Mirai

Breathing rare emotional truth into on-screen depictions of small children and the parents who raise them, Hosoda’s unassumingly sumptuous Mirai is a hand-drawn miracle, rivaling Pixar and Ghibli’s efforts to devise family entertainment with a complex and humanistic edge.

Master Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda makes family films, but not in the way you think. It’s not that his films are suitable for all ages, though they mostly are. And it’s not even that the family unit is central to his work, though it is. Rather it’s that Hosoda’s films stretch the boundaries of both style and content within the family film rubric.

An anime version of "Mr. Mom" this is not. Director Hosoda’s clear-eyed story allows for comic moments of fatherly ineptitude but focuses just as often on the marital and familial stress this sudden role reversal causes.

But all of that — the visual style included — changes as the film develops an edge, then expands into a lyrical realm that is both very Japanese and entirely universal.

Tempering its flights of fancy with moments of whimsical humour and kid’s-eye realism, this thoughtful treatise on growing pains reveals a realist side of Japanimation that’s all too rarely seen.

Mirai is somewhat mired in outdated gender roles, with Cho’s character hopelessly clumsy as caregiver while his wife goes back to work. But the biggest pitfall I found with Mirai, which may be more of a selling point to new parents and children struggling with sibling rivalry, is that Kun spends half the film in tears, shrieking or whining.

I dislike much of Mirai because most of the film's Kun-centric scenes (which take up 90% of the movie) are split between the character's un-imaginative daydreams and his full-blast fits.

This is a quite endearing anime film, with some lovely fantasy scenes, as are often present in anime films. I enjoyed the use and timing of piano music to accompany the main character rushing around at times. The colours used in the animation are quite light and cheery - it has a dreamy feel to it, which is common when it comes to anime films. The plot is one that I imagine the vast majority of children with siblings would be able to relate to, which is good. I also particularly liked the scenes towards the end, which feature decent integration between what appeared to be 2D and 3D/CGI animation. I certainly enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to others.

A picture of life shaped in such a fun and brilliant way, creating an adventure with a nostalgic taste, tasty to watch, and beautiful to contemplate.

Ślicznie wykonane anime ze standardową historią o odpowiedzialności i akceptacji w rodzinie. Fajnie przedstawienie codziennego życia oraz połączenie świata fantastycznego też spoko wypada

A sweet little story about families with kids, Mirai goes on to become profound the moment the magical realism elements kick in even as this story about siblings and sibling rivalry takes you into your own childhood lives through the lens of Kun, the central character who is worried the newcomer in his family is going to wreck his life apart but that's now how it is as he soon finds out. Mirai has its heart at the right place and I was gobsmacked to follow the proceedings, also managing to avoid a teary eye towards the end. TN. (Watched and reviewed at the 3rd Japanese Film Festival of India in Mumbai.)

After watching The boy and the beast and Wolf Children, I was expecting something just as good, but the truth was far more different. I didn't hate Mirai but I was very bored by the repetitive plot and long and sometimes cringy scenes, there's a lot of beauty to be seen such as the animation or character design but the characters don't quite match that height. If only the movie were like the last 15 minutes which are very good...