Official Story and Staff Details are Revealed for Summer Wars' Hosoda Latest Film

Mamoru Hosoda, the man behind fantasy films “Summer Wars” and “Wolf Children” now has official details released for his latest film with an official website opened by TOHO. Previously titled as simply Mirai before a trademark was filed for the the title “Mirai no Mirai” on October 24 by Studio Chizu, the film which was announced for a May release will officially release in Japan on July 20.

When the film was first announced, entertainment news magazine Variety had released a description of the film. With the full release of the film’s details, it was revealed that the magazine’s description differed from the film’s story though the element of time travel remains the same. In the magazine’s description, it tells of a 4-year-old struggling to cope with the arrival of a little sister when things suddenly get magical for him.

At the mysterious garden located at the backyard of the little boy’s home, there appears a gateway allowing the child to travel back in time and encounter his mother as a little girl and his great-grandfather as a young man. Through these fantasy-filled adventures the young boy finds himself gaining a new perspective on what it truly means to be a big brother.

For the official description of the film, it tells of a four-year-old boy named Kun-chan. He is the spoiled son of a family that lives in a small house in an obscure corner of a certain city. Things begin to change for the boy when he gets a little sister named Mirai.

Feeling that his new sister stole his parents’ love from him, Kun-chan ends up being overwhelmed by the many experiences he undergoes for the first time in his life. As he struggles through these unfamiliar emotions, he suddenly encounters an older version of Mirai, who has come from the future.

Also included in the reveal of the film was an interview with the director himself on the themes of the films. For his previous films he had touched upon the themes of “youth”, “family”, “motherhood” and “fatherhood”; this time his new film will be taking on the theme of “siblings.”

When discussing the new film, he expressed on how it was inspired by his own experience as a father. In fact, the name “Mirai” (which can be translate as “future”) not only belongs to the film’s character but his daughter as well. What’s more, he relayed that the conflict in the film echoes his real-life experience of his eldest child feeling that his new sibling “stole her parents, which made her ferociously jealous.”

He will be acting as the director and scriptwriter of the film at Studio Chizu. Along with him as the animation directors of the production Hiroyuki Aoyama and Ayako Hata who both previously worked on Hosoda’s film “The Boy and the Beast” as animation director and a key animator respectively. Also making their return are Yohei Takamatsu and Takashi Omori as art directors and Yuichiro Saito as producer.
At this time, there has been no cast confirmed for the cast.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork