The Deer King (鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅)

The Deer King (鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅, Shika no Ō: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi) is a 2022 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Masashi Ando and Masayuki Miyaji, adapted from Nahoko Uehashi's novel The Deer King and produced by Production I.G. It follows Van, an enslaved former soldier who survives an attack by dogs carrying a deadly plague, and the orphaned girl Yuna, whom he rescues and raises as his daughter while the disease returns to ravage two nations.^{1 • 2}

Production and staff

Masashi Ando (安藤雅司), born in Hiroshima in 1969, joined Studio Ghibli while still studying at Nihon University College of Art and served as chief animation director on Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001); he also worked as an animation supervisor and character designer on Satoshi Kon's Paprika (2006) and Makoto Shinkai's Your Name. (2016). The Deer King was his directorial debut.^{9 • 10}

Masayuki Miyaji (宮地昌幸), born in Kamakura in 1976, also began his career at Studio Ghibli, working as assistant director to Hayao Miyazaki on Spirited Away; his earlier directing credits include the anime series Xam'd: Lost Memories (2008–2009) and the film Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress (2012).^{9 • 10}

The screenplay is by Taku Kishimoto, the music by Harumi Fuki, and the animation production by Production I.G, with Toho as distributor.^{2 • 6} The production committee comprised KADOKAWA, Nippon Television Network, Production I.G, Toho, JR East Planning, Yomiuri Telecasting, Movie Walker, and the STV, MMT, SDT, CTV, HTV, and FBS stations.²

Adapting the novel

The source novel won the 2015 Honya Taisho but was long said to be impossible to adapt to film because of its enormous scale.¹ In an interview with Monthly Newtype, Ando explained how he condensed it into a two-hour film. The story's origin is Van meeting the girl Yuna: a man who had resigned himself to death revives through encountering a small life, and the thing that connects them is, ironically, the disease. Ando chose to build the film around that origin and its outcome, linking the beginning and the end.¹¹

The novel has two narrative axes, one centered on Van and one on Hohsalle, which intersect briefly but densely. For the film, Ando kept Van as the central axis and portrayed the people pursuing him, with Hohsalle among them, so that whatever happens, the characters are always looking at Van.¹¹ A reviewer for eiga.com likewise noted that the screenplay was considerably compressed and focused on the parent-child pair of Van and Yuna, omitting the sequence at Hohsalle's medical institute by having the physician join Van's journey.¹²

The character Sae was also reworked. In the novel she is a woman who could not become a mother, seen through a perspective close to Van; in the film Ando recast her as a girl who could not have a family, closer to Yuna's position. As a result, the film's Sae reacts to Van's cry of "Yuna!", hearing in it the fatherly feeling she never experienced, and hesitates in her task.¹¹

Release history

The film was originally scheduled for September 10, 2021. On August 31, 2021, Production I.G announced a postponement, citing the COVID-19 infection situation, with a new date to be announced later.⁴ On December 5, 2021, the official accounts announced the rescheduled premiere of February 4, 2022, with a new trailer and key visual.⁵ The film opened in Japan on that date, distributed by Toho.²

GKIDS released the film in North America in a limited theatrical run beginning July 13, 2022, with an R rating for some violence.⁷ KADOKAWA released the film on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan on September 28, 2022.¹³

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer score of 59 percent from 41 reviews, with an audience Popcornmeter score of 82 percent from fewer than 50 verified ratings; the site's critics consensus calls the lush animation striking but not enough to make up for a dawdling, predictable story.⁷ Metacritic assigns a Metascore of 58, labeled mixed or average, based on 17 critic reviews, with a user score of 7.3.¹⁴ On the Japanese database KINENOTE, the film's average rating is 66.0 points from 161 users.²

Reviewers consistently praised the animation while criticizing the storytelling. Reviewing for The Observer, Wendy Ide argued that the storytelling, a plot-laden trudge through rival factions and a pandemic carried by wolves, falls short of the graceful 2D animation's crisp linework in its mythic confusion.¹⁵ Andrew Osmond in BFI's Sight and Sound compared the film to Princess Mononoke, noting that it shares that film's wilderness setting, deer-riding hero, and magic wolves, and that Van, like that film's hero, ends up at the center of a conflict without wishing to fight either side; he judged that the film lacks momentum, electricity, forceful characters, and exciting confrontations.¹⁰ The Japan Times found that despite the pedigree of its creators the film often feels like a weak echo of the films on which Ando made his name, though it delivers a few nice moments.¹⁶ Positive assessments also exist: Josh Larsen of LarsenOnFilm gave it 88 on Metacritic, calling it a stunner that offers a hero's journey alongside a more expansive vision of how to live in community.¹⁴

References

1. 映画『鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅』公式サイト
2. 鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅 - KINENOTE
3. 映画『鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅』特報 - YouTube (東宝MOVIEチャンネル)
4. 『鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅』公開延期のお知らせ - Production I.G
5. The Deer King Anime Feature Film Rescheduled For February 2022 in Japan - Crunchyroll News
6. 鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅 - WOWOWオンライン
7. The Deer King - Rotten Tomatoes
8. 映画公開中！『鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅』 - 角川つばさ文庫
9. 鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅 - Nippon Connection film database
10. The Deer King: an adventure film in need of adventure - Sight and Sound, BFI
11. 「父になる」ということ――安藤雅司インタビュー - WebNewtype
12. 「作画的には見事、エンタメとしてはもう少し」 - 映画.com review
13. 映画「鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅」〖Blu-ray〗 - KADOKAWA
14. The Deer King Reviews - Metacritic
15. The Deer King review - The Guardian / The Observer
16. 'The Deer King': No crown for Masashi Ando's directorial debut - The Japan Times

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

© 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Developers: read Edgepedia by API or MCP. Embed a reference card.