Kento Yamazaki
Yuu (voice)
Overview
Adapted from the video game series of the same name, NiNoKuni follows high school peers Yuu and Haru who must travel between two separate yet parallel worlds to help save their childhood friend, Kotona, whose life is in danger. In this magical quest complicated by love, the three teens will be tasked with making the ultimate choice.
Cast
11 people
Reviews
4 min readIt lingers. It also stalls.
I have been turning NiNoKuni over for days, not because it is a perfect film. It is not. A feeling stays after the details run, like a dream you lose on the way to the kitchen. This 2019 live-action fantasy lives in that haze. The stakes sound heavy. The movie will not fully pick them up.
The premise is familiar. Yuu and Haru, two high school boys, learn that their childhood friend Kotona is in mortal danger, in their world and in a parallel one where she is a princess under siege. Her life in one world is tied to her death in the other.
The boys have to cross over to save her. That setup could have gone loud and soggy. The film stays quiet.
Maybe that is restraint. Maybe that is budget. The magic is suggested more than shown.
I liked the whisper more than I expected to.
Animation sits in the mix, used sparingly, like punctuation. A creature made of light flickers into being, shifting between hand-drawn fluidity and something more digital. The join is rough.
The roughness started to feel like a memory leaking into the room, the two worlds smearing each other. I was oddly charmed by the imperfections. I also kept thinking a fully animated version of this story might have held together better.
The feeling of the film sits on the young leads, and here the ground is firmer. Kento Yamazaki and Mackenyu, as Yuu and Haru, have a chemistry I bought even when the script reached for old tropes. Their friendship feels lived-in, built on shared history and things left unsaid.
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.5/10
"A visually striking fantasy adventure with strong voice acting but struggles to stand out due to a predictable plot."
The film’s animation and voice performances, particularly from the lead cast, are widely praised for their quality and emotional depth. However, the story feels overly familiar, with many noting it lacks the originality or narrative depth to fully engage beyond its aesthetic appeal. latestnetflix.com's take is that Some viewers found the pacing uneven, with slower moments detracting from the overall experience.
What viewers praise
- Stunning animation The visual style and animation quality are consistently highlighted as a major strength, with vibrant and detailed fantasy worlds.
- Strong voice acting The cast, including Koichi Yamadera and Maaya Sakamoto, delivers standout performances that add emotional weight to the characters.
- Engaging fantasy setting The world-building and fantasy elements are immersive, offering a rich backdrop for the adventure.
Common complaints
- Predictable plot The story follows well-worn fantasy tropes, leaving little room for surprises or deeper narrative innovation.
- Uneven pacing Some viewers felt the film dragged in places, particularly during slower character moments or exposition-heavy scenes.
- Underdeveloped side characters While the leads shine, the supporting cast often feels thin or underutilized, limiting their impact on the story.
Recommended for
Fantasy adventure fans Animation enthusiasts Fans of Studio Ghibli-style visuals Voice acting aficionados Casual fantasy viewers
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsThe live-action version does not exist.
NiNoKuni that hit Japanese theaters on 23 August 2019 is animated. Warner Bros. Pictures Japan distributed it. OLM drew it. Runtime is 106 minutes. Level-5 chief Akihiro Hino wrote the screenplay from his own game series. Yoshiyuki Momose directed. JFDB notes his Ghibli years on Hayao Miyazaki films and his work on the games. latestnetflix.com's view is that Joe Hisaishi scored the picture after scoring the Ni no Kuni games.Hiroyoshi Koiwai executive produced. Keina Suda sang the theme MOIL. 
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Kento Yamazaki voices Yuu. His own site calls it his first seiyuu job, announced 10 February 2019, with a Japan premiere on 25 July 2019. Mackenyu is Haru. Mei Nagano is Kotona and her other-world self. Anime News Network's English credits list her as Asha/Kotona. Mamoru Miyano, Maaya Sakamoto, Yuki Kaji, Kenjiro Tsuda, Koichi Yamadera, Masato Ibu, and Tsuyoshi Muro fill the rest. ANN also logged Serishun and Haruka Minase as voice-audition winners making their debuts in the film. , ,
A $2.86 million Japan run, then Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogu3x99khC4
Wikipedia places the story centuries after Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. High school friends hop between the real world and the other country after Kotona's life, and her double's life, are both at risk. Hino's line for that fork is the ultimate choice. Warner Bros. Japan's April 2019 trailer sold the same sentence. The clip is still on the studio channel. ,
Japan opened to $969,014. Box Office Mojo lists the Japan total as $2,858,846, and that figure is the worldwide total. There is no US theatrical line on that page. On 13 December 2019 ANN reported Netflix would stream the film in the United States on 16 January 2020. That is the US bow, four months after Japan, not a 2021 second life. ,
ANN's staff note is specific. OLM also animates Pokemon and Inazuma Eleven. Koiwai's live-action credits include Gintama and Rurouni Kenshin. Momose had designed characters for The Legend of the Galactic Heroes and storyboarded Only Yesterday and Pom Poko. The Netflix film is an original story, not a recap of Wrath of the White Witch. Yuu, Haru, and Kotona cross because of one incident, then have to choose when both Kotonas are dying at once. That is Hino's pitch, repeated in the US date announcement.
Momose coming back from the games, Hisaishi coming back from the games, Hino writing his own world. That is the production story on the record. There is no sourced fight between a mystery live-action director and a studio over tone. There is no sourced CGI reshoot panic. Those rumors belong to a movie that was never shot. The movie that exists is an OLM feature with idol voices, a modest Japan gross, and a Netflix window ANN dated to mid-January. ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.