• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.49
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• pp.113-142
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• 2017

Mamoru Hosoda's (2015) depicts the adventure with which a physically and psychologically isolated boy is growing through a 'Relationship' with surrounding beings. This paper intends to reveal the essence of 'Relationships' and 'True Growth' that the director presents to us. In the film, a boy's adventure is centered on two worlds (the human world and the beast world). Here, the human world refers to a civilized society, and the beast world 'Naturalness' as the inner nature of a human being. The human world and the beast world in the mirror-relationship with the human world were originally a world, and the inside and the outside of the place for all existing things were connected in one. Human beings were never superior to the surrounding beings, but all beings were equal in relationship. The way of thinking in that age is called 'Symmetrical Thinking.' But as human beings opened the road to self-centered civilization, they eliminated 'Nature' inside themselves. As a result, the two worlds (human beings and nature, or the human world and the beast world) were eventually separated. This destroyed not only the human-nature relationship but also the human-to-human relationship, which is one of the characteristics of the civilized society where we currently live. Through the boy's question, "Who am I?", the director suggests to us that the inner nature of a human being as a natural being should be reinstated. This means that a human being restores the "relationship" with all beings (other beings) surrounding himself or herself, which is the only alternative to overcome various violences of the civilized society that we have created. The full growth of a human being is achieved at this point. In this way, offers a reflection on the human civilization and society, and questions the possibility of coexistence with other beings, through cosmic thinking (symmetrical thinking) that we have lost. In this respect, it is a text presented as a 'Model of Maturity' for an immature human society.