When four-year-old Kun meets his new baby sister, his world is turned upside down. Named Mirai (meaning “future”), the baby quickly wins the hearts of Kun’s entire family. As his mother returns to work, and his father struggles to run the household, Kun becomes increasingly jealous of baby Mirai… until one day he storms off into the garden, where he encounters strange guests from the past and future.
In the film’s strange, upsetting and ultimately ravishing finale, Hosoda goes just macro enough with the concept to dazzle kids and send the adults out sobbing. – Vulture
The film promises cuteness too, with a sweetly simple visual style that seems suited to the comic travails of a modern family coping with stress. – Wall Street Journal
Tempering its flights of fancy with moments of whimsical humour and kid’s-eye realism, this thoughtful treatise on growing pains reveals a realist side of Japanimation that’s all too rarely seen. – Empire