DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA AdventureBakemono no Ko
ONA MusicGREEN DA KA RA x Bakemono no Ko
NOVEL AdventureBakemono no Ko

REVIEWS

• 

  Peng

  50/100
  Hosoda’s latest film is perhaps his most ambitious and least impressive

  

  Not that it’s a bad thing or anything, but director Mamoru Hosoda’s films tend to be fairly similar in subject matter and design. I’d argue that his greatest strength and an underlying thread that connects all his works is his minimalistic approach. Simplicity is the key. From his sparing character designs to his straightforward but often powerful camera movements. Even his stories usually address simple but no less meaningful themes through the ordinary lives of his ordinary characters, save for a minor fantastical twist here and there. Hosoda has built a career on being a minimalist. Even he’s acknowledged this: >

  "Back when I was first given the chance to make a film at Toei Studios, it was much more about making these really cool films. Films that were really hard-edged, slick and stylish. Gradually, I changed my mind about that… I don’t think the point of filmmaking is to make slick films like that. I think I’m now looking to make something more orthodox and more simple."

  Which is why _The Boy and the Beast_ somewhat confuses me. #Like peas in a pod *** Ren’s divorced mother has died in an accident. With his father nowhere to be found, he runs away and stumbles into the fantastic, parallel world of the Beast Kingdom. There he meets Kumatetsu, a crazy strong but crazy irresponsible manbearpig, who eventually raises Ren as his teacher and surrogate father. While _Wolf Children_ addresses motherhood, _The Boy and the Beast_ deals with fatherhood. That said, the symbiotic nature of the parent-child relationship in _Bakemono_ is a lot more pronounced. From the outset both Ren and Kumatetsu are very obviously flawed characters, if a tad generic. Like father like son I guess, as both are loud, obnoxious and selfish. And yet, there is sufficient reasoning for these traits as to make the pair considerably nuanced and well-developed. Ren is resentful and lonely. Having lost those he cares most about, he feels trapped and abandoned by the world. It is this same sense of abandonment that drives Ren, making him determined to become strong such that the world can never hurt him again. Kumatetsu’s irresponsibility stems from the fact that he lacked a parent figure. In order to survive and grow stronger, he needed to be selfish and had no room for philanthropy, nor was he ever shown any. With this in mind, he is still good-natured at heart. Both father and son have much to learn. And, as expected, they learn from each other. But it is this relationship, watching the two grow together, and their charming interactions and how their similarities and differences meld and clash that is the film’s most gratifying aspect. It is fun and fulfilling, complete with banter and feelsgoodman training montages. Ultimately, as predictable as it is, seeing both father and son transcend their original self-centred goals and personalities, and only with each other’s guidance, is uplifting. #Fuckin' whales *** As such, it’s both confusing and a little disappointing when the film drastically deviates from this central relationship. This occurs most notably upon the introduction of the main villain. In short, everything about him is ham-fisted. From his one-dimensional, cartoonish portrayal (cue manic laughter) to the god-awful, tacky _Moby Dick_ motif that is sledgehammered into the viewer’s face, it all feels so bloated and unnecessary. I understand his role as a parallel to Ren such that Ren could conclusively resolve his inner-turmoil and complete his coming-of-age, but again, it feels so awkward. As opposed to introducing a rushed and caricatured external source of conflict as a means of resolving their inner-conflicts, I felt as if the film would have benefited from a more climatic, internal struggle between Ren and Kumatetsu. Not only would have this allowed the film to keep to its strengths, it would have also provided more screen time to develop the pair’s relationship. And here’s the problem: by over-complicating the story and introducing these extra, ham-fisted characters and plot points, time that could be spent further developing the main characters and their relationship is wasted. And this shows. Despite its merits, Ren and Kumatetsu’s relationship simply lacks the emotional weight present in Hana’s relationship with her children, which is much more acutely focused on and developed in _Wolf Children_. The side characters are forgettable. There’s this subplot introduced in the second act that, although sporting an understandable purpose, doesn’t really make an impression. #My name is Tony and this is _Every Frame A_... *** Hosoda also forgoes his signature simplicity with the film’s visual presentation, specifically with the use of crowds. Come to think of it, I don’t think there have ever been so many people concurrently onscreen in any of his other films. He uses some pretty ugly CG models here, and although I’ve definitely seen worse, they could have been done without (especially as this is a big-budget movie). _Some IG approved CGI right here_ Earlier I mentioned how Hosoda is generally both proficient and efficient with his camera movements. For some reason, the movements in _The Boy and the Beast_ are really noticeable and jarring. I’m not sure if Hosoda was doing things more liberally, or if I was just noticing it more because I was distinctly aware of his usual proficiency with the technique. Regardless, it felt like there were a tonne of pans and rotations that didn’t really add anything. Of course, some moments are pretty neat, like when a character was teleporting around and the camera movements helped establish a sense of playful confusion. Other than that, the art is pretty solid. Colour wise, there is a nice contrast between the dark and artificial Shibuya and the light pastels of the Beast Kingdom. Character designs are neat and simple, like always. #'Slick' *** I feel as if Hosoda was too ambitious with _The Boy and the Beast_. The film loses focus of its core relationship and instead introduces too many forgetful or otherwise plain frustrating elements. If Hosoda had stuck to his guns, further exploring the magic and depth of the very simple yet emotionally stimulating relationship between Ren and Kumatetsu, then I think the film would have been much more rewarding. While there are still plenty of feel good vibes to be had from _The Boy and the Beast_, that’s all you can really get from it. It overstepped its bounds when it was all going so well. Ultimately, it lacks significant weight and fails to make much of an impression. I’ll never look at _Moby Dick_ the same way again.
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• 

