If you’ve seen Wolf Children, The Boy and the Beast or any of Mamoru Hosoda’s films, you know he has directed some truly wonderful pictures. Good news, because he’s making a new film called Mirai, and here are its first details.

According to Variety, Mirai tells the story of a 4 year-old boy who has a hard time coming to terms with the birth of his baby sister. Things get magical when a mysterious garden allows him to travel back in time and meet his mother as a little girl.

Hosoda discussed the upcoming animated feature with Variety, saying, “Mirai is about a boy who is trying to reclaim the love of his parents.” Hosoda pointed out that his movies are typically about families or the relationships between family members.

When asked how personal Mirai is, Hosoda replied, “If I decided to tell the story of a brother and sister, it’s because after the birth of my second child, our eldest one got the impression that this newly arrived baby stole her parents, which made her ferociously jealous.” According to the director, he then “understood what humans fundamentally desire,” and that’s how his child’s jealously inspired the film.

But is Mirai closer to, say, Wolf Children or Hosoda’s Summer Wars? Below is an exchange between the director and Variety:


Summer Wars and The Boy and the Beast belong to a different category of film. It seems to me that this new movie is closer to Wolf Children and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

To a certain extent, yes. One could classify my films in two categories: Summer Wars and The Boy and the Beast are more action films, whereas The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children and my new film are more human dramas that talk about life and bring up the lived experiences of several generations. It’s true that in Summer Wars, it is through action that the protagonist overcomes his problems. And it’s true as well that this new film tells more of a human drama.

Are there any similarities between The Boy and the Beast and your new film?

Yes, because I directed Wolf Children, I was able to do The Boy and the Beast, and it’s because I directed The Boy and the Beast that I was able to do this new film. Each project allows me to develop, to show something new, while at the same time staying coherent with my previous films. This is because I share my life with very young children. This experience gives me the sensation of finding back my own childhood, to relive the different steps through which I grew up. This sensation makes me understand how life repeats itself, how lives and time overlay one another. There is this flow of life and time in my new film.
You can read the full interview right here.