"U" is a popular social media platform where people can create a virtual persona and start a new life. Among its five billion users, one newcomer is quickly gaining attention: Belle, a beautiful singer whose alluring melodies slowly capture the hearts of the masses. But in this space where everyone hides behind an avatar, curiosity arises over who the mysterious girl truly is.
Suzu Naito—a shy girl from the countryside—can no longer sing following past trauma, all her efforts resulting in breakdowns and illness. However, when Suzu joins U, she is once again able to project her voice. Under the alias "Belle," her vocals soon go viral, receiving both love and hatred. Meanwhile, rumors spread of a chaotic beast within U, known only as "The Dragon." After a chance meeting during her concert, Belle finds he is not as evil as the stories suggest. Now, both online and in the real world, Suzu has to face the struggles of identity, fame, and opening one's heart.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
BigOat
Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime reinforces the idea that a gold-covered turd, is at the end of the day, still a turd. This sorry excuse for a Beauty and the Beast inspired film falls short in many vital aspects, calling into question exactly "whose idea was this?" and "did anyone really read the script?". Watching this film felt as though the director had cut out chunks from the storyline at random. Frequently, scenes would fail to adequately flesh out the narrative, resulting in an extreme lack of explanation for character motives or general functionalities of the world. Also present, was an excessive absence of continuity. Inone scene, the main character, Suzu Naitou is running while putting on her device that allows her to connect to the world of "U". As it turns on, she continues running, despite the fact that the app redirects her literal EYESIGHT in order for her to live in this separate world.
The animation is fairly good, however, at times was very underwhelming. In particular, one scene later in the film ( a side character confession scene) has the female involved stand completely still for about a minute straight. It's as though she didn't disconnect from the app, but from life itself, reminding the viewer of the feeling of losing a teammate in an online game.
The music composition is lovely, but is juxtaposed against an utterly mind-numbing script. If the soundtrack of the movie is on Spotify, I would highly recommend checking that out instead of watching the movie.
Overall, this movie was a serious letdown, but was somewhat entertaining to laugh with friends who are just as confused about what is going at any given moment.
P.S. All you have to do to stop abusive parents is stand in between them and their children, say some heartfelt words, and then let them live together like normal. Bing Bang Boom Pow, problem solved.
Domsa
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.
The_Ruise
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.
nineup
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.
SingleH
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.
Monogatarui
I'll get straight to the point: I don't like this movie. It's somewhat nice to look at and listen to at best, and downright painful to watch at worst. Here's a spoiler warning as it's a bit hard for me to explain myself without pointing out specific examples. Belle is a movie that follows Suzu and her experiences with the world of "U", a virtual environment where everyone can be the best versions of themselves, bringing out their true, hidden potential from within. As the name may somewhat suggest, another major part of the plot is its parallelism with another popular work, Beauty and the Beast. To givecredit where credit is due, the concept is not bad. Virtual worlds can be done very well and there is a lot that can be explored with this premise. Part of this is fully realized with the presentation of Belle - the virtual segments are animated in 3D in contrast to most of the real life scenes being in 2D. While the movie isn't anything super stunning all things considered, never would I say it looks bad. Good visuals aside, what really brings out the best in Belle is the sound. All the songs are genuinely quite good, and the best parts of the movie, in my opinion, are the performances of these songs.
Unfortunately, that's about where most the positives end for Belle.
Now, I'm not saying every movie or any anime in general needs to have a super deep story that tackles some real-world issue and makes you analyze every part of the plot. The story doesn't have to be some world-shattering, revolutionary masterpiece. That being said, I at least expect some sort of coherence. The best way I can describe Belle's progression and pacing is that things just happen. There's often no flow or connection between events, just a jumble of things that occur. Why is there suddenly a fight scene out of nowhere? Why did we cut to a scene of Suzu fending off against gossip of a crush?
