Crunchyroll announced that it will screen Mamoru Hosoda’s The Boy and The Beast to select theatres in the U.S. for one-day-only on August 18, 2025. Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment will release the film in select U.S. theatres in Japanese with English subtitles. Tickets for the screening are also now on sale and more information can be found here.
Hosoda directed and wrote the film’s screenplay at Studio Chizu. His next anime film, Scarlet, will premiere in Japan on November 21, 2025 and in North America on December 12, 2025.
The Boy and The Beast first premiered in Japan on July 11, 2015. It grossed 5.85 billion yen (US$4.26 million) at the Japanese box office and won the Animation of the Year at the 37th Japan Academy Film Prize in 2016. Funimation first licensed the film for release in the U.S. in 2015.
Crunchyroll describes the main synopsis of The Boy and The Beast as:
The latest feature film from award-winning Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children): 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.
The company also recently announced the launch of Crunchyroll Anime Nights in more than 225 theaters in the U.S. later this year, starting October 2025. It will screen the upcoming Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved and the first seven episodes of OVERLORD season one.
Source: press release
