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Mirai of the Future Film Gets Novelization by Hosoda

The official website of Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu's new Mirai no Mirai (Mirai of the Future) anime film revealed on Thursday that Hosoda will pen a novelization of the film. Kadokawa will ship the novel in three different versions. The company's Kadokawa Bunko literature label will ship first on June 15, followed by the version from the Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko juvenile fiction label on June 30, and then the version for the Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko light novel label on July 1.

A trailer for the film debuted on April 9.

The film will have its world premiere at this year's Directors' Fortnight, an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The Directors' Fortnight section will be held from May 9-19, while Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 8-19.

The film will open in Japan on July 20, after previously being announced with a May release date. The movie has a 100-minute runtime.

The film's staff revealed an overseas visual for the film:

The cast of Mirai no Mirai is as follows:

(From left to right in top row in image above)

• Moka Kamishiraishi as KUN-chan
• Haru Kuroki as MiRai-chan

(From left to right in bottom row in image above)

• Yoshiko Miyazaki as Grandmother
• Gen Hoshino as Father
• Kōji Yakusho as Grandfather
• Kumiko Asou as Mother
• Mitsuo Yoshihara as Mysterious Man

Tatsuro Yamashita is performing both the opening song "Mirai no Theme" (previewed in the video above) and the as-yet-untitled theme song.

International sales banner CHARADES represented the film at Cannes in 2017, and has sold distribution rights to GKIDS in the United States, MK2 Mile End in Canada, Anime Limited in the United Kingdom, and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand. As of April 17, the film is slated to open in 86 countries. Producer Yuichiro Saito previously stated that the deals for distribution include a requirement to screen the film in theaters first, in addition to broadcast and streaming rights.

The film's story centers around a family living in a small house in an obscure corner of a certain city — in particular, the family's spoiled four-year-old boy KUN-chan. When KUN-chan gets a little sister named Mirai, he feels that his new sister stole his parents' love from him, and is overwhelmed by many experiences he undergoes for the first time in his life. In the midst of it all, he meets an older version of Mirai, who has come from the future.

Hosoda revealed that the film's actual setting is Yokohama, "somewhere uptown, near Isago and Kanazawa wards." He did not specify whether the setting will be important to the specific plot events in the movie, but the location is part of an important past event for the family in the story.

Hosoda is directing the film at his Studio Chizu, and is also credited as scriptwriter and for the original story. Hiroyuki Aoyama (animation director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and The Boy and The Beast) and Ayako Hata (key animator on the same films) are returning for this new film as animation directors. Yohei Takamatsu and Takashi Omori, who Hosoda had previously worked with on The Boy and The Beast, are also returning as art directors for the film. Producer Yuichiro Saito is also returning from Hosoda's earlier films.

Hosoda previously stated that the new film is inspired by his own experience as a father, noting that "Mirai" (which can be translated as "future") is the name of both the sister character in the film, as well as his own daughter. He stated that the conflict in the film echoes his real-life experience of his eldest child feeling that his new sibling "stole her parents, which made her ferociously jealous." He acknowledged that the new film is closer to the human drama of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children than the action stories of Summer Wars and The Boy and The Beast.

Source: Cinema Today (小松芙未)