This especially begins to affect the plot starting in the second half of the movie, where many plot points also just seem to pop up inexplicitly, and bring up more questions than it ever should've. What makes this even worse is that because of the sheer amount of subplots adding on, each one of the subplots are “resolved” in a way that feels very lackluster. The worst one of these, in my opinion, is when one of the subplots chose to take on abusive family members. Not only did this feel like a last minute plot point, it was portrayed in a way that made it end as abruptly as it began. Ironically enough, the movie even had one of the characters point out in the dialogue that the conflict wasn't something that could be easily solved, but no, the abuser backs down after a very, very intimidating stare, and we'll just accept that the issue is solved after some people find out about it despite the victim clearly expressing that people knew about it before. Cool.
Speaking of dialogue, some of the writing is downright laughable at times.
“I love you, Belle.”
“Thanks.”
Who wrote this? Have they even talked to another human being in the past decade? And no, it’s not me cherry picking a line out of context to make it seem bad. If anything, it makes LESS sense with context.
This so-so writing partially contributes to the fact that none of the prominent characters are really that likeable to me. In a world that’s functionally realistic besides the wacky virtual world which is essentially an MMORPG social media, most of the characters’ actions rarely makes them feel believable, and instead just makes them come off as silly and sometimes straight up annoying.
There's a lot of things that straight up don't make any sense from a worldbuilding perspective either. Why is the moderation so lax in U that people can literally doxx others with no repercussions? Why does a random user have the ability to carry out the role of a moderator despite not being one? How extensive even is U that a random user can have AI that bends to their will, as well as hide a castle in this virtual world they don’t own? How are people going into U at will anytime and anywhere despite U very evidently taking control of the user's senses from the second it begins?
I understand "rule of cool", and going for style and impact over logic; I can absolutely accept going for cooler stuff rather than the most logical conclusions for the sake of drama and action. Belle, however, just makes random scenes that don’t leave me in awe, but instead comes off as pure stupidity that leaves me in confusion. I’m also not expecting every writer who works on a science fiction film to have a complex understanding of AI and the virtual world, and to give an in-depth explanation on everything. However, when much of Belle’s narrative relies on these very obvious oversights that keep adding up, it makes it incredibly hard for me to suspend my disbelief.
Belle is a new take of Beauty and the Beast that tries to implement a poorly thought out virtual world in its setting, as well as tackle more plot points than it could feasibly do so. Save yourself the time and just listen to the soundtrack.
old-toasty
My friend told me before we watched this movie that it received a 14 minute standing ovation on its debut. After watching this terrorist attack on the soul of a movie, I'm only left asking, "How?" The worst movie I have ever seen, period. That includes the likes of 'The Room', 'Birdemic', and 'Battlefield Earth'. The story is hollow, boring, does not earn its climax in the slightest, predictable, jarring, had countless plot holes, and lifted most if not all of its ideas from the director's previous works and 'Beauty and the Beast'. In almost every scene, I felt as if I had seen it donemuch better before. The themes were more undeveloped than an aborted fetus. I get what Hosoda was going for, but he missed the mark and impales the audience's patience with his arrow.
The 3D art-style was abhorrent. Hosoda's 'virtual reality' gets worse with every interpretation. To call it paper-thin would be a disservice to paper. Don't expect any world-building, instead endure through the vapidity of nothingness. I cannot comprehend how these apps work on a fundamental level: what is everyone doing? Do people sign into these apps and just blindly follow people around with no apparent purpose? Has Hosoda ever used the internet before? 'Our War Game!', nostalgia for Digimon aside, was relatively groundbreaking for the year 2000 but nothing special in hindsight, 'Summer Wars' was a disappointing interpretation but tolerable, and whatever this movie was was genuine eyeball torture. But on the contrary, I've always like Hosoda's traditional animation and it was at its best in this movie.
Regarding sound, the songs were cliche and could've been written by an edgy teenager. I suppose that makes sense considering our nervous wreck of a protagonist. I find it hard to believe that millions of people would pop-off to 'la la la la la'.
I have so little to say about the characters, if you could even refer to them as that. These soulless creations are flatter than an old, opened can of coke. Suzu and the Beast are poorly done sympathy bait; you would think I could relate to characters to which I've shared similar experiences, but the execution was almost insulting. Shinobu is a one-note protector archetype. Hiroki is a bootleg Izumi or Oz. The other characters aren't even worth wasting words on, especially the antagonist if you can even call him that.
