nine-year old boy named Ren who ran away from his relatives
following the death of his mother.
Out on the streets of Tokyo he is found by the aspiring beast lord Kumatetsu, who suggests
that Ren should become his apprentice.
Through a series of lucky events and good circumstances, Ren ends up following Kumatetsu
into the beast kingdom, a magical otherworld parallel to ours, and since he has nowhere
else to go, he decides to stay and become the apprentice to the loud, lazy, overbearing,
and hard to appreciate Kumatetsu.
The story has multiple facets to it.
Most of it is a father-son story, between Ren and Kumatetsu, as Ren was severely lacking
a father, or any parental figure for that matter, and Kuma was happy to oblige, for
the most part.
But it’s also a story about pride.
Kumatetsu is a warrior seeking to become the next beast lord, as the current beast lord
a scarily powerful rabbit plans to step down and become a god.
(That’s a thing you can do apparently).
Unfortunately, Kumatetsu is a hot head.
He’s powerful, sure, and in that regard he is worthy enough to become Lord.
But most residents and the current lord himself all agree that it’s his temperament that
is holding him back.
As such, he actually has to face off against his rival Louzan, a much more calm and leader-like
beast with skills to match.
But the fight between the two of them for who gets to claim the title of Lord is a long
ways off yet.
Which gives the film time to tell the rest of its story.
It’s also the start of something that has been a bit of a sticking point I’ve had
with Hosoda for a while, and I’m only bringing it up now because I think it’s the first
time it’s been so clear.
Hosoda’s stories are generally simplistic narratively, and this is to allow I think
a greater age range of audience members to enjoy it.
And that’s fine, they become more like family films with something for everyone regardless
of age.
However, at the same time his films can also lean on the more overcomplicated side.
What I mean by that is, the message of the film is simple and easy to understand, but
the story goes through great complicated lengths to get there when simpler options could have
done the story fine.
One of the examples of this that I have for this film, and I’ll try to say this without
too much context for those of you who haven’t seen the film yet, is that Boy and the Beast
does not need an antagonist.
A lot of it’s fighting per say is not supposed to be against any particular enemy, but rather
against the aspects of the self that one has to learn how to deal with.
However, by the end of the film a physical antagonist manifests itself regardless, seemingly
out of nowhere with a backstory to explain the appearance shoehorned in at the last minute
with no build up beforehand.
Now you can of course look at it and explain the symbolism behind this move easily if you
wanted, but to me the whole move just seemed to exist so that there could be another extravagant
fight scene.
One that specifically needed to be between two existing and established characters.
Ren could have had an internal fight scene with his inner demons helped along by the
spirits of those who have been with him the whole movie, but no, they decided against
it.
Why did they make it more complicated then it needed to be?
Not sure.
A lot of the film feels disjointed as well.
Like the pacing took a boot to the head at times.
There are three distinct acts of the film, the intro child section, the return to the
human world, and the nail-biting finale.
Each on their own are decent enough but how they mesh and combine sometimes comes off
as rushed.
When the film ends, it gives off this feeling like it took forever to complete, but also
makes you come to the realization that it really wasn’t that long of a film at all.
It’s like a spring that gets stretched out for the opening act and almost first half
of the movie to make it feel long, and then at the end for it to snap back and bounce
into place for a reasonable runtime.
But like I said at the start, this whole thing is not bad, I just question the purpose of
so much of it.
It felt as if the film was unfocused, it lost its anchor, sailed ahead with a broken compass,
and couldn’t right itself until the end with a lighthouse in sight.
But by that time the scrapes and bruises to the ship have already taken their toll.
And for a time I wasn’t able to explain this, until of course I had a gander at the
staff list.
If you examine it like I did, you’ll look at who wrote the film and you’ll of course
see Hosoda’s name listed there proudly alone.
Now this by itself does not seem to be a problem.
He wrote it alone, so what?
Then, you look at all the other films that he’s well known for: Girl Who Leapt through
Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children.
On all of these films it is not just Hosoda’s name standing alone under the screenwriting
credit, but in fact his name alongside one other, Satoko Okudera.
Why Okudera was not involved in the writing of this film is anyone’s guess.
My digging into the matter found several conflicting reports that I could not confirm because I
don’t speak Japanese.
One possible reason was because Hosoda wanted to focus on the Father-Son aspect of the story
and felt that he could do that alone, another said that he went solo so that the script
would be a kind of purer vision of what he had in mind for the film.
Either way, it is this reviewer’s opinion that something was definitely lacking in this
particular story compared to his others.
And the omission of Okudera’s input could have contributed to that.
But it is not all bad.
It’s still a Hosoda film after all and it does play to some of his strengths.
He has this good habit of spending a decent amount of time on the lead characters, enough
to make them more relatable, highlighting the flaws that make them human or in this
case more beast-like.
With most of his films, he places a heavy emphasis on family, with each new film taking
on a different aspect of that in intriguing ways.
And if you let it, the film can still touch your heartstrings even if it can’t play
them like a fiddle, and this is helped along by how good everything looks…well, mostly.
This is actually the first film done 100% by Studio Chizu.
Chizu’s only other film credit being production work on Wolf Children, Hosoda’s other most
recent film, and this was alongside Studio Madhouse who was in charge of all of Hosoda’s
solo films prior to that (Our War Game, being a continuation of the Digimon Franchise is
not a solo film of his, doesn’t count, and was produced at Toei).
