When most people think of big name anime directors, people like Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata naturally come to mind. Yet as the titans behind Studio Ghibli enter into their twilight years, a new generation of directors are stepping into the limelight. Chief among them is Mamoru Hosoda, the award-winning director of films like Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Wolf Children who is cementing himself as one of the most essential voices in modern anime. The Japan Times said that Hosoda ranks “first among the Japanese animation directors seen as successors to now-retired industry giant Hayao Miyazaki — and for good reason.” His latest film, The Boy and the Beast, is a testament to that fact.

The Boy and the Beast follows Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood, whose world gets turned upside-down when he encounters Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-and-tumble warrior who just so happens to be a monstrous creature called a beast. Kumatetsu takes Kyuta on as his apprentice, and the bickering duo must put their differences aside to save both the human world and the beast world from a dastardly evil that threatens to destroy everything they hold dear. You can get a taste of what their relationship is like in our exclusive clip of Kumatetsu and Kyuta’s first meeting, which you can watch in the player above.

You can also watch the subtitled Japanese-language version of the clip below:

Released by Funimation, Mamoro Hosoda’s The Boy and the Beast hits select theaters in the U.S. beginning on March 4, 2016.

Will you be seeing The Boy and the Beast in theaters? Let us know in the comments below.