Film about boy trained by supernatural creature opens on July 11

The official website of Mamoru Hosoda's upcoming The Boy and the Beast film began streaming the film's trailer and second teaser video on Sunday.

Narrator: Apart from the human realm, there is another realm that you don't know.

Kumatetsu: Hey, you alive or dead?

Kyūta: I—it's a monster.

Kumatetsu: You coming with me?

Narrator: The realm of beasts.

Text: From The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children director Mamoru Hosoda.

Text and Narrator: Kyūta, the boy who is all alone.

Kumatetsu: From now on, this boy is my disciple.

Text and Narrator: Kumatetsu, a rowdy beast.

Text: The boy and the beast as student and master?!

Narrator: Thus begins an unlikely bond between student and master.

Kumatetsu: I'm your master!

Kyūta: I'm not your disciple!

Narrator: They will push each other.

Tatara: Just give it a rest. Why did you even take a human boy as a disciple?

Narrator: They will understand each other.

Narrator: And before they notice it, they will share an irreplaceable connection.

Kyūta: Don't lose, Kumatetsu!

Kumatetsu: Kyūta...

Text: This summer, studio Chizu presents a moving masterpiece.

Text: If I'm with you...

Kaede: Where did you come from?

Text: ...I can become stronger.

Text and Narrator: The Boy and the Beast



Kumatetsu: You coming with me?

Kyūta: I—it's a monster.

Text: This summer, studio Chizu presents a moving masterpiece.

Text: From The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children director Mamoru Hosoda.

Text: Kyūta, the boy who is all alone.

Text: Kumatetsu, a rowdy beast.

Narrator: A boy and a beast, in an unlikely bond as student and master.

Text: The boy and the beast as student and master?!

Tatara: Why did you even take a human boy as a disciple?

Kaede: Where did you come from?

Text: If I'm with you...

Kyūta: Don't lose, Kumatetsu!

Text: ...I can become stronger.

Text and Narrator: The Boy and the Beast



The film's staff announced the cast on Sunday. The cast includes:

Kōji Yakusho as Kumatetsu, a bear-like being who acts as a teacher to the human Kyūta

Aoi Miyazaki as child Kyūta

Shōta Sometani as adolescent Kyūta

Suzu Hirose in her debut voice-acting role as Kaede, a high school student Kyūta meets

Masahiko Tsugawa as Grand Master

Lily Franky as Monk Momoaki

Yo Oizumi as Tatara

Kazuhiro Yamaji as Iōzan

Haru Kuroki as younger Ichirōhiko

Mamoru Miyano older Ichirōhiko

Momoka Ohno as younger Jirōmaru

Kappei Yamaguchi as older Jirōmaru

Sumire Morohoshi as Chiko



Other cast members include Keishi Nagatsuka as Kyūta's father and Kumiko Asou as Kyūta's mother.

The story of the film is set in the human realm (Tokyo's Shibuya ward) and the bakemono realm ("Jūtengai"). In these two worlds which must not intersect, there lives a lonely boy and a lonely bakemono. One day, the boy gets lost in the bakemono world, becomes the disciple of the bakemono Kumatetsu, and is renamed Kyūta.

Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) created and scripted the movie. Theatrical screenings have already been set for France, and the major French movie studio Gaumont will handle international sales outside Asia. It will be Hosoda's first film since 2012, when his relatively new animation movie company Studio Chizu released Wolf Children as its first project.

The film will open on July 11. Renji Asai (Sentō Jōsai Masurawo) will launch the manga in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace on April 25.

Images © BBFP