The Boy and the Beast

Alright ill start,
Watched this in cinemas when it came out, great movie with love able and touching characters and a few laugh out loud moments but the ending went the summer wars route and it almost ruined the whole movie for me. I mean what the heck? I hate it when writers invent a whole bunch of new aspects about the world that have been up till then ignored just to have a cool showdown. Having a possessed antagonist is a massive cop out anyway, keep him sane, give him a real reason to fight and then during the fight have the characters use techniques that they actually learnt in the years of training. This is becoming a trend that should never have started.

That being said i still loved it ;)
 
I found the action moments really good and the rest was terribly slow and pretty boring. okish characters considering it was a movie but overall nothing we've not seen before.
 
Watched it about 5 times now and I'm getting the feeling of an "anti-suicide" movie. Kumatetsu talks about a "sword in your heart" as a casual "this is how you do it" manner to Kyuta. It is a very comical scene in the movie filled with hilarious onomatopoeia of GRRR and GWAAAAAAA, but considering the film's dark turn may hold more significance. Just a thought.
 
i saw this for sale on the skytv store and made an impulse buy.
(definatlybeen making too many of those recently, new car, pc, laptop, 2 holidays etc. i think my inheritence is going to my head somewhat! no drugs tho, so thats good :)! )

i tried to watch it on my digibox but it only played it in japanese with subs, so i had to wait for the dvd to arrive to really watch it properly. i am so glad that i did
subtitles just dont do this film justice imo. subs just cant comunicate emotions properly and this film is full of them

great film and great characters who are very relatable
i shed genuine tears several times while watching this

for me this film was about growing and the emotions and challenges that go with it, and it does really really well
it has a great mix of deep emotions with lots of fun and laughs

yes this is the best anime film i have seen this year!
 
I learned about this movie because clips of it were used in some chill-hop music on Youtube and I loved the look of it. Finally sat down and watched it. I adore this movie and the characters, but the story is pretty all over the place. This should not have been a movie. Shoulda been an OVA or something. Even just 4-10 episodes would have done this story a lot more justice.
 
No matter how many times i read the title, it keeps saying "yaoi here" to me
 
Well, It was a great one, with a good story and a wonderful meaning, and an amazing use of implying other stories for bring more depth to it
 

All right so it’s been half a year since I watched this movie and I remembered it pretty well but I had forgotten how irritating Luci Christian is as Kyuuta [English dub] so I switched over to the English sub and felt disappointed with Kumatetsu’s voice actor.

So to compromise I watched the English sub until Eric Vale takes over as Kyuuta and then went back to the English Dub.
Ah the joys of vocal performance decreasing enjoyment.​
Watching the sub did give me something lost in translation [kyuu=nine].
Now I get his name XD
-x-x-x​
Okay so this kid follows a creature into another world, cries for help, acts tough when being bullied, gets taken in by one of the inhabitants, and then refuses to even give his name because it’s “personal info”. Dude I get that you’re nine but geez you’ve got ‘tude. Then he takes off trying to get back “home” when there is no home for him to return to.

I think the movie would’ve been better if Ren[Kyuuta] would have embraced this world from the start.

Kumatetsu would have made a good street performer, kart-wheels and fancy-feet work would make him some dough - though I guess not in his world.


I really enjoy Ren/Kyuuta and Kaede’s relationship and how it doesn’t 180 the show into straight up romance. The story honors the title throughout the movie.


I have mixed feelings in general when anthropomorphized creatures wear clothes but I really don’t get why they wear shoes in this movie. The sash to hold the sword makes total sense but sandals are just ridiculous to me.


I do not like that Ichirouhiko gets taken by the darkness simply because someone else shows promise in being beast-like. It’s supposed to take nearly a decade of training for apprentices to really come into their own so being upset about another child’s progress when you could be working on your own makes me facepalm.

I get rivalry, it’s an important and useful tool in training and in life, the way it’s used in this movie fell flat to me. I suppose it’s because the animators didn’t use a whole lot of screen time on these two to make it work for me. It’s more like Ichirouhiko simply got jealous and goes off the deep-end. I guess it would be simplest to say that this is an example in how rivalry is mistaken for simple jealousy.


The Bunny as Grandmaster puts a smile on my face. His decision to become the God of Decisiveness likewise has me grinning ;}

Kumatetsu’s quick ascension into godhood in order to protect his disciple is my top tear-jerking moment from this film (the beginning with Ren's relatives disregarding his feelings and Ren's fathers double-take when Ren asks if he knows him being my #2&#3). It's so fitting that he would become a sword. The sword inside would have been a good subtitle or even alternative title for this beautifully touching film.


Beasts can become gods. Humans cannot.
I support this.
 
Here for the ABC group watch as well.

I really enjoyed the overall aesthetic and feel of this movie, the color palette and animation, as well as the characters. I generally always watch the subtitled versions, so didnt have the same problem as @Inu230 had. I guess I am mostly confused and wondering about how Kyuuta goes back and forth between this beast world and the regular Earthly world? Also, I am wondering what is the symbolism of the animals in this movie?
 
Last edited:
KarmaKhameleon said:
Here for the ABC group watch as well.

