Beast Boy.

On Friday, I saw two movies. I'll speak of the better of the two, Bakemono no Ko. I tried to go see it last weekend but it was sold out. Not surprising, for it debuted at #1 earning 667,035,100 yen (about US$5.4 million) in its first two days. Apparently it now holds the #2 spot, beating out the new Pokemon movie! (I wonder what #1 is? Could it be the live-action Attack on Titan? He asked knowingly.)

The story of the film is set in the human realm (Tokyo's Shibuya ward) and the bakemono realm ("Jūtengai"). In these two worlds that must not intersect, there lives a lonely boy and a lonely bakemono. One day, the boy gets lost in the bakemono world, becomes the disciple of the bakemono Kumatetsu, and is renamed Kyūta.

The Shibuya setting was magnificent. I recognized buildings immediately and it was fun just to relive it.

The bakemono realm was just as fascinating with innumerable anthropomorphized creatures, each with their own personality.

Koji Yakusho as Kumatetsu, a bear-like being who acts as a teacher to the human Kyūta. Click his name for his bio, lots of Samurai roles and he also was Dr. Tenma in the Astroboy movie.

As a boy, voiced by Aoi Miyazaki, she also had a role in an earlier movie by director Mamoru Hosoda called Wolf Children. That little mouse creature in his hair stuck through thick and thin with him, helping to ground him to his humanity.

As an adolescent, Ren/ Kyūta was voiced by Shouta Sometani.
I though his voice was familiar. I recently saw him in Strayer's Chronicle, Parasyte, and Sadako 3D.

Along the way he picked up a nerdy yet supportive high school gal named Kaede voiced by Suzu Hirose. 

I discovered these trailers with English subtitles just now. I'd figured out most of the story regardless.





I wasn't keen on any of the goodies offered at the theatre but I did pick up a set of Postcards. I'm a little disappointed that more of the creatures weren't in the set, yet there's a nice mix of clips and storyboards.

The top one is a keeper for me but I am willing to send a card or two to the first 19 people who'd like one. Let me know whether you'd prefer a clip or a storyboard and if there is a specific one that you'd like, I'll number them and give it to the first bidder.
CONTEST!!
1

 2

 3

 4

 5, 6 and 7 (some spacing problems.)

 8 and 9

 10

 11

 12

 13

 14

 15

 16

 17

...and I'm missing two! I'm too tired to check on which are missing so IF I get lots of requests, I'll dig them up. (Preference will be given to those who live OUTSIDE of Japan. Those who live in Japan can go see the movie and get some themselves.)

Enjoy the movie. I understand it'll be shown in Australia soon. I don't know whether it'll wind its way to North America anytime soon.

ps. The other movie I saw was Ao-Oni ver. 2.1. I saw the first version last year and found it to be cute story about a Blue Ogre (Ao-Oni) that devours some school kids. This time around, it was more of the same but not as much fun.