After a couple of films, I'm starting to think Hosoda has a particular idea of what a proper japanese woman should be, and he has characters that reflect that. Like Yuki in Wolf Children started out as a feral wild child, then she grew hup, her hair darkened, and she became a proper japanese girl interested in makeup and boys and such. Natsuki in SUmmer Wars was also a pretty straightforward blank slate who didn't have much interesting going on aside from her secret crush on Kenji… it was her family and the game world that was interesting.
In BatB,
! I was fine with the kid growing up and returning to the normal world and finding a normal girl as a contrast to his crazy martial artist life… that fits the nature of the story and goes back to Tarzan or Jungle Book and it's totally fine... but it is a shame that it was so similar to the first 10 minutes of Wolf Children.. and it probably shouldn't have been the middle of the movie. But it was mostly the stuff with the rival that turned into a whale that was just...what? Neat visuals but... what?
As he does more films it'll be easier to tell where his strengths, weaknesses, characters, and interests lie…and some films are going to be weaker or stronger than others... and that's fine and true of any director. Still interested to see what he does next.