  scaredkrow

  89/100
  Takes us through an amazing journey of fatherhood in a fantasy type setting, beautiful scenes and excels in animation.

  Introduction and Basis of the Story

  _The Boy and The Beast_ takes us through an interesting journey of fatherhood from a beast for child who had just recently lost his mother. The story starts out with the boy out in the streets living on his own, the story then gives us a flash of why he ended up in the streets with the reason being that his mother had divorced his father and the mother took care him alone, after a fatal accident (which we don't really get to see how she actually passed) the mothers family insists on taking him in and he refuses and decides to run away. The fantasy part of this movie is about how there is another world of just beasts that live like humans and have a ritual where they choose a worthy beast to obtain the throne to become the next lord. The old lord will then decide what god he chooses to become and gives his place to the winner when an arena battle is held with the winner taking the seat. The chosen beasts and this ritual gets explained at the start of the movie and does it fairly well. The main beast that ends up being the kids master is disrespectful, sloppy, immature and a bad teacher but they have one thing in common, they're both alone and had no one. So they start out arguing but they end up being good for each other and the kid ends up learning a lot from him. The reason for him to become his apprentice was because he wanted to escape the real world where he had no one and the beast needed an apprentice to prove to the master that he is a suitable person for the throne, later on the kid develops into a teen and he then wants to learn more about the real world and where he is from and wanted to learn and get an education. The kid leaves once in a while to head out to the library and learn words where he then finds a girl, they ended up getting close and they study once in a while whenever he comes to the real world. One day the kid leaves and talks to the girl about applying to college and whatnot and he starts to think more in-depth about his future here. When he tries to apply they say he needs his parents approval to which then they provide him with his fathers address. He gets flustered and thinks about confronting him and sooner or later he does, they all thought he went missing and died while his father hadn't had given up looking for him. Sooner or later the beast finds out what he has been doing and gets mad and yet again they have another argument. The kid mentions he found his father after all these years and storms off. The beast feels conflicted and he yells at the kid to stop but he never does. That's basically the first half of the movie but this is where it gets a little weird for me, it didn't turn me off entirely but the lord decides to have a the battle done today as he has finally decided what god to reincarnate into after 9 years. The battle commences and the beast is losing because he is still gloomy about how the kid left him but as he is on the verge of defeat the kid cheers him on in the crowd in the nick of time and he comes back and wins. This is around where I thought the story would end but there's much more to it and in my opinion it made it a little but more confusing. Turns out the son of the other beast the kids master was fighting was secretly human along and because of how doubtful and evil humans are he got corrupted with __darkness__ and used his powers to kill the kids master and it's very hard for me to describe this when you don't watch the movie yourself, like I said it was weird and confusing at first but it all syncs in slowly. Apparently humans have __darkness__ in them because of their complex emotions and fragile heart, seeing his master get murdered caused him to gain that same __darkness__ but the old lord prevented him from sinking in and he ends up making the bad guy running away to the real world. Turns out the master isn't dead but critically injured instead and now the kid is going to pursue the bad guy and instead of getting revenge help him find peace because they are the same. He goes to the real world to find him but before he does he finds the study girl and gives her back his favourite book and asks her to keep it safe while he goes does something very dangerous that he can't explain to the girl. The girl gets worried and says she wants to know wants to know what is going on but before she can say anything the bad guy shows up and now they're on the run. The girl drops the book and as they run the bad guy picks up the book and sees a whale on the cover and for reasons that I can't explain he throws the book, __turns into a whale__ and causes mayhem in the city. As the mayhem is being caused it also affects the other beast world and while they try to come up with a plan the beast comes out of his recovery bed and gives an idea to the lord where he says he wants to use the lords reincarnation opportunity on himself to become a soul of a sword that will guide the kid to defeat the bad guy. I was conflicted about this part but I guess in a way it made sense and It wasn't as bad as I thought it was. They finally decide to confront the whale together and try to fight him off, as the battle begins a sword falls from the sky and it speaks to him in the beast's voice, the kid notices the voice and reaches out for it and the sword sucks into his __darkness__ and purifies him which makes him stronger with his master by his side. The battle concludes with everyone thinking he killed the bad guy but he ends up sparing him and bringing him peace and the movie finishes and ends with the boy moving on to the real world with his master in his soul and lives with his real dad and applies for college. and that concludes the whole story, I'm not the best with words so it is a bit rusty but I did my best.

