Belle

Belle is a surprising anime. No, I'm not memeing. Yes, I'll further develop. Might be because I wasn't all that informed about it and I was expecting a standard take on Beauty and the Beast, basically a remake of the classic where the relationship between Belle and the beast is the focus of the movie... or maybe because I didn't expect to get invested in a story of how J-Pop could save the world. Of course, it's far from flawless, it juggles with too many ideas and concepts for its own good and, at times, I couldn't help but 'ugh' at the rather underdeveloped takeon cyberbullying or other topics. I wouldn't call it tone-deaf tou. It is still a delicate one when it comes to these matters (plural here because I'm also talking about loss, parental abuse and the like) and despite the idea of making a martyr out of yourself not being something I'd get behind, it is done in a sensible manner and I can respect that. If you are not moved by anything regarding the story (and I'll be honest, it's far from perfect, but when it comes to themes, motifs, messages and symbolism - basically how it chooses to convey the story - it shines), the OST is surely going to do that, being done in a paying-homage-to-the-original way. For me, the OST did it - I'd not disregard the story tou, it was more of a mixture of both - but I'm one of those people that still listen to various songs from the '91 movie on a daily basis. You know... no one's as well animated as Belle, no one's treating internet as nicely as Belle, no one's OST's as incredibly chic as Belle's, for there's no movie in town half as trendy. Perfect, a pure bombshell! You can ask any Kaho, Takeru or Ryou and they'll tell you what movie they'd prefer to be on. It was reminiscent of it, in classic Beauty and the Beast fashion, yet it was something completely new. As mentioned, Belle is a gorgeous anime. The maximalism of Mamoru Hosoda's portrayal of the internet is mesmerizing and can be spotted even from the opening sequence, which is, plainly put, beautiful. The true charmer of this movie lies in the details and fully taking advantage of the cinematic experience. Even a single glance at the crowds would show that. Each and every spot is unique. Long shots, it is a huge world, a world where Belle can shine. In contrast, we have a rather locked camera, a 3-min static that gave terrible tummy aches to the more seasoned anime watchers. It genuinely beats me how the same shots are highly praised when they are done in an arthouse movie - see the likes of Mungiu or Bélla Tarr for example, yet they are horrendous in our case. Close-ups, painting up a small world, that is Suzu's real life. The latter slowly expands as Suzu overcomes her struggle. I believe that this movie has some of the finest compositing I've seen in the medium. It's obvious that the cg was a choice; planned from the very beginning, as the work put into it returned some great results. I'm not going to do a summary of the plot, but I might dwell into some spoilers further on, so beware. I won't spoil you too much tou, but I can guarantee that it makes for an enjoyable experience of new meets old, of 'a tale as old as time' meets near-future tech. You have the mandatory ballroom sequence and the cheesy, heartfelt (and a tad bit subversive, 'tad bit' being an understatement; it's not another Beauty and the Beast, it's a standalone movie; heck, I wouldn't even consider it a romance and that's good) finale I cannot help, but enjoy each time I see done. Of course, it's not your standard Belle getting her beast, but it's Suzu getting her mother, as in she finally understood why she did what she did for a stranger. At the same time, you have a crazed search for a virtual persona's RL identity, dodgy crowd-funders, 'ENHANCE!' software, and a story about fixing the internet (to some extent at least). It is a lot to take in. It's a fairly standard Hosoda work, but it strikes home for me. I am big on both SF and fairy tales, thus I had some hints that I might end up liking it. It is a story portraying the ugliness of the online world, but with a twist and this twist is the main reason why I'd easily overlook the flaws this series might have: a sincere belief in the potential and beauty of the internet. Most series that are remotely related to the wired share a common trait: they are made by technophobes, for technophobes, for those people are genuinely scared that Bill Gates will steal their personal data and do evil things with it. What will he do? Beats me. But at least Belle has the decency to portray the internet in a positive light, a moderate take, with ups and downs, how it should be, for the internet has been, in part, one of the leading actors of the rapid technological growth we've seen in the past 30 or so years. Of course, it's much more fun to watch a dystopic take, with all the implications, but at the same time, it gets tiring to watch the same bs again and again. Sometimes, I just want to see people do great things on the internet. I just want to see people finding happiness on the internet, for it definitely played a part in mine. I just want to see people being nice to strangers on the internet, just the way