[Review] Bakemono no ko of Mamoru Hosoda

At the moment, I catch up and I had a bit of free time to watch some animes that I had not had time to see. I begin my series with the animated film The Boy and the Beast.

It was directed by Mamoru Osoda and was released on July 11, 2015 in Japan,
Let's talk a little about Mamoru Osoda who has an interesting past, he tried to integrate the training school of the studio Ghibli and was not caught ... Later he joined the Toei Animation where he can work on DBZ , The very good Slam dunk, and even Sailor moon.

Later, he will make digimon films 1 and 2, Kids Wolves Ame and Yuki (I recommend it), summer wars, etc ...

Synopsis :

The story plunges us directly into the life of Ren, a nine-year-old boy orphaned and abandoned by his father. In a lane of Shibuya, he finds himself face to face with Kumatetsu, a big beast and horny and irritable to the possible (I have not found a better description). Kumatetsu is looking for a disciple in the world of humans, and it is at this moment that Ren's life will rock.

Returning to the Kingdom of the Beasts (jūtengai) Kumatetsu takes Ren under his wing and renames Kyûta (in relation to his age). The beast will prove to be a very bad master and his disciple will reserve him many surprises ...

You will discover throughout this feature film the tribulations of these two solitary beings ...

Critical :

The film wants to convey strong values. One finds in particular a two-way learning during the training phase of Ren, it is a rather progressive vision that contrasts with the aspect master / pupil that normally is unilateral in terms of acquisition of knowledge. There is also a strong desire to learn from Kyuta.

The film also shows great hope to all those children who have not been fortunate enough to have known their parents to be able to find a parent / child relationship (disciple / master) one day. These values ​​are put forward with the Ren / Kumatetsu relation which are completely opposed by their origins and their relations because they argue incessantly. As they say they love well chastisement well!

If I had to compare it to another of his works, it would be Ame and Yuki, the wolf children. We attach a little less to the characters because the story is less moving and the author plays less on feelings. The context is obviously different but Osoda continues to surf the blend of the modern world and Japanese myths and legends and that's why we love it!

Some passages are irrelevant and I would have appreciated a little more sequence on learning, especially since the beginning seemed promising (p: rotor). One could dissect the film in two temporal phases and unfortunately the director leaves a gaping hole in the history that would tend to disturb the lovers of the details 😀

In the end, I really enjoyed the universe as well as the animation of the anime. The population of the kingdom of animals shows an unequaled diversity and Osoda has taken time to reflect on this universe.

On the music side, the OST is written by Masakatsu Takagi who also wrote the soundtrack of Ame and Yuki.

In the end an animated film that is worth the detour, Osada had already set the bar high with Ame and Yuki the wolves children. He still managed to stay almost on the same level as the film previously quoted.

So did you see him too?

Galerie d’image :

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