I could go on and on and on, but I've already collapsed the worldwide salt economy. I have nothing positive to say except it's over. My explanation for the ovation was people being glad it was finally over.
Yukino_Agria
Absolutely appalling. Rushed with a horrible story throughout. You should most certainly NOT write a movie about a futuristic world if you're incredibly out of touch with reality and technology. My first bone to pick: the Beast. Why does everyone hate him so much? Because he beat a few people up? You expect to tell me there's 5 fucking billion people on the app and only one is famous for beating people up? Ridiculous. How did he even enter Belle's concert? Y'know, logically, there'd be shit programmed around the "stage" and you wouldn't be able to get near her. This is already implemented in every game, a fewstandout ones being ROBLOX and Animal Jam. Kid's games. So.
And, for some reason, people are obsessed with his identity? What did he do that makes him stand out? You're telling me out of 5 billion users, he's the only one who's throwing down with random people? Not to mention the internet police who try and stop him. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOOOOO WAY THAT THAT APP HAS 0 ADMINISTRATORS. Wouldn't he just get banned/kicked? And if he ruined the face of the U app's concert, he most definitely would've gotten IP banned.
The writer also quite obviously does not know doxxing exists. And the fact that no one would care about some random edge lord furry. And that no sane person get's obsessed with a stranger and stalks them and the stranger is 100% alright with it.
You can also get hurt in this universe? HOW? HOW THE FUCK DO YOU ACTUALLY GET HURT FROM A FUCKING GAME? TELL ELMO. EVEN NPC'S CAN GET HURT TOO. WHAT
The main character has no clue that she can. LOG OUT. of the game whenever she doesn't like the situation. She doesn't have any protection thing that blocks you from going over to certain areas in games and... I don't know, I think it's funny that literally no one has jumped her, especially since there's doxxing beams. No one thought to use them against her? 5 billion people?
The main character's plight of her mother being dead also doesn't make much sense. She died when she was, what, 5? At least a decade passed since her mom died and she's still hung up on it? Maybe if her mother died 3 years ago, it would've made sense, but she died when she was a little kid.
Anyways, the plot is a mess and so is the character. Without the good animation, this movie would be nothing. My advice? Don't watch this unless you're 10/have the brain of a 10 year old.
OddGrim
Let me preface this review by saying that I love Mamoru Hosoda. I've seen the vast majority of his directorial output from the silver screen to the small screen. He directs with a deft hand, making the absolute most of any budget he's given. The episodes he's directed in TV anime, imbued with his distinct sensibilities, are the high water mark of any series they're a part of. But Belle is simply baffling. Belle makes for the third time Hosoda has revisited the concept of an virtual world. A fact that worried me before the film was even released because I don't believe Hosoda has any realgrasp of the internet. Oz, his previous depiction of a virtual space found in Summer Wars, felt like a fantasy setting rather than speculative fiction. But oh how I miss Oz when I compare it to Belle's world of U. Hosoda, and by extension the audience, has such a poor grasp of the inner workings and mechanics of U that any narrative he places within it crumbles.
Belle is about a introverted girl named Suzu (the Japanese word for bell) who finds popularity as her online persona named Belle in the virtual world of U due to her amazing singing, something she is too afraid to do in the real world. Except not really because that plot line is speed through in a montage. The plot is actually a Beauty and the Beast story. Except for when it isn't, which is most of the time. The abruptness of these plot points and their on again off again nature is fast enough to make anyone's head spin.
Hosoda's films have not been the same since he and his long time script writer Satoko Okudera parted ways. Okudera worked on what I consider Hosoda's best films, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children. Even Summer Wars (my least favourite Hosoda film until Belle) is a perfectly pleasant watch, thanks in part to her no doubt.
Hosoda has been the sole script writer on his films since Boy and the Beast. And while that was still a standout effort, it marked a shift in the writing style of his works. Hosoda has felt unfiltered ever since, adding anything and everything to his works. His scripts becoming increasingly bloated and convoluted.
