Anime: Bakemono no Ko

Hosoda Mamoru is one of these anime movie directors of these last 10-15 years that, together with Shinkai Makoto, has been hailed as the “new Miyazaki”. On this website also you can find a lot of people comparing his movies to the ones made by Studio Ghibli. But while you can find some similarities between Hosoda’s films and Miyazaki’s masterpieces, I believe that they are only similar on a surface level. That is the case with Bakemono no ko (or “The Boy and the Beast” in the language of yankees). Indeed, the movie deals with themes like facing hardships, growing up, and overcoming family difficulties, themes which we have seen in some of Miyazaki’s movies, and the basic premise is slightly reminiscent of Spirited Away. However the quality of this movie is, in my opinion, nowhere near a Miyazaki movie. Let me explain.

I’ll sum up the plot rapidly. The movie is about Ren, a young boy who ran away from home after loosing both of his parents due to various reasons. While wandering in the streets of Shibuya, he encounters Kumatetsu, a beast warrior from another world. Ren follows the beast into a parallel world inhabited by beast people only, and there he starts a new life as Kumatetsu’s only apprentice, and his relationship with Kumatetsu quickly evolves to one of a son with his adoptive father. The first half of the movie is mostly focused on the comedy elements. Kumatetsu, as he is a self-taught warrior, and on top of that has an irresponsible and short tempered personality, is a disaster of a master / foster father, and is in constant conflict – or should I say, is constantly bickering - with his apprentice / adopted son. That is the source of the most of the comedy. But here we already have one major shortcoming : the comedy is basically limited to the characters always yelling at each other. As such, it gets a bit repetitive, and a lot of the humor falls flat. This first part felt quite slow and uneventful, but it was at least entertaining thanks to Kumatetsu and the comedy elements.

Then in the second half, as we see Ren growing up to become a young adult and regularly going back and forth his world and the beast world, the plot gets more dramatic. From this moment the story more or less stops focusing on Ren’s relationship with Kumatetsu. That is another major shortcoming of the movie, since Kumatetsu is quite the only decent character in the story. In general, I found it hard to connect with the characters, especially Ren. All of them felt forgettable and too simple. Look at Kaede, for example. Kumatetsu, with his irresponsible and violent personality, along with his character design, is the only character that sticks out and is enjoyable. Towards the end of the movie there’s also some sort of plot twist which is my opinion a complete failure. First, because it was 100% expected. Second, because the character who turns out to be the true antagonist of the story wasn’t developed at all and barely got any screen time or relevance to the plot before that. As a result, this “plot twist” felt both uninteresting and out of place, almost as if the director needed a makeshift solution to make the movie longer, which was already too long by this point.

Another thing that I found infuriating in the story was the moment where Kumatetsu and Ren go on an adventure to learn what strength is, or something like that. One could have expected an actual adventure, discovering unknown regions, seeing great landscapes and the like, but instead of this, the trip is rushed and wrapped up in like... 5 minutes ? While I understand that Hosoda’s aim was definitely not to make an adventure movie, this was quite a disappointment to me.

The world building is pretty much non-existent, as all of the story takes place in the same limited places : Shibuya in the human world, and Kumatetsu’s house in the parallel world. The movie doesn’t try to develop the parallel world at all, we know that it’s a world similar to ours but with medieval-ish technology, and some supernatural elements like reincarnation, and that’s about it. Indeed the movie doesn’t even attempt to make its universe interesting, as its main focus is the characters and their relationships.

So the plot and the characters aren’t great. But what about the animation ? Well, in that department also, I was disappointed : the visuals are lackluster. As I said earlier, some people compare this movie to Studio Ghibli movies. But in practically every Ghibli movies there are outstanding, breath-taking visuals. Ghibli movies make you discover dream-like, or sometimes nightmare-like new worlds. That is not the case with Bakemono no ko. The landscape, the architecture, the scenery and the backgrounds that are shown are uniform and unoriginal, though they don’t look bad and are pretty detailed. The depiction of Shibuya is overly photorealistic, and as such, gray and soulless. Juntengai, the town in the parallel world, has more color, but its architecture is very monotonous. The art style in general feels pretty generic, especially the character designs which give a feeling of déjà-vu. The designs of Ren, Kaede and other humans lack character and look very lazy. The same could be said about the beast characters, with the exception of Kumatetsu. Let me clarify: the animation doesn’t look bad. It is fluid and dynamic. There is detail in the backgrounds and such. But overall it just doesn’t have character. On top of that, CGI is often used for crowds and vehicles.

Lastly, let’s quickly talk about the sound. I don’t have much to say about it. I believe the voice acting was decent. The music was unnoticeable, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it means the music serves its purpose, fits the situations and doesn’t feel out of place. Bad because it doesn’t leave a strong impression and is quickly forgotten once the movie ends. It definitely didn’t sound like an OST you would re-listen to on YouTube later. Overall it doesn’t really add value to the movie.

