Summer Days with Coo

Summer Days with Coo (河童のクゥと夏休み, Kappa no Kū to Natsuyasumi, lit. "Summer holidays with Coo the kappa") is a 2007 Japanese animated film about a kappa and its impact on an ordinary suburban family, written for the screen and directed by Keiichi Hara based on two novels by Masao Kogure.

Summer Days with Coo
Japanese河童のクゥと夏休み
Directed byKeiichi Hara
Screenplay byKeiichi Hara
Based onKappa Ōsawagi and Kappa Bikkuri Tabi
by Masao Kogure
Music byKei Wakakusa
Production
company
Distributed byShochiku
Release date
  • July 28, 2007 (2007-07-28) (Japan)
Running time
138 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Budget$3,333,389[1]

Reception

The film won the Best Animation Film award at the 2008 Mainichi Film Awards[2] and was nominated for Best Animation Film at the 2008 Japanese Academy Awards,[3] and for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2007 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It also won the Grand Prize for Animation at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival and the Feature Film category at the 2008 Tokyo Anime Award.

Plot

A small, lone kappa miraculously survives over 200 years into modern day Tokyo, Japan when he is found by young Kōichi. "Coo" who is secretly adopted by the whole family, faces a tragic past and the present's challenge of living in a dramatically changed environment, searches with his new human friend for places not invaded by people hoping to find any remaining of his kind. When this intelligent "water spirit" draws the popular attention of the whole city upon being discovered and then confronted with his past, it forces him to take action and make an ultimate decision, in order to preserve his kind, inner peace and well being in today's harsh world.

Characters
  • Coo (クゥ Kū) – The kappa the whole story revolves around. He is found by Kōichi Uehara, after he had survived over 200 years as a fossil. He then lives with Uehara family.
  • Kōichi Uehara (上原康一, Uehara Kōichi) – A fourth grade student. One day he finds a fossil of a baby kappa who survived for 200 years.
  • Ossan (オッサン) – The Uehara family dog.

Other mythical creatures

There are other Japanese mythical creatures appearing in the movie:

Cast

Release

Over a decade after its debut, the film became widely available in a native English-speaking region for the first time when, in the United States and Canada, it was released direct to home video on January 21, 2020 by GKIDS.[4]

References
  1. "Kappa no ku to natsu yasumi (2007)". Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  2. "Mainichi Film Concours: 2008". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
  3. "Tekkonkinkreet Wins Japan's Academy Award for Animation". Anime News Network. 2008-02-15. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
  4. "GKIDS acquires The Case of Hana and Alice, Genius Party, Genius Party Beyond, and Summer Days with Coo". GKIDS. May 30, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019. GKIDS will release the films direct to home video in 2019.


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