In his films, Mamoru Hosoda rejects the adage ‘man is wolf to man’. Instead, in the worlds of this anime master, man is man to wolf: his oeuvre is filled with profound relationships between humans and animals – especially those which in reality, humans tend to distrust. Also, there are flying whales.
Take Hosoda’s Belle (2021), Wolf Children (2012) – recently released in Dutch cinemas – and this one, The Boy and the Beast (Bakemono no Ko). Here, the worlds of humans and bakemono – talking animals – are so close, that just by stumbling into a Tokyo alley, you can suddenly find yourself in Jutengai, the beast kingdom. Meanwhile those beasts, their hoodies raised, move unnoticed through our inattentive world.
And so, in Tokyo’s modern Shibuya district, nine-year-old Ren (‘the boy’) meets the gruff Kumatetsu (‘the beast’). Ren is a runaway; bear-like Kumatetsu is embroiled in a career dispute in Jutengai and needs an apprentice in the noble martial arts.
As always, Hosoda’s hand-drawn character animation is excellent, and amidst all these wondrous adventures, his focus remains firmly on the psychological subtleties. Because, just as Ren isn’t eager to be lectured, Kumatetsu truly isn’t born to teach. But their bond will grow, slowly but surely, as together they realise the role and even the importance of anger and how to manage that frightful, dark emptiness within, when you feel like everyone has abandoned you.