Even Hosoda's directing gets muddled in Belle, with half the film being in CGI to portray the virtual world of U. These portions of the movie were outsourced to Cartoon Saloon, best known for their gorgeous hand drawn films about Irish folklore. So it's odd to see them commissioned to work on CGI. That's not to say they did a bad job though. The CG animation is expressive but most of the character designs are overblown and the world they inhabit feels paper thin. Nothing about the virtual world of U makes any sense and most prominent glimpse into this world we ever get is a sea of avatars placed in a large void with indistinct buildings in the far off distance.
This sever lack of world building leaves me wondering how U works on even a fundamental level. Placing any story in this setting invites confusion at every turn, creating an incoherent mess with logic gaps everywhere.
There are still tender, well executed moments found in Belle but they're few and far between, found almost exclusively in its hand drawn segments. Honestly, if the film focused on Suzu finding confidence as her online persona which in turn gave her the courage to mend the fractured relationships in her life, that would've been enough.
Instead, Belle is less than the sum its parts and stumbles at every opportunity. The competing plot lines battle for screen time, leaving the narrative under-baked. The CG world of U doesn't leave room for Hosoda to stretch his usual directorial muscles. The cast is overloaded, forcing characters, their development and relationships to be sidelined.
In the end, Belle has too many ideas and lacks the ability to implement them into a cohesive whole.
Khunime
Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime is a movie that surprised me. It is visually stunning and truly a work of art. Before watching this, I have seen the official release of the song that will be used in this movie a few months ago. I was shocked at how good the song was so I decided to give it a watch. What I noticed while I was watching, was the way the art is made. My eyes were so full with the beautiful scenes especially when Belle was inside the virtual world. Then as the songs were played, I got goosebumps. The first half ofthe story was what really piqued my interest then as I discover the mystery and the wonderful world of U, I started following the characters. Suzu is totally a normal girl that you could find anywhere outside the world but inside U she is Belle which is a famous singer. The plot was to identity of this mysterious "beast" which Belle grew fond of. Overall, I was satisfied by the ending and there's this moment when I almost cried. The story is 8/10, it's rare to see a fairy tale anime these days but there's some holes ofc. Art was 9/10, there was this kind of glitched part where I didn't understand. The sound was used very properly and the songs are catchy 10/10. The characters were pretty fine too 8/10. My enjoyment in this show is a 10/10 because I really made myself enjoy this show as much as possible and I'm glad it didn't disappoint me. Overall 9/10
You should definitely give this a watch! I appreciated the new work of Mamoru Hosada and the production of Studio Chizu, it was truly magnificent. This kind of anime should be at the peak of anime 2021.
Maatchaa
I went out of my way to make an account on this website just to write about how bad this movie is. The only redeeming qualities of the movie were the visuals and OST. However, those alone weren't enough to carry the horrible character development, continuity errors, world building, and lack of exposition. There were too many plot devices that served little to no purpose and conflicts that never got a satisfying resolution. Additionally the romance aspect of the movie was complete garbage. The movie teases you with some semblance of romance here and there but never grants a conclusion. You can't just throw somethinglike that into a movie and have it go nowhere.
This movie made me very angry for some reason. I just don't understand how anyone could call something so void of content sufficient for a movie.
kingswill
In the first half of the movie, it was great, but then it lost me and things started making less and less sense by the end, which left me outright confused and at a loss for words. I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed, so disappointed that I'm making this "review". The writing for this was just bad, there's no other way to really describe it. It's like the director/writer combined all his movies into one at the end and created this jumbled or convoluted mess. This is my first time seeing a story devolve like it did. It was like I was watching acompletely different movie by the second half of the movie. At first, I didn't even realize this was directed/written by the same person as Bakemono no Ko, Ookami Kodomo, Summer Wars, Digimon Adventure Movie, etc. Those movies are probably one of my favorite anime movies and so naturally, I "should" like this movie, yet I don't. So, it definitely was not a matter of expectations as I had none. If you decide to watch this movie, have the lowest possible expectations for some enjoyment.
