Regarded as one of the most exciting directors in the industry, Mamoru Hosoda has staked out a unique brand for his work in a relatively short filmographic career. His early work on the original Digimon anime, and its movie, put him on the map for the way that some of the show's best episodes could tackle surprisingly dark subject matters while still remaining kid-friendly.

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In his later works, Hosoda has adopted a clear favored theme of family, but rest assured that he touches on it with more elegance than Dom Toretto does in The Fast and the Furious. Hosoda typically deploys a supernatural or science fiction twist to upend the perspectives we normally assume when examining familiar familial ties, inviting us to reexamine our relationships with fresh eyes.

Mirai (7.0)

The Mirai trio striking a ridiculous pose.

Once again iterating on Hosoda's favorite theme, 2018's Mirai tells the story of a toddler who meets his infant younger sister, both when she's brought home from the hospital and when an older version of her comes from the future to take him on an intergenerational journey. Through Mirai, the older sister, he learns about the compounding relationships, experiences, and events that led to the circumstances of his birth, and his sister's. Although it doesn't end up being quite as moving as Wolf Children, Mirai still feels like it has something important to say about the ways that memory and history synthesize to make us.

Mirai sees its characters, and by extension each of us, as parts of a much broader continuum. The movie examines the past actions that seem inconsequential at the time, linking those decisions to the deeply impactful outcomes that come to pass generations down the line. Audiences are left with a profound sense of connectedness to the past, as well as the impression that even the smallest actions today will having a powerful influence on the form the future takes. This movie helped cement Hosoda as one of a handful of non-Ghibli directors producing some of the industry's greatest anime movies, and isn't to be missed.

One Piece: Baron Omatsuri And The Secret Island (7.2)

Luffy looking shocked and horrified in One Piece.

Although the licensed film that put Hosoda on the map is without a doubt the first Digimon movie, his One Piece tie-in has wound up being the better-reviewed film overall. Don't write this one off as a simple One Piece story, though, because there's a lot to like here even for those unfamiliar with the long-running shounen titan. Thankfully, the story is disconnected from the larger One Piece continuity, so even those with little background in the series can jump right in.

Those that do take a chance on this film will likely be surprised at One Piece's unique and eye-catching visual style on display. Hosoda is a director known for playing around with the medium, but even so, One Piece stands out as among his more visually ostentatious works. The story also goes to some dark places, and in a manner that's far more surreal than one might typically be exposed to in One Piece.

Summer Wars (7.5)

The virtual avatars of the Summer Wars cast.

In some respects, Summer Wars feels like a revisitation of Hosoda's early Digimon movie. A digital world called OZ permeates every aspect of social life, sometimes supplanting the imaginary for the real. As the movie's protagonist is visiting his love interest's extended family during a summer reunion, OZ comes under attack from unknown forces. With the attack on OZ threatening to bleed over into the real world, the protagonist, Kenji, must learn to work together with an unfamiliar family to avert disaster.

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Although the emotional core of the film stems from watching Kenji grow closer with his (not) family as they address the film's central conflict, Summer Wars also has a lot of interesting things to say about the ways that the virtual will come to affect the real. Like Digimon, Summer Wars manages to avoid the simplistic, familiar arguments surrounding the increased prominence of the virtual in our lives. Rather than seeing it as at odds with a "real" life, Summer Wars appears to see the virtual as an extension to, rather than a substitute for, authentic human interaction.

The Boy And The Beast (7.6)

The protagonists of The Boy And The Beast arguing.

In The Boy and the Beast, the boy, an orphan named Kyuta, finds himself in a fantastical and unfamiliar world while exploring Shinjuku, where he meets Kumatetsu, the beast, and adventure awaits. Although The Boy and the Beast might not feel quite as universal or poignant as some of Hosoda's other works, it still manages to deliver some satisfying emotional beats, and compelling character writing.

The real draw to the film, on the other hand, is its unique visual approach. The fantastical setting for The Boy and the Beast lends itself to some strikingly inventive character and concept design. It's clear that an enormous amount of care went into designing the world that the story would take place in, making this one worth watching for the visuals and animation alone. The artwork here easily holds up against CGI, and helps crystalize Hosoda's signature visual style.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (7.7)

Makoto and her love interest watch the sunset in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is the film that saw Hosoda striking out on his own as a director for the first time, having directed licensed tie-in films like One Piece and Digimon beforehand. It's an early directorial outing for him, but those who have been following Hosoda's work for a while will immediately see some of his familiar themes taking shape here. It's a familiar story of intimate personal relationships being examined through a fantastically designed supernatural theme, but there are some unique elements that set it apart from the director's other works.

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Firstly, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time has a far more explicit romantic undertone to it than Hosoda's other works do, making it feel similar to an anime movie like Your Name. Staged primarily as a coming-of-age narrative, the film follows Makoto navigating her path into adulthood when she suddenly gains the ability to, quite literally, leap through time itself. Opting to explore the impact that this development has on the story's characters rather than getting bogged down in the mechanics of time travel, the story follows Makoto to some poignant conclusions.

Wolf Children (8.1)

The family from Wolf Children at the park.

Easily Hosoda's best-received film, Wolf Children is a moving and heartfelt portrait of parenthood. Like many of his movies, it uses a supernatural twist to examine classic family dynamics with fresh eyes. In this story, a woman's werewolf husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her responsible for raising their two part-wolf children (hence the title). The challenges of such an undertaking are easy to imagine, but in the supernatural antics of the two children, Hosoda sees something universal about what it means to be a parent.

Adopting a Plein Air, slice of life atmosphere that might seem familiar to fans of director Naoko Yamada, Wolf Children drops the fantastical sci-fi landscapes of Hosoda's other works in favor of a more grounded setting. Despite being intensely heartfelt, there's a bittersweet undertone to the film that never quite goes away. The thesis, and the point that the mother must come to realize, is that children will eventually stake out their own paths through life, and that the duty of the parent is to support them in this endeavor. For their mother, the motives of the wolf children might not always make sense, but learning to trust them enough to let them go is the conclusion her character arc eventually reaches.

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