I was perusing the news recently when I spotted something quite interesting. Mamoru Hosoda’s new film “Belle” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and the audience responded after a screening by giving Mamoru Hosoda a 14 minute standing ovation! This news reminded me that, while I have written about other anime directors before such as Makoto Shinkai, I have yet to write about the fantastic and wonderful director Mamoru Hosoda himself, something which I’m going to rectify.
Mamoru Hosoda started off his career by working at Toei Animation, one of the oldest and more revered anime studios in Japan. During this time, it’s notable that Mamoru Hosoda directed two Digimon shorts films, “Digimon Adventure” and “Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!” which would later be recut along with another Digimon film into the Western release of “Digimon: The Movie”. Later on, Studio Ghibli chose Mamoru Hosoda to direct Howl’s Moving Castle but, after creative differences, he ultimately left the project.
He would return to Toei Animation and work on several TV series as well as directing “One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island”, the sixth film in the incredibly popular One Piece franchise. However, it wasn’t until he was hired by Madhouse that he began to work on the films that we associate with him today. In 2006, he released “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, a film that was a loose sequel to the sci-fi novel of the same name. The film received critical acclaim and performed quite well at the box office despite a limited release and advertising. It was this film that I first saw from Mamoru Hosoda and the art style, animation and storytelling left quite the impression on me.
Later on, in 2009, he released his film “Summer Wars”, an original story that followed Kenji and Natsuki as they faced off against an AI that has hacked the virtual world, a premise that many noted was very similar to his film “Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!”. The film was critically acclaimed again but, more importantly, it was a much greater box office success, grossing nearly 5 times as much as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time did in Japan. This success led to Mamoru Hosoda leaving Madhouse and establishing his own anime studio, Studio Chizu.
The studio’s debut film came out in 2012 and was titled “Wolf Children”. The film follows a woman called Hana who, through tragedy, ends up having to raise two half-wolf half-human children by herself. The film ended up becoming an enormous box office success, grossing about three times what Summer Wars grossed. It is also one of my favourite anime films of all time. I have distinct memories of seeing the film at a Japanese film festival with a friend and, beyond becoming enchanted with the film myself, I noted how she wept openly not once but twice during the movie.
Mamoru’s next film was released in 2015 and was called “The Boy and the Beast” and follows a child dealing with loss but becoming friends with a yokai who fulfills the role of father figure in his life. The Boy and the Beast proved to be another critical success and grossed only slightly less than Wolf Children did. In 2018, he released “Mirai”, a film that decided to tackle the idea of sibling jealousy through his usual fantasy storytelling. The film is notable for being the first non-Studio Ghibli anime to have been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Despite this, it’s notable that the film saw a sizable drop in the box office compared to The Boy and the Beast, grossing a little more than half of what The Boy and the Beast did. However, it’s worth noting that Mamoru Hosoda’s new film “Belle” has already grossed more than what Mirai has.
Mamoru Hosoda is a tour de force in the world of anime and I’m so glad to see how successful Mamoru Hosoda has ultimately become despite his early troubles with Studio Ghibli and the lack of marketing for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Let me know your thoughts on the fantastic and wonderful anime director Mamoru Hosoda, which films of his that you’ve seen, which ones are your favourites, if you’re excited to see Belle and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!