Mamoru Hosoda’s latest film revealed: The Boy and The Beast

Anime film director Mamoru Hosoda has revealed his latest project, The Boy and The Beast (Bakemono no Ko) will be released on 11 July 2015.

Hosoda, whose past films have included The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, revealed the details in a Tokyo press conference. The film will be made by his own company Studio Chizu, and will be his first project since Wolf Children back in 2012.

Hosoda described the film thus: “The movie is a training story about a boy who was separated from his parents and becomes a disciple of a bakemono (supernatural creature). It’s going to be a traditional yet novel story.”

The story is split between Tokyo’s Shibuya ward and the bakemono realm or “Shibutenmachi”, which are two worlds that are not meant to cross over. However, a lonely boy crosses into the bakemono realm and encounters the lonely bakemono Kumatetsu. Kumatetsu trains up the boy who he renames Kyuta.

While it is not yet known if the film will be shown in the UK, theatrical screenings have already been set for France, with French movie studio Gaumont handling international sales outside of Asia.

Source

Ian Wolf

Ian works as an anime and manga critic for Anime UK News, and was also the manga critic for MyM Magazine. His debut book, CLAMPdown, about the manga collective CLAMP, is available now. Outside of anime, he is data specialist for the British Comedy Guide, is QI's most pedantic viewer, has written questions for both The Wall and Richard Osman's House of Games, and has been a contestant on Mastermind.

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