The Boy and the Beast Film Returns to U.S. Theaters on August 18 for 1 Day

Film debuted in Japan in July 2015

Crunchyroll announced on Monday that it and Sony Pictures Entertainment will screen Mamoru Hosoda‘s The Boy and The Beast anime film in select theaters in the U.S. on August 18 for one-day-only. The film will screen in Japanese with English subtitles. The company streamed a trailer:

GKIDS has acquired the North American distribution rights to Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and The Boy and The Beast films. Summer Wars and Wolf Children entered GKIDS‘ catalog immediately last year, while The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Boy and The Beast enter the catalog this year. The films are planned for new theatrical and home video releases.

The The Boy and The Beast film debuted at #1 in the Japanese box-office in July 2015. The film eventually surpassed the total box office earnings of Hosoda’s previous film, Wolf Children, and was the second-highest grossing domestic film in Japan in 2015.

Funimation opened the film in U.S. theaters in March 2016, and it describes the film:

When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he’s taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who’s been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely pair will be put to the ultimate test—a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.

Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) created and scripted the movie. The film was Hosoda’s first film since 2012, when his relatively new animation movie company Studio Chizu released Wolf Children as its first project. Masakatsu Takagi (Wolf Children) scored the soundtrack.

Source: Email correspondence