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Me and the works of Mamoru Hosoda have a bit of a history, at least as far as my enjoyment
of his films go.
The pattern seems to be that I love and adore every second film he has ever done, whereas
I am lukewarm towards the others.
Girl Who Leapt Through Time?
Loved it.
Summer Wars?
I preferred it when it was called Digimon.
Wolf Children?
To this day, still one of my favourite films of all time.
Boy and the Beast?
I could have taken it or left it.
So you can imagine that when Mirai was announced and then released, I was quite excited by
its existence.
If the pattern held true, I was going to love this film.
Unfortunately though, this time around I ended up…ha!
Yeah, I’m just kidding you, the film is great.
And I’m not the only one who thinks so!
At the time of this video, Mirai received a nomination for Best Film at Crunchyroll’s
Anime Awards, and even more prestigiously was nominated for the 2018 Academy Awards
for best Animated Film.
But why is it good?
And perhaps more importantly, should you watch it if you haven’t already?
Perhaps you already know my answer to those questions, but in case you don’t – ladies,
gentlemen, and others – welcome to today’s Glass Reflection, bwhere we are taking a look
at the 2018 animefilm directed by Mamoru Hosoda: Mirai.
Let’s jam.
Mirai is a modern tale about sibling rivalry, with an added fantastical yet subtle twist,
the kind Hosoda is known for.
The young Kun is a boy who has, up until this point in his life, been the main focus of
his parents’ time and attention.
Both his mother and father are very loving parents and they have been showering him with
that love.
However, the trouble in his life comes as his parents soon bring home a new member of
the family, his younger sister Mirai.
Now Kun is no longer the darling of the family.
His sister is now receiving the attention that he believes he still deserves.
But before he can turn truly evil and resort to dastardly ways to get his parents’ attention,
he is visited by his sister from the future.
She hopes both to set him straight as well as to help herself with her own goals.
A lot of the film's narrative is like, a weird anime version of A Christmas Carol, with Kun
taking the place of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Though instead of having a snotty, rich jerk who doesn’t know the true meaning of Christmas
and gets taught by the ghosts of his past, present, and future, here we have Kun being
a bratty, pampered kid who hasn't yet learned to share and getting taught the true meaning
of family by his ancestors and sister-from-the-future…as well as his dog, because that’s apparently
a thing.
“Original” is not necessarily a trait that I would apply to the story.
However, in its place I would instead use the terms refined and cozy.
Mirai is the perfect culmination of every film Hosoda has done to date.
Some directors and shows like to explore different topics and themes with every new project,
but Hosoda is the kind of guy who, twice now, has returned to an older concept that he once
worked with and decided to improve upon it.
Summer Wars, much as I may have hated on it over the years, is literally Digimon: Our
War Game recreated to be even better, though without the ties to Digimon, obviously.
This time around, he hasn’t just reimagined one of his old themes, but several all at
the same time.
And it works.
Here, check this out.
Mirai as a character is literally a girl who leapt through time.
Kun spends time with his dog that has an anthropomorphised version that he can interact with.
You might say that this is the boy and his beast.
Kun then gains the characteristics of a dog and runs around for a bit, but it's less like
a dog and more like… a wolf.
For that brief moment, he is a wolf child.
And hell, it's only a visual reference but try to tell me that, when he wakes up one
morning and has this exact bedhead, that it is not a reference to Digimon.
You can't.
Hosoda could, but the chance of him watching this video is next to nil, so I should be
safe.
Now, I could say that all this retreading is a bad idea, that Hosoda was just narratively
lazy and that he doesn't know what to do anymore.
I could unfairly point to the lack of a co-scriptwriter, as on several of his older works he had Satoko
Okudera as a co-scriptwriter, which I can only imagine made every script even better
just with the benefit of a second pair of eyes.
But while all these things are possible, I cannot deny that everything in this film just
works.
I can't help but relate to this small boy and his disappointment at the world for no
longer feeling as important to his parents as he used to.
For him to make this journey into the history of his family, to find a way to accept his
sister and to understand even a little bit more about what his parents were going through,
was a fantastic journey that I enjoyed watching.
Hosoda's Wolf Children is one of my favourite films of all time for its take on motherhood
and raising children under difficult circumstances.
Mirai almost wants to tell the same story, just from a different perspective because
here the child is the focus, rather than the parents.
And that changes everything.
I will say though, I was surprised that Mirai – despite being the titular character – doesn’t
actually get all that much screen time in the film.
Narratively, she is the linchpin for the entire story and so it was one of the few things
I was disappointed by.
But I do understand that her name also means “future”, and that theme was very well-represented
throughout the course of the film.
I just wish we could have seen more of her, as I considered her appearances to be a wonderful
breath of fresh air to counter the early cringe of Kun’s actions.
So, was this movie as good as I was hoping?
Largely, I’d have to say yes.
If I was to compare it to say Wolf Children, I would – by virtue of Wolf Children being
one of my favorite anime films of all time – have to place Mirai slightly lower.
But in all fairness, that’s an extremely high bar that I was never expecting Mirai
to be able to leap over.
Disregarding that circumstance, Mirai has handily met my expectations.
At a time when anime films are becoming more and more wondrous with each passing year,
with tales of emotional connections and settings fantastical in nature, it’s nice that this
one brings us a little closer to home.
Yes, it has emotional connections and elements of fantasy locations within it, to be sure,
but the heart of this film is with Kun and his family and showcases the beginning of
what will probably be a unique sibling rivalry that hopefully you will enjoy.
Thank you for spending the time to watch my thoughts on Mirai.
I hope you enjoyed it!
While the film isn’t currently available for streaming, you can however Pre-Order the
DVD and Blu-ray online as it will soon be released by North American distributer GKIDS,
who were also nice enough to sponsor this video, and it’ll be out in April of this
year.
It’s worth the wait.
For alternate Anime recommendations, let’s start with the obvious one, the one I've mentioned
several times over the course of this video
It's Wolf Children.
The reasoning should be obvious, like I know I recommended it back with Maquia as well
but it’s my favorite anime film at present, cut me some slack so I can just make sure
as many people have seen it as possible.
That is kind of my whole goal with it.
Second recommendation goes to a film from several years ago, When Marnie Was There.
Usually with my recommendations I do my best to try and find similarities between shows
and there are few studios that can do the complicated themes in a family friendly package
better than Ghibli.
When Marnie Was There is the kind of film that like Mirai has a way of enchanting you
with its narrative, and it’s one that I highly recommend if you have yet to watch
it.
Between those options, I hope you find something to your liking.
Lastly, a very special thank you to my patrons, who not only support my work in general, but
who also allow me to do what I do.
I love and appreciate you all.
Specifically though, as I like to do, I want to give particular shout-outs to patrons Calhoonboy,
Siri Yamiko, Ryefan Boneapart, Rune Jachobson, and Joshua Garcia for being especially awesome.
You guys are great!
And until next time – ladies, gentlemen, and others – watch more anime …and stay
frosty.