General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Mirai (未来のミライ) (2018 film)

Mirai (未来のミライ) is a 2018 Japanese animated fantasy film directed, written, and originally conceived by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu. It follows four-year-old Kun, who resents the arrival of a baby sister named Mirai, and his encounters with family members from the past and future through a magical gateway in the garden tree¹. The film opened in Japan on July 20, 2018².

Key fact	Detail
Director, writer, origin	Mamoru Hosoda, his own original story; produced by Studio Chizu²
Japan release	July 20, 2018²
Running time	98 minutes, PG certificate³
Lead voice cast	Moka Kamishiraishi (Kun), Haru Kuroki (Mirai), Gen Hoshino (Father), Kumiko Aso (Mother)⁴
Music	Masakatsu Takagi; opening theme "Mirai no Theme" and ending theme "Uta no Kisha" by Tatsuro Yamashita²
Festival	2018 Cannes Film Festival, Directors' Fortnight⁵
Critical scores	90% on Rotten Tomatoes from 84 reviews; Metascore 81 from 18 reviews⁶^•⁷
US box office	$682.2K gross, limited release November 29, 2018 through GKIDS⁶

Spoilers

Plot

Kun is a four-year-old boy in a small house on a corner of a city, with a small garden and a small tree⁸. When his mother brings home a newborn baby sister, Mirai, his joy turns to disappointment as the new family member takes center stage¹. Mysteriously, Kun discovers a magical gateway in the garden where he encounters his "older" sister from the future¹.

The encounters move beyond Mirai herself. After meeting his pet dog in human form, Kun meets his mother as a girl his own age and bonds with his deceased great-grandfather, who appears as a motorbike-riding hero³^•⁴. The film's synopsis describes a series of adventures with his baby sister grown up, opening a new perspective on his world⁶. The action unfolds in a minimal space, a single-family house with a small garden, and the story is built from five roughly episode-length segments⁹. A recurring visual set piece is the fantasy world that opens when Kun runs away from home and ends up lost in a phantasmagorical railway station full of endless escalators⁴.

Production and credits

Hosoda is credited as director, scriptwriter, and originator of the original story². The film was planned and produced by Studio Chizu, the animation company Hosoda founded, with Yuichiro Saito producing¹^•¹⁰. Animation direction was by Hiroyuki Aoyama and Ayako Hata, and artistic direction by Yohei Takamatsu and Takashi Omori¹. The technique is listed as 2D/3D computer, and critics noted the integration of hand-drawn and CGI elements in the later scenes¹^•⁷.

Japanese financing included NTT Docomo, Nippon Television Network, KADOKAWA, and Studio Chizu, with Toho handling Japanese distribution¹¹. Overseas distribution was handled by Wild Bunch Distribution, Anime Ltd., and Charades¹, with GKIDS releasing it in the United States⁶. The Japanese voice cast also included Koji Yakusho as the grandfather, Yoshiko Miyazaki as the grandmother, and Masaharu Fukuyama⁷. The English dub cast Victoria Grace as Mirai, John Cho as the father, Rebecca Hall as the mother, and Daniel Dae Kim as the great-grandfather¹².

Setting

Hosoda chose the Negishi and Isogo-ku districts of Yokohama as the film's setting, saying he wanted to stage the story in a place that would keep changing over time¹³. The film draws on real locations: a pilgrimage guide maps nine sites, including the Itabashi Tropical Environment Plant House in Tokyo, several spots in Ueda in Nagano Prefecture (the Japanese Go Institute's Ueda branch, a barbershop, and others), Negishi Forest Park in Yokohama, Keikyu-era Jindai temple sites in Yokosuka, and Nakamura Station in Toyama¹⁴.

Reception

Critical scores. The film holds a 90% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes from 84 reviews, with a critics consensus describing the simplicity and colorful warmth of the animation as underscored by a story with surprising depth and emotional resonance, and a Popcornmeter audience score of 80% from over 1,000 ratings⁶. On Metacritic it scored 81 based on 18 reviews, in the "universal acclaim" band⁷. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Hosoda's films stretch the boundaries of both style and content within the family-film rubric⁷, while Carlos Aguilar of TheWrap called it a hand-drawn work rivaling Pixar and Ghibli in family entertainment with a humanistic edge⁷. Time Out awarded four of five stars, praising its attention to detail and intimate realism³.

Criticism focused on the film's structure and its tantrum-prone protagonist. Andrew Osmond, writing in Sight and Sound, called it Hosoda's most unconventional film, with conspicuously offbeat rhythms and an episodic story that "coheres without building," and judged it questionable viewing for children twice Kun's age⁴. The New York Post review objected that Kun spends much of the film crying or whining⁷, and RogerEbert.com's reviewer noted that Kun-centric scenes take up roughly 90% of the film and split between daydreams and full-blast tantrums¹⁵.

Japan versus abroad. A KAI-YOU analysis notes that overseas recognition stood in contrast to harsh Japanese criticism when the film opened in July 2018; Japanese reviewers, noting the similarity of the director's own family composition to the family in the film, described it as "like the director's diary"¹⁶. The film premiered abroad at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight⁵ before a UK release on November 2, 2018³ and a US limited release on November 29, 2018⁶.

Box office. In the United States the film grossed $682.2K in its limited release⁶. At the time of the Sight and Sound review in November 2018, its Japanese box office was substantially below those of Hosoda's recent films⁴. A Japan Society of Film and Media Studies bulletin cites it as a notable example of a Japanese time-travel film¹⁷.

Themes

Commentary repeatedly identifies the film's central theme as family connection across generations. The story has been read as a Japanese family history told from a small child's perspective, prompting reflection on what family bonds mean⁹. The film's own trailer copy describes a story of family and life connecting past to future¹⁸, and Hosoda's stated intent to set the story in a place that would keep changing links the domestic narrative to contemporary Japan¹³.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026