LotaAquari
ART The visuals were amazing. I'm not quite sure if it's considered CGI, or if it is, what kind of advanced insanely smooth CGI was used, but the difference between the virtual world and the real world was easily distinguishable without having that clunky, goofy appearance like in some other anime that use CGI. SOUND & STORY The use of subtle hints for many of the main points of the movie, and musical accompaniment to really drive the emotions up, was immaculate, to the point where I only really understood what I'd understood after watching it again (I've watched Belle 4 times in the last 27 hours,3 of which were basically back to back). To clarify, the first run through was a little confusing at parts, and the story appears at first to be strangely paced and have weird cut scenes, but that only made me more invested honestly.
Watching again, I realized the nuances of the pacing and cuts, especially when paying more attention to the music in the background. Dramatic pauses and non-verbal imagery are used a lot in this movie. There could be a little more direct explanation in some parts, like The Dragon's "bruises" just looked like decoration on the cape at first and I had no idea what they were even talking about when they said "bruises," or the whole Origin reveal scene, for example. It's not a straightforward, cut and dry kind of story, it is very much emotionally charged and if you're not good at reading the intent behind faces and/or musical scores some scenes might not make much sense on your first time watching. This is why I gave the story an 8, cuz I don't think you shouldn't have to watch something more than once to understand it 100%, in my opinion, so they could have tried a little harder to be a little more clear in some parts for people who don't want to spend a day and a half doing mental gymnastics and analyzing the whole movie three more times to figure it all out.
The themes of this movie are fairly serious and really relevant to today's social media climate. We are shown a range of emotions, from loss, grief, and anger, to anxiety, depression, and abuse and how the charters handle these kinds of emotions and situations. We also have all the good and the bad that come from internet fame, the horrors and harm of online bullying, doxing, and, interestingly enough, the complex nature of not only online policing, but individual autonomy when it comes to online policing. There's even a clear representation of a child-friendly space (not sure if it was an app or maybe just a channel, but there was a mascot and Suzu had a keychain with that mascot which I'm guessing is why we even get shown content from that place, other than to further the plot of the story) that are being invaded by adults, and it touches on the how mainstream social media/media silences or invalidates the voices of children because they're children.
!!!!!POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!
I also think it's a wonderful pastiche of Beauty and the Beast. On the surface, we have a beauty, a beast, and a romantic dance scene, but all the nuances, situations, and feelings leading up to these moments entirely change the romantic nature of the source material to something more platonic and emotional. There's a second where it looks like Belle is going to kiss the Beast, but his reaction to her leaning in causes her to change her approach and it becomes a hug instead, and he visibly relaxes. It's got the visual elements of Beauty and the Beast but is infused with entirely different emotions and backstory, which was refreshing to see coming from an old fairy tale usage. This isn't a romance story despite the relation to Beauty and the Beast.
!!!!!END OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!!!
CHARACTERS
Suzu and Kei are parallels to each other. The grief of losing a mother, the anger at overwhelming situations that cause them to lash out at the people around them, trying to do what they think is right, escaping to U and finding a way to cope with their feelings, and both becoming famous (infamous in Kei's case) are just some of the ways these two reflect the ways in which grief, anger, and sadness can affect a person in a traumatic situation.
ENJOYMENT OVERALL
This movie got me, in more ways than one, and I highly recommend you give it a chance. If nothing else, the music and visuals are great, and honestly it's like if Summer Wars and A Silent Voice had a baby, so if you liked either/both of those, you'll definitely find some enjoyment out of Belle.
chai333
Mediocre movie. Even from the beginning I was skeptical of how it would turn out. I was left with too many unanswered questions, and there were still unresolved conflicts of the story. The storyline kept going one way then another and it just feels unrealistic. Spoiler alert: Some things I questioned were U, the reality you can travel to; the storyline of Beast, and the main characters’ friends and family. I was in some disbelief that U would really have that many users, especially users who genuinely cared about the drama. Basically, the world building/setting definitely could have been better developed. Beast’s storyline was alsoquestionable. I did not understand why Suzu and her friend along with the entirety of the U users cared that much about Beast. In the end, why would Suzu drive all the way to Tokyo for two guys she met on the internet? How could the boy also say he loved her after just meeting, and Suzu didn’t question that at all?