Suzu was to Ryuu, and I think this is the reason why I feel that their relationship was developed well enough, for they are strangers... being kind to strangers. Of course, not everything's pink and nice and so on regarding the internet. There are downsides to it, but if I were to make an analogy to human interactions for example, I'd go for this one. Everybody might seem like a jerk, for it is really difficult to express our thoughts perfectly unless we wrote a whole novel on it. Misunderstandings on top of misunderstandings lead to some rather interesting conversations for the voyeuristic third parties. I want to believe that most people on the internet or outside of it are rather nice and it isn't their intent to harass others, but it's rather difficult when someone just says that 'X anime is bad, why did you like it?'. It's hard for the virtual to be as close a portrayal as the genuine, but, at the same time, it creates a possibility that didn't even exist in the first place: being able to connect to the person you're interacting with. Your world is no longer spanning 30 kilometers. Back to interacting with people, I'm not saying that you should be looking for excuses for everyone - some people are genuine jerks - plus that takes some effort and energy. But maybe that person was just trying to start a friendly debate with you or he was genuinely curious about it and he didn't pay enough attention to how he might come across to others. Just... let it go. I feel like the same is true for the internet, for it's more common and much easier for it to be portrayed as a genuine source of negativity instead of the amazing concept that it is, especially because the underlying tones of a conversation are hard to pick up in written format. Such is the internet stories paradigm, it's much easier to write a one about the internet being the big bad wolf without the risk of seeming overly idealistic. Belle dodged this pitfall imo. That 'mask off' sequence among others might seem like something out of High School Musical the cynics would laugh at uncontrollably and brand it as cringe-worthy or utter garbage. I loved it. I'd rather be cringe if that's what's deemed cringe nowadays by the lowest common denominator. It is a story of acceptance of others and yourself, of coming to terms with reality told through a virtual one, of self-actualization. U is another reality. AS is another you. You can live as another you. You can start a new life. You can change the world. But is it truly another you or just a means for you to further develop, to better express yourself? Overall, I'd say it's an experience that draws a part of its beauty from its flaws. It's not for everybody. It requires something more than surface-level watching in order to be enjoyed. It requires you to start from a simple premise: everything happening in a movie is deliberate, meant to be there. A certain camera movement means something, certain compositing means something, a certain action means something, a certain omission means something. Why do we belittle people so much that we start from the idea that if it doesn't make sense for us, they've probably forgotten something/they're dumb/they couldn't figure out how to create a story like the one in our delusions, what I expected to happen vs what happens? By CinemaSins-like critique standards, this is trash. But so is Return of the Jedi. Do what you want - it's an individual choice how people want to perceive art and obviously, no one else should have a say in that. Neither you nor I. PS: by far, the best thing Belle does is being a good engine for the train that is anime globalization, especially as it is not that bound by the standard tropes your usual western movie watcher might expect out of anime + it's dropping in A LOT of places right as the metaverse's got kinda mainstream, but why that's bs is a story for another time.

Disclaimer that I am conversational-but-not-fluent so there were parts I didn't understand. That being said I also didn't entirely get what was going on in Summer Wars even with English subs and this is very much Same Energy. Anyway maybe it would help if I saw it again, but I found the story difficult to follow. It cuts between scenes really abruptly at times and things just seem to happen without a whole lot of buildup (Belle's fame and her/Suzu's relationships to Ryuu and other characters for instance). Also what are the mods doing? People are just getting doxxed left and right and no oneis having their account frozen. The future is wild? It was also strange how in the ending, Suzu's friends and adult figures let her go out and do the Thing That Will Not Be Spoiled without any backup or any real plan. The visuals were pretty cool and the music was great, not very diverse but beautiful and cinematic. The characters are fine, but plain. Actually the support/background characters were more interesting. Also artistic references to Beauty and the Beast but only on a visual level. Basically if you liked Summer Wars back in the day also by Hosoda Mamoru (I did not), yes, this is definitely extremely similar but upgraded for 2021 with less family drama and more...family drama? But also singing.