I really enjoyed the overall aesthetic and feel of this movie. I generally always watch the subtitled versions, so didnt have the same problem as @Inu230 had. I guess I am mostly confused and wondering about how Kyuuta goes in out between this beast world and the regular Earthly world? Also, I am wondering what is the symbolism of the animals in this movie?
Click to expand...

The beasts don't have much of a problem going back and forth between the two when the mood strikes them -- after all that's how Ren is first asked to be Kumatetsu's apprentice.

Passing between the two worlds isn't all that hard for beasts. The Monk [Hyakushuubou] tells Ren/Kyuuta that the worlds are easily traveled by beasts as they can become gods. It's true that for a human to accidentally find the route into the beast world is odd but not unprecedented.

As for how/why Kyuuta does it later.
While he's running from Kumatetsu he finds himself back at the beginning of the entrance to the human world and physical memory takes over and he's back where he was 8 years ago: the human world.

It's probably easiest to think of it like this:​
For the bulk of his child-rearing years Kyuuta was an inhabitant of the beast world, he strove to be like his master and became in-tuned with his foster-father.
As a human trained to be beast-like he's able to do what they can. Something like accessing the human world is probably a low level beast ability.

Animal symbolism
Well there are quite a lot of critters to look at. I'll take a stab at a few:
  • Hyakushuubou {Boar/Pig]: This is typically the figure for gluttony (Especially if your past anime experience is Spirited Away). I'm going to believe that the creator wanted to flip the automatic association. Rather than having the seen that pot-bellied oinking porker they made the animal a monk. In place of the garbage eating, smelly, fatty animal for slaughter viewers get a soft spoken, slim, and well-mannered eater with well displayed tea etiquette.
Since Kyuuta's a human and the majority of beasts look at him with stereotypical thoughts this also works well at mirroring how he should be viewed. Sometimes a symbol needs to be changed.​
  • Crowd during Kumatetsu's & Iouzen's fight (22mins into movie)[Primarily Dogs]: The majority of the beasts I saw cheering on Iouzen were canines. Dogs are loyal. Not much brain power put behind this one I'd say. They all cheer for Iouzen because he's believed to be the strongest and next in line to be the ruler/lord -- eventual grandmaster. They'll defend him because they put faith in him.​
  • Tatara [Monkey/Ape - I'm not entirly sure if he's got a tail or not]: Chittering-Chattering Chimpanzee. An animal that learns by watching and feels the need to fill silences with some kind of noise. Holds on to the past [doesn't think Kyuuta belong in the beast world] yet is adaptable [once Kyuuta shows promise Tatara starts cheering for him]. Change can be gradual for the better. Tatara starts off not wanting the human boy in the beast world, doesn't think he's fit to be an apprentice and continually tells Kumatetsu to take him back to the human world. While watching him train and "ape" Kumatetsu's battle moves Tatara starts cheering for him.​
* I started with Pig since it's the Year of the Pig ;)​
 
I’m also here from the Bingo Challenge group watch and wow.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this movie quite as much as I did, I’ve given it 5* and I know it won’t be the last time I watch it.
I spent the last 20 minutes of the movie with tears in my eyes.

I thought it had fantastic character development, especially from Kumatetsu, and I adored the friendship Ren found with Kaede.

I loved the contrast in art style/colour palettes between the real world and the beast world, and I enjoyed the sound track too.

I love these sorts of coming of age/overcoming obstacles stories I’m a sucker for the emotion they invoke and this movie definitely got all of my feels.

Thanks for doing a group watch guys or I might have put off watching it for a while yet!
 
hell0emi said:
I’m also here from the Bingo Challenge group watch and wow.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this movie quite as much as I did, I’ve given it 5* and I know it won’t be the last time I watch it.
I spent the last 20 minutes of the movie with tears in my eyes.

I thought it had fantastic character development, especially from Kumatetsu, and I adored the friendship Ren found with Kaede.

I loved the contrast in art style/colour palettes between the real world and the beast world, and I enjoyed the sound track too.

I love these sorts of coming of age/overcoming obstacles stories I’m a sucker for the emotion they invoke and this movie definitely got all of my feels.

Thanks for doing a group watch guys or I might have put off watching it for a while yet!
Click to expand...

I had some similar thoughts about the movie before I saw it the first time as well. I didn't read any synopsis so I was just basing my expectations off the title. I was surprised by the story and thought it was going to be about a boy trained to fight/kill a beast and either did so or became friends with him, sometimes I just love it when anime does not meet my presumptions ^^
And I was happily surprised when it didn't transform into romantic sappiness when Ren/Kyuuta became a teen and met Kaede.

It's definitely a feel good movie =)
 
Last edited:
Inu230 said:
And I was happily surprised when it didn't transform into romantic sappiness when Ren/Kyuuta became a teen and met Kaede.

It's definatly a feel good movie =)
Click to expand...
Im pleased they were left as a friendship, I love a good friendship and it worked out perfectly and it’s made me want to watch more from the studio too because I loved the execution :D
 
hell0emi said:
Im pleased they were left as a friendship, I love a good friendship and it worked out perfectly and it’s made me want to watch more from the studio too because I loved the execution :D
Click to expand...

Sadly there are only 3 movies thus far from this studio, luckily that means watching them all only takes a day. I've seen them all and would recommend Wolf Children before Mirai.
[If you wanna group watch these I'm in for re-watching both/either].
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top