As I mentioned, there were unanswered questions. I was expecting some sort of big reveal (yes, there was to the users of U, but what about Suzu’s close friends and family?) but it seems that Belle’s true identity was brushed off? Just before her friends get involved, they say “Who could Belle be?? Hey, you look really similar to her lol, you sure you guys aren’t related?” Then minutes after, Suzu is shown to be Belle yet nobody is stunned? How could the choir ladies and Shinobu also know that she was Belle, especially after he just brought it up out of nowhere?
You’re also lead to believe that Suzu and Shinobu would end up being a pair and have feelings for each other, yet in the end that anticipation was for nothing. I’m going to be blunt: perhaps I would have liked it more if it was simply a slice of life story without the technology and U aspect. Imagining Suzu as just a faceless singer on YouTube or something and the storyline progressing for her to find her confidence as well as seeing the characters’ daily life already seems more enjoyable, at least for me personally.
TL;DR: too much going on in the storyline where new things keep getting added, poorly developed setting/world building, plot holes/ lots of asking “how did they know that major secret and nobody gives a second thought?”
DsMasterBR
As a big Mamoru Hosoda fan, his new movie "Belle" signified a return to what, in my opinion, had always been the director's strongest suit. After Wolf Children's depiction of a single mother's struggles, Bakemono no Ko's story about raising a kid on a magical world and Mirai no Mirai's four-year-old protagonist's tale, Hosoda was back at directing stories about high schoolers and high school life by extension. Belle's protagonist Suzu is a depressed 17-year-old girl that ends up hitting it huge as a mysterious singer on a virtual reality life simulator called "U". I don't want to delve too much into this, but I feelit might be necessary to as it does account for a huge portion of Belle's screentime. The digital hub people connect to in the movie feels very much like an afterthought. It's way too lifeless and generic, specially for a Hosoda movie. All we ever see users do while in "U" is fly through this city full of buildings and watch concerts. There's no reason 5 billion people around the world thought they couldn't miss out on this much fun. It also doesn't help that it's basically all done in CG (Crowds look Gross). At one point it even becomes difficult to understand how "U" can be accessed. Characters can be seen interacting with people in real life, then logged into "U", back and forth, it's crazy.
The other half of "Belle" is composed of the kind of slice-of-life magic patented by Hosoda. It's interesting and has some really fun cuts. I do wish it could have back some of the huge amount of time allocated to the Dragon's subplot inside "U" to develop the characters better. And that's not the only way in which the existence of the "U" harmed "Belle" as a movie. One of the merits of "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", pointed out by reviewers at the time was how it "instead of dealing with vast movements of history", chose to "concentrate in the small movements in the emotional lives of its Japanese urban high school protagonists over several days.". In Belle however, we at times have the opposite. Suzu's alter-ego becomes an ultra pop-star and the whole internet stops to check out what she's doing. Talk about egocentrism.
If you were to tell me, back in 2007, that this is what a Mamoru Hosoda feature would look like in the 2020's, I would have asked: "Who the hell's Mamoru Hosoda?". But if you were to tell that to the community instead, I honestly don't think "Belle" is what they would expect. It doesn't feel like the work of the idiosyncratic director, who prioritized believable characters and making everyday life look fun above anything else. His new movie is a modern Japanese retelling of a Disney princess' story, and it ends up being similar to a Disney movie in many ways. I still enjoyed watching it and, despite the many plot contrivances, it doesn't stop being a heartfelt and fulfilling movie that stays true to something Hosoda has always advocated for throughout his career.
"What I really want to capture are the moments that cause people to change, and also why people evolve into someone that differs from who they used to be. Those thoughts are always in my mind when I work."
So go watch it!