  What was good about the movie?

  

  • The movie did a good job depicting fatherhood
    The relationship of the boy and the master throughout the movie was amazing to watch and really made you feel attached to their connection.
  • Beautiful animation and world setting
    The scenes were amazing moving from the city outlooks of the real world combining it with the fantasy world that the beast realm had to offer.
  • Good character development
    Each character had their own unique trait and it was easy to love all the characters and understand them.
  • Unique display of struggles combining the real and fantasy world
    They also did this in Wolf Children and this is probably the reason why I love both of these a lot, they really show a whole new perspective of problems that you wouldn't think of if this "fantasy" setting was a real thing, for example with the boy wanting to study and move on in his real life while still being the masters apprentice, as for Wolf Children, the mother being unable to decide whether to take her daughter (half wolf) to the vet or the hospital.

  What were the downfalls of the movie?

  

  • Misguided ending
    The ending of the movie seemed very rushed and many things felt unexplained clearly but it was understandable, one of the drawbacks of anime movies is having to cram it all in with only and hour or two to show it all. They showed the so called darkness for the boy when he left his family early on in the anime only to explain it to the very end with still very little context of what it really is.
  • Unexplained mayhem and etc
    The whole whale scene was confusing and didn't seem to make a lot of sense, did the humans in the real world just not see the whale? They saw the shadow but not the whale? How did the beast realm cover it up? It's a fantasy anime but it all seemed so unexpected and odd. Especially with how little the girl ever questions the boy about his whereabouts and how casually she reacts to the this found realm in the ending.

  Conclusion

  Overall I think _The Boy and the Beast_ deserves a good score and the cons didn't really ruin it for me. Although I can see it can really diminish the feel for some, it didn't really for me. The movie was enjoyable from the start to finish, a little questionable around the end but still a good movie and I would recommend this to anybody who just wants to watch a good movie.
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• 

  FreddyDaddy

  87/100
  A good example for a story that can be seen with two points of view

  I will give an introduction about the movie first, and then I will dive mainly in story element, so spoilers ahead

  The Boy and The Beast

  This is the story of A boy named Ren, who lost his mother in a car accident while his divorced father was away. And since he was the successor, he was meant to live in the family head's house against his will.
  So he runs away, and find our friend Kumatetsu and he offers him to become his pupil, because that is one of the rules to become the lord of the monster world, which he intends to do. And with nowhere to go, and wanting to become stronger, Ren agreed.

  What are the two points of view

  The story focuses mainly on Ren, kinda. Story-wise, it is. Ren is the one who was troubled first, he is the one who wants to become strong, he is the one who faced his fears in confronting his father, he is the one who found his love, and he is the one who defeats the villain in the end.
  But that's not all! you could look at it that way, or flip it around. Ren was just our entry into the world of Kumatetsu, the one who wants to be the lord. It is about the troubles that he faces to become a lord. He does not know how to treat others, since he had no parents or a teacher to behave him. He is a monster, but not a bad one. He is good-hearted, but the world is against him, that is why he puts up the tough and strong face. It is obvious when Ren said that he would leave him to go and live in the world of humans, and he kept that strong look. When Ren actually left, he ran following him to try and persuade him. He is desperate for Ren.
  Even though the story focuses on Ren in the build up and the obstacles, but the characters - mainly from the monster world - always compliment the growth that Kumatetsu underwent. And that is the great point in the balancing between two characters growth, in a short time span. And it is not displayed shallowly, as "look at how much Kumatetsu has grown", since a lot of monsters in different places note his growth, and we see it as well, but mainly through Ren. Since Ren and Kumatetsu are a lot like each other in their characters, we can see how much both grew by comparing them with each other. Since Ren is a "human", we can understand him better - this is a good way to present the changes for casual viewers, but they are not different from each other so even without Ren we could see how much he changed, but Ren strengths it.
  So The secret is: Utilizing the world structure and characters in favor of Kumatetsu, while the obstacles and story for Ren. Since both of them have the same character, we don't need to focus heavily in both, we need one only, who is Ren. The main difference is that, Ren found Kaede, his lover, while Kumatetsu found Ren, his son. Ren was the person that changed Kumatetsu, so Kumatetsu can't live without him. That is why he "wanted to fill the hole in Ren's heart", to actually fill it and repay him, and so he can live in peace, since he is with him always. As for Ren, he found his lover, who stood with him even when he was barely able to read. She taught him, bought clothes for him, and more importantly, fixed him emotionally.
  This is why I think the movie nailed the two perspectives.
  A bonus: A great way to symbolize something and make it obvious to the viewers, but not stupidly obvious, is to tell them beforehand. What I mean is the whale scene. Earlier in the movie, Ren and Kaede talked about Moby Dick and what the whale represents - a mirror to yourself. So when Ichirouhiko turned into a whale, the audience should think "This might be like Moby Dick, and Ren needs to fight himself to defeat Ichirouhiko." and somewhat this is what happens.

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