ANI-MOVIES, *The Boy And The Beast

The Boy And The Beast was Mamoru Hosoda's follow-up to Wolf Children which kept the themes of family and animal spirits. Hosoda's prior works would usually be retreads of his Digimon premise that he carried over to Summer Wars and later on Belle. Despite the title, The Boy And The Beast isn't a remake of Beauty And The Beast like Belle was, but is an original story written by Hosoda. This is a portal fantasy featuring an alternate reality that can be accessed from the real world. The film has a second act which seems to separate from the established plot even though it's a story about two different dimensions.

Ren is a 9-year-old whose mother just passed away and he runs away from her remaining family who want to take him in as his father divorced her some time ago and no one was able to reach him. Ren decides to run away and live on the street and encounters two hooded strangers, one of which asks if he wants to be their apprentice but give up on him. Ren follows the pair through a narrow alleyway that leads to a opposite realm called the Beast Kingdom where the people are animals, mostly mammals. The residents can shift into full beast mode if they need to, but usually to for situations when they need a little extra muscle. The stranger who talked to Ren is a bear-man named Kumatetsu who is one of two fighters decided to take the place of the kingdom's current lord who will ascend to becoming a god, even though the indecisive rabbit king is taking his sweet time making up his mind what he wants to be a god of. Kumatetsu's rival is Iozen, a more responsible swordsman with a seemingly loving family, while Kumatetsu is rough, unmannered, and sloppy without an apprentice. Ren catches up to Kumatetsu and agrees to be his student, even though the unruly grizzly is terrible at giving any kind of clear instructions. Ren eventually works out his own style of fighting by following his teacher's moves and mannerisms. Eight years pass by, and Ren has achieved his own fighting style, but one day finds his way back to the human world where he befriends a mousy girl named Kaede who teaches him to read. A few more visits to man's realm and Ren finds out his father is still alive and desperately searched for him after he first went missing. Ren decides to move back in with his father and leave the Beast Kingdom behind, but the final duel between Kumatetsu and Iozen happens just to be taking place as Ren returns there. Ultimately, Kumatetsu wins due to Ren cheering him on, but Iozen's older son Ichirohiko turns out to also be human and had a darkness growing inside him while living in the Beast Kingdom and uses this darkness to enhance his telekinetic powers that he also gained to stab Kumatetsu with his father's sword. Ichirohiko then disappears into the human realm with Ren following after him trying to stop his psychic rampage. Kaede stands by Ren while facing off against his opponent and gets a deus ex machina from Kumatetsu who as the acting lord had himself reincarnated as a flaming sword that Ren keeps inside himself which defeats Ichirohiko and cleanses him of his hatred. Ren stays back on Earth with Kumatetsu remaining in his heart.

The Boy And The Beast starts off with what you think will be a standard narrative about a boy training to be a fighter from his bear mentor in another world, but after the impending fight that the plot was building up to, the story branches off into a distinctly different direction as they padded out the rest of the movie with a surprise bad guy whose motivations just come out of nowhere. There was a great deal of potential in this anime movie in the beginning, but the split near the end drags the story down to a less than pointful route. As Studio Chizu's second film after Wolf Children, you can see an improvement over the three years it took to make this production, and Mamoru Hosoda's distinct perspective has a unique perspective to it, especially with the beast people. Many people were referring to Hosoda as the next Miyazaki, but Hosoda clearly has his own agenda in mind and doesn't seem to be trying to follow in anyone else's footsteps. This is a great anime film, but you might not be as invested once you see the entire film which reduces the replay value on it significantly.