Summer Days with Coo
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is a 2007 Japanese animated film about a
kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...
and its impact on an ordinary
suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
family, written for the screen and directed by
Keiichi Hara is a Japanese director of animated films. Biography What started Hara on his career as an animation creator was visiting an animation film company as part of his job hunting activities after graduating from Tokyo Designer Gakuin College (TDG). ...
based on two novels by Masao Kogure.


Plot

Following a dreadful encounter with a samurai, a young kappa's father is murdered. As he cries, the ground opens up and swallows him whole. 200 years later in modern day Tokyo, Kōichi Uehara is peer pressured by his friends to pick on the quiet Sayoko Kikuchi, whom they continue to call ugly. Kōichi winds up in a muddy ditch where he finds a stone and within it, the kappa. He takes him home to his family who are awestruck at having a real kappa in their home. They name the kappa Coo, as he has forgotten his real name, and he quickly warms up to the family, though Kōichi's younger sister Hitomi has a strong disdain for him, but slowly she too accepts him. Their pet dog, Ossan, is revealed to be able to communicate with Coo via telepathy, though he tells him not to tell the Ueharas about it. Coo is spotted in the middle of the night by a couple and soon reports of a kappa sighting is spread throughout Japan. Wanting to know where he came from, Kōichi decides to take a holiday to the country with Coo to see if they can find any clues. They stay in a house where Coo communicates with a Zashiki-warashi (House Spirit Child) who informs him that he is most likely the last kappa as she has not seen anymore. Upon their return home, a couple of journalists ambush Kōichi and snap a picture of Coo. Journalists and photographers begin to camp around the Ueharas' house; practically leaving them no privacy. In an effort to appease them, Kōichi's father Yasuo takes a video of Coo to show to everyone and get various offers. Coo later learns from Ossan that he had a previous owner who loved him, but that one day he started getting beaten up by him due to the stress of school. He ran away before getting adopted by the Ueharas. Coo agrees to go on television with the Ueharas under the condition that Ossan come as well. On the talk show, they bring out a cryptid expert who resembles the samurai that killed Coo's father (possibly a descendant). He reveals that the samurai claimed the kappa's arm upon getting sliced off. Coo recognizes the arm as his father's and cries before psychically destroying the lights and cameras in the studio. He escapes the studio atop Ossan and flees with the arm with various bystanders in pursuit. During the chase, Ossan is hit by a car and dies. Coo once again uses his abilities to blow up a bird that was planning to eat Ossan before climbing up a radio tower with his father's arm. As he considers killing himself, the sky suddenly begins to rain and a water elemental dragon appears; convincing Coo to keep living. He is rescued shortly afterwards. Kōichi, who had started to become kinder to Kikuchi thanks to Coo, defends her honor. She later tells him that she is moving away due to her parents divorcing. Upon returning home, his mother Yukari informs him that Coo is leaving after receiving a letter that he claims is in Yokai handwriting. The Ueharas are saddened by the news, but ultimately accept it and have one final day with Coo. Yasuo distracts the paparazzi while Kōichi takes Coo away in a box. He briefly stops by Kikuchi's apartment so that he can show Coo to her and they promise to write to each other when she moves away. Kōichi takes a long and arduous trip to ship Coo away, but is told by him to not be sad as he will visit them one day. Coo arrives in Okinawa where the recipient is revealed to be a kijimuna, a cousin to the kappa, who saw him on the news and became worried. He promises to teach Coo how to change his appearance before telling him that he can call him Ossan. Coo ventures in the lush greenery of his new surroundings with his father's arm; promising to continue his search for more kappa and to one day see the Ueharas again.


Characters

* Coo (クゥ ''Kū'') – The
kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...
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. * – 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: * A doll-like zashiki warashi, living in a ''magariya'' in
Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...
*
Kijimuna The Kijimuna ( Okinawan: , ''kijimunaa'', also ''kijimun'' 木の精), or Bunagaya, are creatures of the mythology native to the island of Okinawa. They are said to look around three or four years old and have red hair. About The kijimuna are ...
, living in
Yanbaru is the Okinawan and Kunigami name given to the forested northern part of Okinawa Island in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of Higashi, Kunigami, and Ōgimi, Yambaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of subtropical rai ...
,
Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...
* A rain or water elemental
Asian dragon The Chinese dragon, also known as ''loong'', ''long'' or ''lung'', is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and Chinese culture at large. Chinese dragons have many Outline of life forms, animal-like forms such as Bixi (my ...
.