Here’s my verdict: Bakemono no ko is not what I would call a bad movie, but it definitely is not worth being compared to even the worst of Miyazaki’s movies. Its uninteresting characters and story made it boring from start to finish, and its visuals, while decent for a movie, aren’t good enough to make it enjoyable. I believe fans of Hosoda Mamoru’s other films can find it entertaining, but I couldn’t.

VIDEO VERSION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeIT3DgigqA

In an age where the popularity of anime movies is generally decreasing, due in part both by Studio Ghibli on hiatus, as well as the lack of movies available for streaming, it's nice to see that there are still some stand-out directors consistently putting out interesting anime films. Mamoru Hosoda is one such person, known for films such as Summer Wars and Wolf Children, both of which have a heavy emphasis on family relationships.

2015's The Boy and the Beast is Hosoda's newest directorial work, focusing more on the father-son relationship as opposed to the mother-child relationship of Wolf Children. The question is: how well does this film hold up in comparison to Hosoda's other films?

The Boy and the Beast focuses on Ren, a nine-year old boy who runs away from his home after the death of his divorced mother. His father is nowhere to be seen, and, had he not ran away, he would have been forced to live with snobbish relatives. Through a series of events, he manages to crossover into an alternate dimension called The Beast Kingdom. The lord of that kingdom intends to retire as a god, and leave one successor: either Iozen, the noble and favored one, or Kumatetsu, the slothful and isolated one. Kumatetsu finds Ren, and decides to take him on as an apprentice, and through both trials and triumphs, the two learn and grow from each other.

That's more or less an extremely simplified synopsis of the film, since there is so much going on within the story, and not in a good way. It would have been fine for the movie to just show the bond between Ren and Kumatetsu, as well as how greatly they complement each other, but this isn't the case. The film manages to add a lot more characters, scenarios, and plot-points that felt entirely unnecessary, and far too ambitious for the film's runtime. Yes, it's interesting to see Ren eventually bond with this girl he meets in his world, years after not returning, but it strayed away from the main focus of the film which was this "father-and-son bonding" story. It also didn't help that the comedy, while humorous, always felt like it dragged on longer than need be.

The film also adds this extremely unnecessary antagonist, who works on no levels. The antagonist is initially shown defending Ren and sticking up for him, even though Ren's viewed as weak and picked on by many people. But then midway through the movie, he all of a sudden turns on Ren. The film tries to explain it as the antagonist always feeling this way toward Ren, but since we are never shown this, it feels entirely contradictory.

Furthermore, there were other aspects of the film that felt cut short, such as watching Ren and Kumatetsu grow throughout the years and become a better and better team. Instead of showing their growth in long bursts, we are only given a brief montage in the middle of the film seeing the two become better fighters. While it was enough to give the audience an idea of how good they become, it felt like the film should have explored it better, since once again, the main focus of the film was to show how the two are able to grow and become more skilled through each other.

While there are many, many aspects of the story that could be criticized, there are also moments worth praise. I particularly liked the dynamic both Kumatetsu and Ren had within the film, where they would tease each other, but ultimately, the audience was able to see that, deep down, Ren wanted Kumatetsu to win, and that in spite of their differences, they benefited from each other's company. Near the second-to-last climax of the film, there's almost this "Gurren Lagann moment" to the film that, to avoid spoiler territory, really gave the audience an idea of the necessity of their relationship. The film also makes great use of Freudian symbolism, particularly in these scenes in which Ren is outright copying exactly what Kumatetsu is doing, much like how a young boy copies their father. There's also a bit of subtlety in some scenes that really worked, such as how the film was able to show how Iozen lived a lot more luxuriously than Kumatetsu, simply through the food the apprentices eat. While Iozen's apprentice and son, Jiromaru, eats a parfait, Ren is forced to eat rice mixed with raw eggs. There were also moments in the film that did make me emotional like some of Hosoda's other films, but unfortunately, these moments are few and far between.

The conclusion, while not bad by any stretch, didn't feel earned due to the lack of attention brought to some of the characters within the film. Had this been a short series and each character got properly fleshed out, it could have been a great ending. The story could probably be summed up with "ambitiuous ideas but not enough time to execute all of them".

From a technical standpoint, the film is mostly great, with a few weak points. The shot composition is fairly solid, with some interesting shots in which the characters are able to give this illusion as if they are teleporting across the screen. It's done with multiple characters throughout the movie, and it managed to impress each time. The action scenes in the film, while not mind blowing, were good enough to keep me entertained throughout watching it. Where the film mostly faulters is with its CGI, which feels pretty cheap. The CGI crowds don't work at all and look really out of place, and the cars are passable enough but still not that great. In terms of the wave effects the film uses later on, they look pretty good with nice shades of blue, but there are a few shots within the movie where it's apparent the frame rate drops. The character designs, while standard Hosoda fare, get the job done, and manage to express a lot of personality and emotion during both sad and comedic moments respectively.