flexboxgamer
Apparently this film won an award and a standing ovation for 15 minutes but after watching it with a group of friends on discord, I realized it was severely overhyped. The plot moves too fast with very poor world building. Remember the old saying, "Show don't tell"? This film tells a LOT with a shit ton of exposition dump. It was to the point I was glad the discord stream was lagging a bit so I could take some time to understand what was going on instead of the characters talking 10 words a second on wtf was happening behind the scenes. Also, for afilm praised on its visuals, some of the CG was really awful. The metaverse police guys with the exception of a few leaders like Budget All-Might have the same character models that are poorly animated in the fight scenes. The film also laughably uses still frames frequently with a shit ton of dialogue again and again so they can save money for the big musical scenes I suppose. The story itself is a strange stew of half-fleshed out ideas on identity, technology, music, death, and abuse. At several points, everyone watching the film together with me was confused about the plot progression, character development, and the overall message of this film. For instance (spoiler warning ---------------------->) after Belle is revealed to be Suzu, she finds her voice again and sings. You would think the movie is trying to say "Be your authentic self" but Suzu transforms back to Belle mid-song so I guess it's saying "You can pretend to be something you're not if you're authentic about it?". I've watched the director's other films such as Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and I can say for certainty that for all the hype Belle received, it was the worst anime film I've seen in a long time.
Kadius_
Mamoru Hosoda can't write. The Boy and the Beast, Mirai and now Belle lack a significant amount of charm compared to his older works. The thing these feature films all have in common is they're the only ones written by Hosoda himself. Belle, in particular, showcases Hosoda's immensely bad habits as a writer more clearly than any of its predecessors. The story of Belle is heavily inspired by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 1756 version of 'Beauty and the Beast' with even the main characters sharing the same pseudonym. However compared to Disney's animated adaptation of the same tale, this feels like a jarring attempt to reinventthe wheel, devoid of any of the original's charm. Beauty and the Beast is a story that does have interesting themes; while it isn't subtle about them in the slightest and they're not particularly profound by today's standards they certainly do exist. However, the premise of finding empathy and love with another, even when your appearance is unsightly, loses a large amount of its emotional impact when the appearance is a virtual avatar CHOSEN by the player. Especially when the "beast" is revealed to, in fact, be some anime-haired righteous cool-guy in the real world. It astounds me that, 266 years after its publication, Hosoda has managed to somehow retell this story with less depth and complexity than the original.
The writing itself feels incredibly cliché and, quite often, contrived. I found myself on an embarassing number of occasions being able to predict the outcome of a scene before it had transpired. The twists, turns and poor attempts at dialogue feel drearily similar to fictional writings I wrote for school assessments as a child. There's one scene in particular where the main character is on a train that felt ripped from an adolescent fan-fiction blog.
Studio Chizu, the studio that has been in charge of every Hosoda film since Wolf Children, feel incredibly out of their depth here trying to bring the three-dimensional world of 'U' to life. The 3D visuals felt very sub-par; something that I may not have felt five years ago when there were no stellar examples of 3D animation within the anime industry. Studio Orange have since brought us Houseki no Kuni & Beastars, both of which look stunning compared to Belle despite it being a high-budgeted feature film. The backgrounds feel like the same asset copy and pasted dozens of times until some blocky mega-structure comes together and every asset, aside from the main two character models, feel utterly forgettable. Not only did it feel incredibly dated, certain scenes felt downright offensive; such as the worst-looking CGI fire I can recall in the last decade. The scenes that take place in the real-world look fine. Not incredible, by any means, but certainly not bad. However, it's hard to be kind to the film's style as a whole when Chizu's usual animation style is only used for 50% of runtime.
You'll notice I did not give this film a 1/10, this means it clearly had some saving graces I enjoyed. For a start, the sound is quite nice. Again, not incredible (though I admit this can be subjective), but certainly enjoyable. Being a movie about singing, it had some nice original songs that were a delight to listen to; although I absolutely despised the method in which it was used to explore the motif of overcoming trauma. There are also certain scenes that I found quite charming. The confession scene between two side characters was superbly directed and had me genuinely laughing out loud in the cinema. While the confession itself had zero emotional weight, largely due to every side character having the depth of a puddle, the way it was presented was whole-heartedly charming.
In conclusion, I hope Hosoda goes back to hiring more talented writers than himself to work on his projects. My favourite work of his, to this day, is the One Piece film Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island released in 2005. It feels like he's only become less creatively inspired as he's grown older and turned into a complete hack. A sad comparison compared to someone like Hayao Miyazaki who continues to impress me, with The Wind Rises being one of my favourite works of his to date. Belle lacks any form of subtlety in its storytelling, any originality in its writing, any masterful creativity in its visuals and any depth to its characters, with only a few subjective saving-graces to save its score from a 1/10.