I do see a kind of continuing pattern with the artwork in his films though.
You can watch Boy and the Beast and clearly see the similarities in the character designs
between it and Wolf Children.
Sort of like how all Leiji Matsumoto characters have that similar look to them, same with
Ghibli characters.
The downside to this I think is that, with this film, the designs tended to lean more
on the simplistic side.
That could be because they are still trying to fully develop a style for Hosoda films,
or perhaps there were more budgetary concerns.
But the simplistic designs really reveal themselves in front of the much MUCH more detailed background
work, because the background artwork is absolutely bloody fantastic!
But at times it almost felt like the two didn’t really belong together.
Individually they work, and the scenes where the blending between the two are able to happen
are magnificent, but they don’t always blend.
I’ll also blame the CG for that.
I know I always harp on CG when it appears, and it’s not because I hate CG on principle!
I just rarely see it utilized well, and mostly see it as a cost-cutting measure at the expense
of the detailed beauty and fluidity that 2D can provide.
Now for this film, I don’t have much to say about the dub, so I’m not going to force
that and come off as awkward.
It’s a completely well done dub and will satisfy those who require or prefer them.
The soundtrack for the film was composed by Masakatsu Takagi, whose only previous work
in anime was the soundtrack for Wolf Children.
Which honestly is enough cred in my opinion, as the Wolf Children soundtrack is one of
those anime soundtracks that I have playing in its entirety on loop alongside some Joe
Hisaishi, Michiru Oshima, and Daft Punk’s Discovery album.
For Boy and the Beast though, while I did feel that there was the same passion in the
music as in Wolf Children, I didn’t feel like the story actually leant itself to the
music at all.
It never really gave it a place to breathe, and instead had it keeping up with the animation
and the sometimes off-kilter pacing.
So it’s still a good soundtrack, but it’s more of one that requires the animation of
the film for its full enjoyment, instead of one that can stand on its own, which is what
I always look out for and honestly prefer.
AND NOW FOR THE FINAL VERDICT.
Argh, something with this film just burns me and I keep trying to pin down what it is.
I’ve sat down writing the script for this video trying to get my thoughts to paper with
the hope that I can figure out the exact problem I have, and while I’m confident that I’ve
come up with quite a few possibilities, I feel like there is still something that I’m
missing.
Because you see, I like the film, but something about it just felt off.
Could it be my high expectations for it?
Wolf Children is one of my favourite anime films ever, so perhaps I’m just disappointed
because I was expecting that quality and didn’t get it.
But if that was the case though, why did I have such a high opinion of Wolf Children
itself when The Girl Who Leapt through Time was in a similar place on my favourite anime
film ranking when I watched it?
Like I know I was disappointed in Summer Wars…aka Digimon: Our War Game with Family Issues…aka,
“Hey, I loved the 1983 film WarGames!”
but could that all have really changed my mindset going into the film?
*sigh* I started off this review by bringing up Ghibli and the frankly overused and not
necessarily accurate comparison between the works of Hosoda and Hayao Miyazaki, and it’s
been a comparison I’ve avoided for a long time because it’s almost too easy.
That being said, if any of Hosoda’s films can be considered “like Ghibli, but…”
this would be the one.
Maybe that’s why I don’t like it.
Because Hosoda is not Miyazaki and I prefer it when the differences between them are far
more obvious.
Perhaps though, this film is just not for me either, and maybe there’s not something
in it that really speaks to me as it does others.
Which is odd because, as I stated earlier, this film and other Hosoda films are designed
to appeal to large swathes of people.
Hopefully I’ll figure it out one day.
But unfortunately, I have to rate this film today and not then.
As such, though it might seem harsh, I present Boy and the Beast with a recommendation to
Stream It rather than Buy.
It is most definitely worth the watch at least once, if only that.
I only don’t recommend buying it because I don’t see much re-watch value in it, even
to show friends who stop by.
That said, at present actually streaming the film is impossible, because despite being
a Funimation property, it hasn’t made its way to Netflix like some other films in their
repertoire.
So buying it might be the only way TO see it, in which case by all means!
I just don’t feel right in bumping up the rating due to poor circumstance.
Now, the review copy for this video was lovingly provided by the wonderful folks over at rightstufanime.com.
A fine purveyor of anime DVDs, Blu-ray’s, and other such merchandise for you to enjoy.
You can pick up the Boy and the Beast from them, among many others, because if it’s
in print, they have it.
And for alternate anime recommendations…
you see, a normal person would probably recommend Spirited Away here for the very close similarities
between the two films, but I never really liked Spirited Away.
Shocking, I know.
And recommending any other Hosoda film here would just be lazy work because anything by
the same director should always be considered as a recommendation if you liked one of their
works.
So the actual recommendations for this are going to start off with Moribito: Guardian
of the Spirit, for its focus on warrior characters as well as surrogate parental figures.
Second recommendation goes to Katanagatari, an enjoyable anime with a story that also
incorporates the study of martial arts.
Between those two you should find something to your liking.
And that’s it from me.
Please subscribe if you liked the video, follow me on Twitter if you feel so inclined, and
hey if you like what I do here and feel like helping out, go check out my Patreon page
and consider donating.
Very special thanks to Rurika Adachi, Calhounboy, Viktor Ekmark, Nicolai Grey, Joshua Garcia,
Marc Robichaud, Halo Millennium, and Grace Anderson for donating already.
You guys are awesome!
And until next time, stay frosty!