The music is good and fitting enough within the story, but it's not one that I would listen to on my own time. It serves its purpose and that's about it. The voice acting all works very well, with each character giving a great performance. The standout for me was Koji Yakusho as Kumatetsu, who was able to perfectly capture the lazy side of Kumatetsu, as well as the humorous side, the fatherly side, and the threatening side.
Ultimately, is the film worth seeing or not? I'd say that the movie is not a bad watch for the relationship between some of the characters within the story; however, I would not consider it a "must-see" by any stretch of the imagination and it is easily Hosoda's weakest film. There were a lot of great ideas within the film, but there were equally as many baffling decisions that were made, and the whole thing lacked focus. When one looks at any of Hosoda's other non-franchise related films, there's a clear focus on what the film is trying to do. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time focused on the relationship between three friends with time travel aspects. Summer Wars focused on how video games are able to bring an entire family together and attempt to overcome high stake situations. Wolf Children focused on a mother trying to raise two children after the death of her husband. The same can't quite be said for The Boy and the Beast, since ultimately the film doesn't just try to focus on just one thing, it instead focuses on dozens of things. Through this, the film has an extremely hard time juggling everything, and it ends up feeling very convoluted.

That being said, regardless of the film's flaws, I still found myself enjoying it as a nice time passer, and I greatly look forward to Hosoda's next movie. Hopefully he will learn from this film's faults and make something truly great again.

The Story & Characters:

In the human world (Tokyo) there is a 9 yr old boy, Kyuuta, who has just lost his mother. His parents are divorced and they don't know where his father is, so some relatives have become the legal guardian. But, they are condescending and arrogant and the boy runs away from home.

And In the other world (Animal Heaven) there is a Master of that world and when he retires he becomes a God. The time has come for that Master to retire and choose his successor, which is normally the strongest person in that world. He also needs to have other qualities like honour, students, etc. Currently of the 2 strongest people, one, Kumatetsu is a strange person who does not have any disciples because the disciples keep quitting on him because of his erratic behaviour.

These 2 people accidentally meet and Kumatetsu instinctively feels that this boy has potential and recruits him as his disciple.

The ensuing story is about the relationship that happens between these totally different people and the strange people that Kyuuta meets in the other world and then once he grows up, the human world too.

The story is a familiar story but when we are watching it we won't feel that way because the characters themselves are interesting and makes us eager to go on a journey with them.

Animation:

I would not have been surprised if I had seen Studio Ghibli written on it. It felt quite similar, very detailed with a beautiful use of color.

To Summarize:

Its a family movie more than a fighting movie, as the master disciple relationship is more of a parent son relationship than master disciple. They really help each other out and there is a deep love between them. There is also a quick love story that happens with a human (that sort of reminded me of Ookami Kodomo).

I can confidently recommended this anime to you.

This is from Doki's excellent fansub.
I like character development movies. There is enough time in 2 hours to tell a story, and show a character's growth, if you leave out whole years of the middle and just show the beginning and the end, with a resolution of the central theme. In this case, it's the emptiness that happens upon losing Kyuuta's mother, and his running away and disappearing (for what becomes 9 years) into the rabbit hole of an alternate dimension. He is invited into this world by a teacher who is so badly socialized that he has no disciples, despite being strong at kendo and judo. Master and teacher, yet as the movie goes on, the lines blur and it's hard to tell who is master and who is teacher. The ending involves a conflict with the son of the master's main rival, and it's a whale of a tale. The echos of Moby Dick notwithstanding, it's a good trip and quite moving.
Animation: The art is quite realistic, crowds well done, backgrounds are deep and impressively detailed. Standard anime designs, not much 3D or super deformation, and no chibi. The inbetweens are pretty good, action sequences lovely, and the worlds are detailed and realistic. Some use of anime physics, but mostly it's played straight (like Spirited Away in tone). The characters are very interesting though only a few are given detailed facial expressions. I would give this a 9.
Sound: Excellent voice acting, wide sound stage, loads of ambience and sound effects. I find nothing to criticize. 9 points.
Story: Essentially a coming-of-age story, centered around a wayward son, a hopeless sensei, and their effects on each other. Some cliche is expected in a GTO way, but it is surprisingly moving. I think I might explain the child's resistance to go with his mother's family, and his surprising learning ability seems not to have come from his father, but it's a storytelling prerogative to focus on what moves the story forward. I liked the story, and it's one you can show your kids. 9 points.
Character: For a character-driven story (plot is marginally important), the score here reflects the ability of the director to draw you into the main character or his teacher, and to invest them with a personality that is both realistic and compelling. Mission accomplished. However, the side characters are still fairly cardboard, and we don't get much interaction with them in spite of their presence. No deductions except for the character design of side characters, earning a 9.
Value: The movie is worth an 8 if you want to show it to your kids or grandkids, I think. And on this level it passes. It's just under Marnie in this and I gave Marnie a 9, so 8 it is.
Enjoyment: Definately a rewatch candidate. Any movie which has me glued for 2 hours is worth 7 or an 8. To get to 9 you have to wow me, and this didn't have that level of wow, but it's still way up there. 8 is my judgment

Overall: I view this as an excellent watch and worth your time. 8.5 with rounding up.