Anime Fantasy

Mirai Anime Film's 4th English Dub Clip Streamed

GKIDS began streaming the fourth English-dubbed clip for Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai anime film on Monday. The clip shows Kun trying to learn to ride a bicycle without training wheels.

The English dub premiered at Los Angeles' Animation is Film Festival on October 19. Anime Limited debuted the film in theaters on November 2 and November 4.

GKIDS and Fathom Events began screening the film in 700 U.S. theaters on November 29, and it will also screen on December 5 and December 8. Screenings on Thursday, November 29 at 8:00 p.m. and Wednesday, December 5 at 7:00 p.m. will be English-subtitled, while screenings on Saturday, December 8 at 12:55 p.m. will be English-dubbed. GKIDS also held its own theatrical release in the United States on November 30.

Actress Victoria Grace (The Last of Us Part II's Yara) announced in October that she is playing the title character. Other announced cast members include John Cho as the father, Rebecca Hall as the mother, and Daniel Dae Kim as the great-grandfather.

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.

The 100-minute film opened at #2 at the box office in Japan on July 20. The film had its world premiere in May at this year's Directors' Fortnight, an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The film also screened in competition at Annecy in June. The film is nominated in two categories for next year's 46th Annual Annie Awards.

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 directed 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) returned for this new film as animation directors. Yohei Takamatsu and Takashi Omori, who Hosoda had previously worked with on The Boy and The Beast, returned as art directors. Producer Yuichiro Saito returned from Hosoda's earlier films.

Source: GKIDS' YouTube channel