This is actually my first MAL review, I'd like to write more and hopefully get better at making them more succinct. So if you've read this far, thank you.
Ezekiel
It's about social media, being followed (not told in this work of fiction: the depression of young people, the tribalism that makes people willfully ignorant/excessively conspiratorial and the decline of society), and doesn't condemn it. Mixed with Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast. Feels like it's missing a bunch of scenes/introductions. Stuff just happens. Unbelievable behavior, like how the women in the music club/choir and the boys talk to the girl protagonist. In a scene where a school athlete doesn't know how to deal with a girl rooting for him and the girl protagonist makes him go up to her I threw my headback with eyes rolled in annoyance. A pretty significant portion of the movie feels like viewing the screen of someone browsing the web and different social media hubs in 3D with virtual avatars, not engaging storytelling. Had trouble following, because I was rather bored and it felt dyslexic. I don't know how they found the identity of the beast through the computer. Was borderline tapped out by that point, but pretty sure it was BS. How they later track down where he lives is super dumb and makes this world of 5 billion users seem very small. Why, out of 5 billion users, is he the only renegade and able to reach out to Belle (the protagonist's avatar)? The movie condones being yourself, revealing your identity, on the internet...
As much as I have complained about Makoto Shinkai over the years, Mamoru Hosoda is worse. He's an idiot. It's so depressing that these two rule the Japanese animated film industry. If I worked in the anime industry, even with the power of a director, I would want to kill myself every day, thinking of all the stories that can't be told and the worlds that can't be drawn because the viewers are comfortable with the same over and over, the money is very tight and the executives are so cautious.
GraphiX
Spoiler free review. TL;DR Would I recommend Belle?: yes. This one is a weird one to review and I'm shocked at how polarizing the reviews are for what I'd call a decent film. STORY 4/10: The story, to be honest, is rough. There are a lot of interesting ideas, but they are poorly put together, and some decisions are just baffling with several plotholes. The very obvious Beauty and the Beast parallel seems kind of ham fisted, and is subverted kind of pointlessly. The denouement is also much shorter than it should have been and leaves a bunch of things unresolved. There's alsosome random shounen b.s. for some reason. That being said, the story definitely has some things to say, with most of it getting across more or less successfully.
ART 8/10: The art is pretty good. It's definitely an interesting blend of 2d and 3d animation. The 2d animation is quite good, though probably not as good and definitely not as consistent as Hosoda's other films. The 3d animation is also quite good with Jin Kim giving Belle a very Disney look, and people like Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart contributing to the design of the world. There's a common issue of 3d in anime looking uncanny, but it works well here.
SOUND 10/10: Definitely the strongest point of the movie. The soundtrack is incredible, and sets the tone for the film. This film is almost a musical due to characters singing being a major plot point of the movie, but there are just a few too many songs to really call it a musical. It could have been a more successful if they leaned into that a little more. Both the English and Japanese voice cast are also pretty comparable. I would probably recommend those who aren't fluent in Japanese watched it dubbed, as there is a lot of layered audio, and it can be difficult to read subtitles for several different things at once.
CHARACTER 7/10: The characters are alright. I think there are probably too many characters, so the characters in it aren't able to be developed as deeply, with Ryuu being particularly underdeveloped. Suzu in the beginning is not particularly likable, though definitely develops, though maybe a little too fast, and incomplete due to the brevity of the denouement. Also, Hiroka is simply not a great person. She develops and becomes better, but doesn't develop enough to become likable.
ENJOYMENT 8/10: Despite all its problems, Belle is definitely paced quite well and it's sound and visuals come together to create quite an experience that keeps you on your toes and not quite sure what will come next. It also has an excellent example of the awkwardness of highschool romance, which is easily the funniest part of the film.
OVERALL 8/10: As I said in the intro, I would recommend Belle, just have tempered expectations. Also, a sidenote is it gets pretty dark later in the film. The thing that prompted me to write this review is seeing some of the incredibly low reviews I saw here, which I thought was unwarranted. It's a decent film, superficially very reminiscent of Summer Wars, while also being one of Hosoda's weaker works.
