Mirai

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart when it comes to anime films. Every year there's at least one anime film that I am really looking forward to and this year it was Mirai. Mirai was directed by beloved anime film director Mamoru Hosoda, who has created some of the best anime films in recent memory (Wolf Children, Boy and the Beast and Summer Wars). The bar has been set high for his movies, and I was excited to see if Mirai would live up to the standard he has set.

Mirai is definitely the most beautifully animated movie by Hosoda so far. There's just something about hand-drawn animation that will always look better than CG in my opinion. Sadly, the days of hand-drawn are slowly going away, but this movie proves to me that it still has a lot of worth. The detail, color, movement, expression, and style bring something special and unique to this movie. Though to be fair, there is a large amount of CG used in the movie, but it blends well with the traditional style. The animation, alongside the beautifully done score, the great voice acting and storytelling make this another great movie from Hosoda.

The story focuses on a young boy named Kun and his family. Kun's life is changed for the worst (in his eyes) when his parents come home with a new baby, a little sister named Mirai. As any young boy would, he becomes extremely jealous of all the attention Mirai is getting now. During one of his tantrums, he is transported to a new world. Throughout the movie, he is transported to different time periods where he meets his family members at younger and older ages and learns more about his family through them. This leads to realizations that help little Kun grow and learn to be a different person. It's a story that I'm sure lots of people can identify with, especially ones who grew up with older siblings or has two or more kids. It's a nice message that I haven't seen too much in family movies recently and it is told in a fun and inventive way to appeal to young and older audiences alike. Though I'm sure the older audiences will probably get more out of the storytelling.

I can't say that I loved every second of this movie though, as it takes it while before it really takes off. It takes it's time building up to the first time travel reveal. The movie spends a lot of time at Kun's house, which got visually boring after spending a little too much time there. The story also felt a bit slow in the moments in the house while the story introduced all the characters and the relationship between Kun and Mirai. All that changed though, after the time travel is introduced it really kicks off visually and the storytelling goes up along with it. It's well worth the wait too, because it leads to some beautifully animated moments, with some great heartfelt moments to go along. There's a lot of lessons to be learned in this story, and the movie deals with them in a way that doesn't feel too pandering to the younger audience, but in a way, they can still understand it. Though I'm not sure if a young child will be patient enough to make it through those slower moments of the movie, I'd sure hope so. This movie is shorter than your average big budget film, but at times it felt like it dragged a little bit. This is a slow paced movie and a few times I wanted the movie to move just a little faster and get to the next scene/sequence. But by the end of the movie, I understood why it was made that way. I appreciate everything this movie did because it all seemed purposeful and made to fit the story that it was trying to tell.

Mirai was a fun experience that I came out of feeling good. The visuals were some of the best I've seen all year and the story, while sometimes slow, was good and memorable. Hosoda had a clear vision for this movie and I think he accomplished it beautifully. This is another great addition to his already great filmography. While I don't think it's his best work so far, it definitely lives up to the hype and doesn't fall short of the standard he has set as a creator. I can't wait to see what else his creative mind will give us.

Overall Grade: B