I love Xin Haicheng. I’ve seen all of his films, have comics and art books of his work, and even went to a “Your Name” pop-up cafe in Japan when the smash hit film first became an international sensation.
Like Miyazaki, his creativity and vision have the ability to break through the mainstream, produce magical animation, and achieve critical and commercial success. He’s the defining director of the modern anime era, and for good reason.
However, Shinkai’s massive global success has arguably eclipsed other breakthrough directors of the same period, at least in the Western mainstream. A proper example is Hosoda Mamoru.
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Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai have long been dubbed by some as “the next Hayao Miyazaki.” Makoto Shinkai’s brilliant first film, The Voice from a Distant Star, premiered, and a few years later Hosoda began working on his own unique brand of original animation, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Although their careers began at similar times, more casual anime viewers may be less familiar with Hosoda’s fantastic work and more aware of Makoto Shinkai, who made two of the five highest-grossing Japanese films of all time. department.
If you’re not too familiar with Hosoda, you’ll soon have a chance to correct that mistake, as three of his classic films have just been acquired by two new distributors. According to Screen International, British distributor Anime Limited and Germany’s Plaion Pictures have acquired the distribution rights to Hosoda’s classics “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “Summer Wars” and “Children of the Wolf.”
Anime Limited is a British company that releases a fantastic collection of All The Anime titles, including beautiful Blu-ray versions of many beloved franchises, including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Naruto and Berserker wait.
Plaion also acquired the rights to Hosoda’s 2015 fantasy adventure The Boy and the Beast, while both Plaion and Anime Limited already own the rights to the Oscar-nominated Mirai and Hosoda’s latest film Beauty.
Interestingly, the companies are reportedly working on a “Hosoda Mamoru: The World” theatrical season, which could see some of Hosoda’s works playing in a theater near you, opening up his films to a whole new audience.
Of all the upcoming movies, my top choice is undoubtedly Summer Wars. This 2009 sci-fi drama follows a timid high school math genius named Kenji who is invited by his classmate Natsuki to join him for a family reunion in rural Japan. There, he must pretend to be her boyfriend while Natsuki’s family gathers to celebrate her great-grandmother’s birthday.
However, things take a turn for the worse when a sadistic artificial intelligence is unleashed in the virtual reality world of OZ. This VR world is basically a virtual world, if it’s really good and useful. In OZ, people have their own avatars and can hang out with friends, shop, play games – and live a fun virtual life. However, while this may not be the best design decision, OZ is also inextricably linked to real life – and is a place where people can pay their bills, run their businesses, and more. So when an evil artificial intelligence is unleashed in OZ, it causes chaos in the real world, but Kenji, caught up in the online drama, may have the expertise and brains to save the world.
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This is a brilliant, uplifting, thrilling animation full of human drama, clever twists and heartbreaking moments. Like Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai, Hosoda excels in Summer Wars at flawlessly blending fantasy with human drama to create timeless animation that anyone who loves the genre should experience. If you’ve never seen it before, you may soon have the opportunity to see it, along with Hosoda’s other great works, on the big screen.
If you can’t wait that long, you can buy Summer Wars on Amazon, along with other Hosoda titles like Son of the Wolf on Blu-ray and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on DVD. You can also rent or buy The Boy and the Beast and other Hosoda films on Prime Video.
For more anime content, be sure to check out our Neon Genesis Evangelion and Attack on Titan viewing order guide. You can also find out the release date for the highly anticipated Uzumaki anime, and read our feature looking back at Kiki’s Delivery Service’s 35th anniversary.
