An anime Film directed by Mamoru Hosoda

Mamoru Hosoda’s 2021 Beauty and the Beast adaptation, Belle, can be seen as a spiritual “sequel” to his smash 2009 hit, Summer Wars. Both have the themes of escaping real-life problems within a virtual world and the problems that can arise with internet use, and both have problems involving that virtual world leaking into the real world as a chief problem to solve. Both are somewhat unorthodox romance stories, and both meld gorgeous hand-drawn animation with cutting edge CGI to create a vibe that is almost solely a work by Hosoda. In some ways Belle is an imperfect film, but it stands almost alone as a sole voice advocating for the internet as a force for good when so many other works of fiction (as well as real-life) seem to point to our impending descent into a technological hellscape. I had put off watching this film for some unknown reason (mostly just time) until this weekend, so the question is – was it worth the wait?

“Suzu is a shy, everyday high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters “U”, a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a gorgeous and globally-beloved singer. One day, her concert is interrupted by a monstrous creature chased by vigilantes. As their hunt escalates, Suzu embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of this mysterious “beast” and to discover her true self in a world where you can be anyone.”

There’s a funny story as to why I watched this film this past weekend. I was scrolling through the AMC Theaters website to get tickets for Psycho-Pass Providence, and saw “Belle” on the listings with the titular pink-haired main character featured in all her glory. Now, Belle is a film that came out in 2021, so it shouldn’t be on there again, but I figured that they do rotate old films in from time to time. Why not this one? If Belle really was in theaters again, I figured it would be a perfect time to see it.

My family has been watching things from Studio Ghibli and other theatrical anime films (usually released by Gkids), and I had intended to watch this with them anyway. I get as far as almost buying tickets and the screen shifts to an Icelandic film that takes the Beauty and the Beast mythos and applies it to what I assume is a Viking Age setting as a horror film. I avoided falling for AMC’s mistake (hopefully you all did as well!) and we decided to watch the movie anyway, albeit on the Max streaming service!

Mamoru Hosoda is easily regarded as a close second to Makoto Shinkai when it comes to modern anime directors that consistently put out great films that do well financially and are beloved by their fans. He loves to delve into themes of family relationships and the power of the internet, which show up repeatedly in his filmography. Aside from Belle, Hosoda has directed a number of films including The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Boy and the Beast, and Mirai. While I have not seen everything he has made (yet), I have really liked what I have seen.

Belle is a re-interpretation of the classic Beauty and the Beast storyline as a fairytale of the internet age. While most people know the story from the wildly popular Disney film, Beauty and the Beast is originally a French story written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. That said, I would argue that this is actually more of a take based on the Disney movie, as Hosoda has even created his own version of the famous ballroom scene from the 1991 musical. Interestingly, the movie is less of a romance story than what I expected, and does a great job of doing its own thing with the tropes.

The main protagonist of the story, a shy girl named Suzu, would rather stay invisible than have anyone take notice of her. As a young child she watched her mother basically sacrifice herself to save a small child from drowning, a fate that pushed Suzu into extreme isolation for the next decade. While she loves music and singing, it’s something she did with her mother, and as a result hides it entirely from view. She is largely unable to cope with her loss, and has developed a crippling anxiety disorder. The worldwide phenomenon that is U, a futuristic virtual chatroom that allows patrons to live out their wildest desires in a virtual world, is her ticket to “being somebody.” The anonymity of being a user on U gives her the confidence to become one of the most popular musicians in the entire world. She performs her music to millions on a weekly basis, and nobody would believe she was really a small-town girl in school. For once people look up to her and she is making a difference, and she almost hates the fact it is happening.

This newfound fame is upended when Belle is drawn into the drama surrounding “The Beast” a U user that specializes in martial arts tournaments and angering a vigilante peacekeeper group within the server. The Beast is absolutely hated and misunderstood, but Belle sees a bit of herself in him. Belle and The beast are not drawn to each other because they become lovers, but because both have survived terrible childhood ordeals and Belle seems to be the only one that understands the pain The Beast is feeling. The moral of the story is that there is somebody out there that will understand you and help you work through your pain if you seek them out. Victims of trauma are not alone no matter how much it may feel that way, and together everyone is stronger than if they stay alone. It’s a VERY interesting way to use the original story, and I really like the fresh take.

Spoilers ahoy mates!

I personally felt underwhelmed by the ending of Belle, mostly because it left so many questions unanswered. The mystery of the identity of The Beast is a main focus of the plot towards the beginning of the film, and when the truth is finally revealed it is very heartbreaking. The Beast is actually the online persona of a young teen boy named Kei that uses the game as an outlet for his anger and depression at the hands of an abusive father. The father appears to be on the verge of harming his sons in a really bad way, resulting in a seemingly heart-warming climax where everyone bands together to discover the boys’ whereabouts and earn their trust to save them. Suzu taps into as if yet unforeseen well of courage, removes her avatar and performs as herself for the first time ever to draw The Beast out of hiding when the vigilantes are attempting to “dox” him.

Eventually Suzu is able to figure everything out, and hurriedly travels to the general area the boys are in, the two boys have escaped their home, but their father isn’t far behind. Suzu stands in front of their father, absorbing some abuse as a result, and intimidates him into running away. Everyone hugs and that’s that. Roll the credits, let’s all be happy now!

WAIT….. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THOSE KIDS!

I mean, sure, I guess that the internet knows this guy was abusing his kids now, but law enforcement seems apathetic to do anything and it’s not like Suzu whisks them away. I can only assume they get hurt even more after their father, now embarrassed and outed ,as a villain, is left to keep doing what he’s doing. I guess we’re supposed to assume that justice happens, or they are stronger and can fight back now, but dear Gods this ending was frustrating. In an overall good movie, I feel that some of the moving pieces were half-baked, namely the romance stories, this ending, and the build up to Belle becoming an internet sensation. It’s like Hosoda had the ideas for a three hour movie, and it was all boiled down into two hours without removing anything.

What tips the scales back into the favorable position, for me at least, was the music and animation of the whole production. Hosoda’s productions always go all out in creating rich scenes that are full of life and show the immensity of his settings. His crowd scenes are very impressive and harken back to how anime sometimes looked a long time ago albeit using computer generated animation now. His colors are always vibrant and his use of modern technology shows that he understands trends that affect our society in a modern sense. The music was well done, and even though I am not a pop music guy, The soundtrack for Belle is very good. Any issues I might have with the plot gets brushed aside after taking the rest of the production into perspective.

Overall, I liked Belle, but it is not my favorite film by the director. I personally feel like Mamoru Hosoda let the plot get a slight bit away from him, and the conclusion was not as fulfilling as it could have been. The animation and music were amazing, and largely made up for my quibbles. For the sake of comparison, Summer Wars found the perfect balance of all of his concepts, but it had a far simpler concept. It will be interesting to see where the director goes after this, and there should be an announcement imminently about production fairly soon since this was made in 2021. Now I need to go back and watch a few of his previous films I have missed such as Mirai, so keep an eye out for those when I do!