Mirai (2018)
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Mirai Movie Review
Mirai is a 2018 fantasy anime film directed by Mamoru Hosoda. It’s a very disappointing movie from this great director. It has its merits, but it’s ultimately far from great.
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“He said he wants better dog food“
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The film follows a toddler who becomes so jealous of his newborn sister and eventually time travels and comes upon many of his family members during past and future. Obviously this setup led to a very slice-of-life story which was too uneventful in the bigger scope of things even for me. Of course it’s very endearing and of course it’s great for kids, but for adults not so much.
Yes, my main gripe with this particular flick of Hosoda’s is that it’s the only entry in his filmography not really suited for adults. I do realize that it is very realistic in its portrayal of a child and how he would see the world and what he would feel, but I personally have never felt jealousy upon the arrival of my newborn brother so I could not personally relate to this story plus the way the movie is tonally executed makes it very difficult to enjoy as an adult.
I really did not care for Kun. I found him overly annoying and his voice is particularly grating and certainly not sounding like a small kid. The titular Mirai is so much better and I also really liked some of the family members that he met, especially his grandparents. The mother is also good and the father is quite relatable as this clumsy man not ready for the role of parenting. Yukko the dog is easily my favorite character in the entire movie though and I just loved how they made him a well developed, genuine member of the family. Great stuff there.
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I have seen some critics compare this movie to ‘Shoplifters’ and I have to disagree, mainly because that film is the second best movie of the year in my opinion and this one never came close to the level of quality witnessed in that classic familial drama. I do get that there are some similarities, but ultimately this one doesn’t paint as detailed and real characters or present as involving conversations and sequences.
Mirai does have a terrific animation though. It’s another stellar, gorgeous looking anime picture which is imbued with a particularly great sense of strong interiors which fit the story as the house belongs to an architect father. I also loved the plants, the fantasy elements and the character designs and movements are all polished. That train set is also highly memorable and cool.
I also really liked its tender, very sweet and charming score. The direction from Mamoru Hosoda is also good, but the script department left a lot to be desired, including the dialogue too. Mirai does benefit from very good voice acting apart from Kun’s one of course which is terrible, but others sound very good and believable.
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I wanted more fantastical elements in this movie which played too much like a regular family drama, but some of its vignettes definitely worked very well with the dog ones, ending and beginning being the highlights. Overall, it’s definitely a solid movie, but far from the greatness that I’d come to expect from the likes of Mamoru Hosoda who disappointed here again after his middling ‘The Boy and the Beast’. The Academy truly nominated his weakest film which is baffling to me.
Mirai does have a tender score, beautiful animation and some very endearing vignettes with the dog scenes, the beginning and the ending being the standouts. However, it’s way too childish in tone for adults to enjoy, the protagonist is annoying and the movie plays too much like a regular familial drama instead of a fantasy flick. It’s solid, but far from great and it’s a major disappointment from usually terrific Mamoru Hosoda.
