Mamoru Hosoda's "The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki" Inspires Manga

04.05.2012 16:45

“The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki”, the latest movie from Mamoru Hosada, the director of “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” and “Summer Wars”, is slated to open in theaters throughout Japan on July 21. And according to the April issue of Kadokawa Shoten’s “Young Ace” magazine, its next issue (that would go on sale in Japan on April 4) would launch the manga adaptation of the movie. The artist Yu will illustrate the manga with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s character designs.

The movie’s story begins when a 19-year-old college student named Hana who encounters and falls in “fairy tale-like” love with a “wolf man”. After marrying the wolf man, Hana gives birth and raises two wolf children – an older sister named Yuki (“snow”) who was born on a snowy day, and a younger brother named Ame (“rain”) who was born on a rainy day. The four quietly lived in a corner of a city to conceal the fact that the children are “wolf children”. However, when the wolf man suddenly dies, Hana decides to move to a rural town far removed from the city.

The central theme of the movie is “Mother and Child”. Hosoda explained that many of his friends are married with children, and that he was inspired and moved by the gentle and loving relationship he saw between mother and child. And when asked about the choice of “wolf children” and not simply the children of humans, he explained that he was keen to explore the fantasy aspect in the fusion of the two, and that it might just make for a more interesting story. “The fact that I was born in Fukuyama and have a sense of affection for it might also have influenced our choice”, Hosoda mused.