Cast

* Kazato Tomizawa as Coo * Takahiro Yokokawa as Kōichi Uehara * Naoki Tanaka as Yasuo Uehara *
Naomi Nishida is an actress. She won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2001 Yokohama Film Festival and at the 25th Hochi Film Award for her performance in ''Nabbie's Love''. Personal life She married a Japanese shoe designer in 2005, and gave birth to ...
as Yukari Uehara *
Tamaki Matsumoto is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer from Yokohama, Kanagawa. Career In August 2001, Tamaki Matsumoto entered the Theater Academy. She debuted in October 2002, with the stage performance ''Teruteru no Teruko''. In 2007, she received ...
as Hitomi Uehara *
Yoshito Yasuhara is a Japanese actor and voice actor. He is a member of Theatre Echo, a theatre troupe and talent management firm known for its comedy sketches. Yasuhara is known for being the Japanese dubbing voice of Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Bill Murray, Gar ...
as Ossan * Natsuki Uematsu as Sayoko Kikuchi * Rika Inoue as
Zashiki-warashi , sometimes also called , are spirit-like beings told about mostly in the Iwate Prefecture. They are said to be yokai that live in parlors or storage rooms, and that perform pranks, and that people who see one would be visited with good fortune. ...
*
Michio Hazama is a Japanese voice actor and narrator. He is known for dubbing over Sylvester Stallone, Roy Scheider and Dean Martin. Filmography Television animation *''Astro Boy'' (1963) (Kinoo (ep. 33), Brutus (ep. 40), Nuwu (ep. 48)) *'' Star of the G ...
as the Samurai *
Akiko Yajima is a Japanese voice actress from Kashiwazaki, Niigata. Her best-known role is as the title character Shinnosuke Nohara in the long-running anime series '' Crayon Shin-chan''. She also voices Mipple in the original ''Futari wa Pretty Cure'', S ...
as Announcer *
Keiji Fujiwara was a Japanese actor and voice actor. His best known works are voicing Shinnosuke's father Hiroshi Nohara in the long-running anime series '' Crayon Shin-chan'', Maes Hughes in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'', Holland in ''Eureka Seven'', Axel in '' K ...
as Emcee * Gori as
Kijimuna The Kijimuna ( Okinawan: , ''kijimunaa'', also ''kijimun'' 木の精), or Bunagaya, are creatures of the mythology native to the island of Okinawa. They are said to look around three or four years old and have red hair. About The kijimuna are ...


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 GKIDS is an American film distributor based in New York with, according to the ''Los Angeles Times'', a focus on "sophisticated, indie" animation. GKIDS releases critically acclaimed, mostly hand-drawn, international films—such as the works o ...
.


Reception

The film won the Best Animation Film award at the 2008
Mainichi Film Award The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...
s and was nominated for Best Animation Film at the 2008
Japanese Academy Awards The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...
, and for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2007
Asia Pacific Screen Awards The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) is an international cultural initiative overseen by the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and headquartered in Australia. In order to realise UNESCO's goals of promoting and preserving the different cultures th ...
. It also won the Grand Prize for Animation at the 11th
Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...
and the Feature Film category at the 2008
Tokyo Anime Award The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002, but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named 'Competition'. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013. In 2014, after the ...
.


References


External links

* * * * {{Tokyo Anime Award for Domestic Feature Film 2000s children's fantasy films 2007 anime films Anime films based on novels Japanese children's fantasy films Films based on Japanese myths and legends Films based on fantasy novels Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Keiichi Hara Films set in Tokyo Japanese animated fantasy films 2000s Japanese-language films Shin-Ei Animation Shochiku films Supernatural fantasy films Works about kappa (folklore) Yōkai in anime and manga