GKIDS is set to release 4K editions of Academy Award-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda‘s film catalog for the first time.
In case you are unfamiliar with him, Mamoru Hosoda is a Japanese film director and animator. His eighth film, Mirai, was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature Film category at the 91st Academy Awards.
Hosoda established his own animation studio, Studio Chizu. He first came to public attention in the early 2000s with the first two films in the Digimon Adventure series and the sixth film in the One Piece series. In the late 2000s, he diversified more with other films, including 2006’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, 2009’s Summer Wars, and 2012’s Wolf Children.
The first titles in the series to receive a reissue are Oscar-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda’s seminal 2009 feature Summer Wars, and critically lauded 2012 hit Wolf Children.
The new home entertainment releases will be presented with brand new artwork in a 4K UHD SteelBook® version, a standard Blu-ray™ issue, and on digital download-to-own platforms.
New issues for Summer Wars will be released on April 1, 2025, and Wolf Children on August 5, 2025. Both titles are now available for preorder.
- Summer Wars pre-Order: gkids.com/films/summer-wars
- Wolf Children Pre-Order:gkids.com/films/wolf-children
Last year, GKIDS announced it had acquired the North American distribution rights to the Mamoru Hosoda catalog of films. GKIDS previously released the Academy Award®- and Golden Globe-nominated Mirai (2018), and the critically lauded Belle (2021), which became Hosoda’s highest grossing film to date in North America.
Hosoda’s six features have all been nominated for, and five have been awarded, the Japan Academy Prize for “Animation of the Year.” Hosoda remains the only Japanese animation director outside of the famed Studio Ghibli to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.