I used to love Mamoru Hosoda films. Wolf Children and Summer Wars always made me cry like a baby, and while The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Boy and The Beast were less charming and therefore less enjoyable, their universal emotional triggers still managed to touch me, and their awe-inspiring imagery never ceased to amaze me. However, something in my brain must’ve changed between 2015 and 2018, because when I watched Mirai no Mirai, I felt nothing but cynicism, and upon rewatch, many of those earlier films which I just named came across as feeling tired, boring, and more than anything else, manipulative.I will now detail the template structure of all his films and explain why they’re all fundamentally the same movie. Each one begins with the main character in a place of low self-esteem and general inaction. They’re suddenly forced into action when their lives become supercharged by fantastical elements: time travel, real-life video games, demihuman superpowers, straight-up isekai, etc. At some point, the stakes become emotionally overwhelming, and combined with some contrived tragedy, they find themselves at their lowest point. Just as all hope seems lost and the protagonist begins to retreat back into their shell, they overcome the odds with the power of love/family. Not only does Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime follow this same pattern, it’s also quite possibly his worst film yet. I understand this format pretty much describes every G-rated family blockbuster on the planet and isn't inherently bad, but what's bad is being shallow and manipulative. When I recently rewatched Summer Wars and Wolf Children, I described the latter as being “a better Clannad movie than the Clannad movie,” and I came up with a name to label and analyze this strategy of filmmaking. I call it “Outsourcing Emotion.” Outsourcing Emotion is when the film depends on its ability to jog your personal memories in lieu of the emotional depth it doesn’t quite have itself. Essentially, the writers realize their stories are too generic and forgettable to make the audience emotional, so they manufacture the most broadly appealing pathos they possibly can to make you lament your own life, yet feel as if it was the film and its flimsy characters which moved you. A little German kid saying, “Please protect our precious families.” The single-mother MC yelling to her son, “Live a good life!” The innocent four-year-old MC yelling to his baby sister, “I am Mirai’s big brother!” What casual viewer isn’t going to tear up at this shit?! I myself did, and I’m cynical as FUCK. This manipulation may seem touching, but it’s deep as a puddle and transparent as a window. Unlike his other films, Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime managed to screw up the one thing Mamoru Hosoda has always gotten right, even back in the days of Digimon and One Piece. The visuals in this movie are at best, uninspired, and at worst, utterly hideous. His previous films boasted gorgeous animation and spectacular artwork to counterbalance the boilerplate character writing, but the only halfway-interesting visuals in this movie are directly ripped-off from Summer Wars and made horrendously ugly with shitty CG animation everywhere. U, the virtual reality shit, is just another clusterfuck of contrived technobabble nonsense just like OZ was OVER A DECADE AGO. To top it all off, despite some of the characters having Hosoda’s signature charm, the movie ends by fumbling through extremely delicate topics with borderline offensive forced sentimentality. Mamoru Hosoda needs to undergo a creative renaissance, and he needs to do it very soon. This is just Disney Princess shit. Thank you for reading.

Watched this in theatres today. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. Story: 6/10 The story was pretty confusing with a lot of holes, but it served its purpose and held the movie together well enough. Art: 9/10 The visuals were appealing. I particularly liked the contrast between the online world and the real world. Sound: 9/10 The soundtrack went really well with the visuals, especially in a movie theatre. The sounds reverberating had a nice impact on me as I was watching.Character: 7/10 I didn't really like the protagonist, but she had her fair share of character development. The side characters were all pretty entertaining though. Enjoyment: 8/10 I walked out of the theatre satisfied and thought it was a worthwhile 2 hours. However, I feel like most of the enjoyment came from the movie theatre experience though, with the visuals and soundtrack being the strongest parts. Overall: 7/10 I would tell others to watch it, but I don't think it's a movie I'd watch again. In comparison to Bakemono no Ko and Wolf Children it was a letdown (two of my favorites), but overall it was good.